Sleep Apnea Symptoms and Causes

Sleep apnea symptoms are often hard to detect since the symptoms occur in the night time for the most part and can be rationalized away by the patients. However, this disorder can be dangerous because what is happening in the people’s sleep is that they stop breathing off and on throughout the night. That means that the brain and other organs of the body are being deprived of oxygen for periods of time which is not healthy for the individuals.

Also, the individuals are not getting solid nights of sleep each night, so that the body is not able to do the repairs needed to function in a healthy manner each day. In addition, the person often ends up feeling irritable and drowsy during the day, even though he often feels as if he has gotten a full night of sleep. There are also often headaches that the patients have to deal with each morning from the oxygen deprivation of the night before.

Sleep Apnea Symptoms -The Reasons behind the Disorder

There are three different types of sleep apnea symptoms and each has a different cause. The causes behind obstructive sleep apnea are related to the muscle tissues that are in the throat. When the patients are asleep, the tongue and the muscles in the throat relax and either partially or fully blocks the pathway of the air.

When this happens, the patients are awakened briefly so that they can start to breathe again, although they may not even remember awakening in the night. This can happen up to thirty times in one hour, thus disrupting the sleep patterns for that individual. An obstructive sleep apnea clinic is the place to have the issue identified and get the best treatment.

People who are overweight often have trouble with these types of sleep apnea symptoms, as their weight contributes to the sleep apnea cause during the night. People who smoke are also adding to the causes of their sleep apnea since it affects the tissues in the throat and mouth.

In central sleep apnea symptoms, there are other causes that contribute to the disorder. In these cases, the people’s brains do not transmit the signals that the muscles need to breathe during the night. The causes behind this type of sleep apnea are usually because of some form of heart disease or in some cases that the person has had a stroke. The good thing about this type of sleep apnea is that people are more likely to recognize that there is a problem because they are more likely to wake up fully and remember that it is happening in the morning.

If you suspect that you have sleep apnea, there is a sleep apnea test that will determine what type of sleep apnea you have to determine the right treatment options.