Sleep apnea, a disorder wherein an individual's breathing recurrently starts and stops, impacts an estimated 22 million Americans. Shockingly, approximately 80% of those affected have moderate or severe obstructive sleep apnea and are undiagnosed. Given these statistics, it's alarming to know that sleep apnea can trigger side effects that can cause harm to a critical organ in your body: the brain.
“Honey, stop snoring,” says the wife as she gives her husband a good shove in the middle of the night.
The husband, indignant, rolls over and retorts, “I wasn’t snoring.”
This is a commonly played out bedroom scene that most couples have experienced in the course of their relationship. Some facts about snoring:
There are three types of sleep apnea. (1) Obstructive sleep apnea is caused when the upper airway becomes blocked during sleep. This blockage greatly reduces or completely stops airflow, and is usually accompanied by loud snoring.
The majority of individuals who seek professional help for their sleeping disorder admit that they waited too long. Their record of adverse symptoms is usually long. After receiving treatment, the most common exclamation sleep specialists hear from patients is, “Why didn’t I do this sooner?”
Before exploring the signs of sleep apnea, let’s first define the meaning of the disorder. According to The National Sleep Foundation, sleep apnea is defined as “a sleep disorder in which breathing is briefly and repeatedly interrupted during sleep.”
As great as modern technology and global access to goods and services are, they have made it significantly harder to get a good night’s rest. It’s reasonable to assume that people 100 years ago probably slept better and longer than people today.
Insomnia is a sleep disorder characterized by having trouble sleeping and/or staying asleep [1]. People with insomnia may spend hours rolling around in bed before falling asleep or wake up in the middle of night wide awake.
For many of us, the idea of having a sleep study is an exotic “wouldn’t that be interesting?” kind of thing. However, countless examples of recent research on the importance of sleep are bringing sleep studies into the mainstream. I personally know several people whose lives’ have been changed by sleep studies. Sleep quality is critical for everything from peak athlete performance to heart health to brain health.
