Snoring & Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Snoring is noisy breathing during sleep.

Symptoms of Sleep Apnea

• Snoring
• Dry throat/headache in the morning
• Waking up from sleep with a choking or gasping sensation
• Daytime Sleepiness
• Restless Sleep
• Irritability, lack of concentration, decreased interest in Sex

When children suffer from sleep apnea, the external symptoms may be open mouth during sleep, snoring, nasal speech, or peculiar sleeping postures. These symptoms, however, pronounced, often go unnoticed by parents till the children start performing poorly in school, show learning disabilities or frequently wet their beds.

OSA may be diagnosed in a sleep clinic or even at home by a sleep study, which includes sensors attached to different parts of the human body. If you think you may be suffering from OSA, then you need to visit a sleep specialist after reviewing the initial symptoms. Your doctor will usually ask you a number of questions regarding the symptoms. The doctor may even conduct a complete physical examination to measure the blood pressure, heart rate etc. The main objective of this initial visit is to rule out the possibilities of other health problems causing similar symptoms.

Complications of Untreated Sleep Apnea.

When sleep apnea or OSA is left untreated, the health conditions may lead to:

• Hypertension or high blood pressure, which increases the risks of heart attacks and strokes.
• Traffic accidents due to excessive fatigue and drowsiness during the daytime. Research has shown that OSA patients are up to 12 times more prone to car accidents.
• Type 2 diabetes: OSA has also been linked to an increased risk of Type 2 diabetes due to the increased blood sugar (glucose) level in a human body.