sleep apnea

Sleep apnea is the term used for periods in which a person temporarily stops breathing while asleep.

 

Sleep apnea is a common sleep disorder. When a person has sleep apnea, he or she stops breathing for short periods of time. In most cases this lasts from 10 seconds to 1 minute or more while asleep. Then the person begins breathing again. A person may stop breathing only a few times or hundreds of times in the course of the night.

 

There are three classifications of sleep apnea, including:

 

Obstructive sleep apnea is the most common type of sleep apnea. It occurs when tissue in the upper airways blocks the breathing passages. The blockage may come from a collapsed uvula. The uvula is the soft tissue that hangs down at the back of the throat. Large tonsils or other excess tissue may also block the airway. When the muscles relax during sleep, excess tissue can drop into the air passage and interrupt breathing.

 

The person continues to try to breathe around the blockage but cannot get enough oxygen. Carbon dioxide builds up in the person's blood. This problem corrects itself as soon as normal breathing is restored.

 

Central sleep apnea is caused by problems in the central nervous system, which includes the brain and spinal cord. In some cases, the brain may not send the message to the muscles involved in breathing. In other cases, the muscles fail to receive the message because it is interrupted as it travels there, or the muscles are too weak to do the work of breathing.

 

A person may stop breathing a few times a night to hundreds of times a night. The more episodes per night that the person has, the worse the problem. People with this condition often wake slightly to restore their breathing. These episodes disrupt normal sleep, which can result in extreme daytime sleepiness.

 

Other symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea are as follows:

 

Obstructive sleep apnea occurs when the airway is blocked by excess tissue. Seventy percent of individuals with this problem are overweight. Symptoms often improve or go away entirely if some of this excess weight is lost. Other risk factors for sleep apnea include: drinking excessive amounts of alcoholhaving enlarged tonsilshaving lung diseases, such as emphysemasleeping on the backsmoking cigarettesusing sleep medications

Weight management can prevent some cases of obstructive sleep apnea. It may be helpful for people with narrow breathing passages to have their tonsils and adenoids removed. Some cases of central sleep apnea can be prevented by preventing the associated condition, such as stroke.

Diagnosis of sleep apnea begins with a medical history and physical exam. A sleep study, called a polysomnogram (PSG), may be recommended. This test measures the following body functions during sleep: airflow and respiratory effortblood oxygen levelsblood pressure and heart rateelectrical activity in the braineye movementmuscle movement