Apnea Symptoms
There are millions of people today that suffer from sleep apnea, but aren’t aware of the potential dangers. Sleep apnea, if gone undetected, can lead to a host of other health problems including high blood pressure, relationship problems, and unnecessary stress.
Obviously, getting enough sleep is vitally important to health. Most adults today simply do not get sufficient sleep every night. One of the main causes of this is sleep apnea. If you think you may be suffering from sleep apnea symptoms, then there’s a good chance that by addressing these issues, you’ll not only stop your apnea symptoms for good, but finally be able to get the sleep that you need.
One of the reasons for this is that apnea symptoms can be hard to detect. Apnea symptoms can be easily overlooked as being caused by other conditions.
Of course, the main reason apnea symptoms are often overlooked is because they exhibit themselves only when you are sleeping. Although many people wake up when they experience sleep apnea, it is only briefly, and they don’t remember anything in the morning.
Some of the common apnea symptoms are headaches, restlessness during the day, and frequent drowsiness. All of these are very common ailments, and by themselves are usually not considered something worth seeing a doctor about. Most people would normally self medicate with an over the counter remedies.
Unfortunately, these over the counter remedies only address the symptom, and not the underlying cause. In order to address the underlying cause, it helps to be able to determine if these symptoms are due to sleep apnea, and are indeed apnea symptoms.
One quick check is to see how sleepy or drowsy you become when you are bored. In general, this is a good test to see if you are getting enough sleep, regardless if you have sleep apnea or not. However, if you are actually getting sufficient time in bed every night, and you still feel sleepy relatively easily during the day, there’s a good chance you may have sleep apnea.
Of course, the easiest and clearest way to determine sleep apnea is through a sleep study. This is where you go to a special sleep laboratory, and sleep in special room. The doctors will employ several monitoring devices to record sufficient data while you sleep, including brainwaves, heart rate, breathing rate, and blood pressure.
Of course, this is expensive, and not everybody will qualify. One way you can check yourself is to simply record yourself while you sleep. Because those that suffer from sleep apnea stop breathing several times an hour while sleeping, you don’t need to record yourself very long. A hand held tape recorder for an hour would normally be sufficient.
Alternatively, you can ask a partner or a spouse to monitor you for a short period while you are asleep. It’s fairly obvious when someone is suffering from sleep apnea. Your breathing will momentarily stop, and there be a period of silence. This is particularly obvious if you are a heavy snorer.
Another good way to collect data is to keep a sleep journal. It’s a good idea to get in the habit of recording any information you can as soon as you wake up. How many times you awoke during the night, how fast you fell asleep, how many times you had to get up to urinate. All of these are good pieces of data that can help your doctor determine if you have sleep apnea.
Because sleep apnea is a condition that is easily undetected, but have numerous side effects, it’s important to find out if you have it by recording as much information as possible. The more information you record, the easier it can be for your doctor to determine the best course of action.
And depending on what the underling cause of your apnea symptoms are, this particular course of action an range from avoiding alcohol before bed, to wearing a adhesive device to keep your nasal passages open at night, to laser surgery to prevent blockage while sleeping.
Sleep apnea can be a devastating condition, but it also can be treated fairly easily if you know exactly what you’re up against.
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