What Is Sleep Apnea?

Sleep apnea is a sleeping disorder that features difficulty breathing when you sleep at night. The condition makes it difficult for you to breathe well, leading to several moments when you stop breathing at night. These episodes can happen for a few seconds to minutes, happening repeatedly in your sleep. The most dangerous thing about sleep apnea is that you hardly know you are not breathing well at night.

What Are the Symptoms of Sleep Apnea?

If you are keen on the signs of sleep apnea, you will prevent breathlessness at night. The common symptoms are:

• Dry mouth and sore throat – since you can’t breathe well at night, your body will automatically cause you to open your mouth during the night. Breathing through the mouth makes your mouth feel dry. Many patients with sleep apnea wake up with sore throats and dry mouths.
• Feeling thirsty in the morning
• Gasping for air during the night – when you stop breathing for a prolonged period, your body will respond by wakening you from sleep. If you keep waking up in the middle of the night repeatedly, it may be a sign that you have sleep apnea.
• Morning headaches
• Excessive daytime sleepiness – since you hardly sleep well at night, you will find yourself sleeping a lot during the day.
• Reduced concentration and increased forgetfulness
• Loud snoring when you sleep – although snoring is not only the sign of sleep apnea, patients that snore too loudly at night could suffer from this sleeping condition. The snoring can be too loud enough to wake up your partner.
• Fatigue and restlessness despite sleeping at night
• Disrupted sleep – if you keep waking up severally during the night for no specific reason, it could be because you have sleep apnea.

What Causes Sleep Apnea?

Before you seek sleep apnea treatment in San Diego Consider the following causes of sleep apnea:

• Poor sleeping posture – patients that sleep on their backs are more likely to have sleep apnea than not.
• Being overweight – an unhealthy weight introduces many health complications to your body. One of the problems that obese patients have is sleep apnea.
• Thick neck circumference – the circumference of your neck dictate the thickness of your airways. People with thick necks have small airways, making breathing difficult at night.
• Excessive use of drugs like sedatives or tranquilizers
• Drinking alcohol
• Smoking
• Being male or aging

How Can You Treat Sleep Apnea?

If you want to prioritize sleeping well at night, you will need sleep apnea treatment near you. Depending on the severity of your sleep apnea, a Sorrento Valley dentist will recommend different treatments. Some treatments involve lifestyle changes, while others require more drastic measures like surgery. Some of the available treatment options for sleep apnea are:

• Changing the sleeping position – our dental team at Scripps Poway Dental Care will recommend sleeping on your side instead of your back or stomach.
• Weight loss programs – if you are overweight or obese, you need to sign up for a program to help you shed off most of your weight.
• Rehabilitation programs – to help you quit drugs, smoking, or alcoholism. For prescription medicine, like anti-anxiety drugs, your doctor may have to change your prescription to a different medicine.
• Physical exercise – to help you maintain a healthy weight.
• Wearing a night guard – dental experts will sometimes customize a mouthpiece for patients with sleep apnea. The type of night guard for treating sleep apnea works by keeping the jaw slightly opened through the night for better breathability.
• Surgery – although it is a viable treatment, doctors resolve for it as the final treatment option for patients where other solutions have not worked well.

Conclusion

Sleep apnea can be a serious disease if left untreated for long. Other than the physical effects of not sleeping well at night, an increased lack of oxygen can mess with your brain and heart function. Therefore, the longer you go without breathing at night, the higher the risk of health complications like strokes and heart attacks.