Sleep Apnea: Symptoms Causes and Remedies - Tense Health

Sleep Apnea: Symptoms, Causes, Risks, and Remedies 

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What is Sleep Apnea?

  

It is a sleeping disorder in which breathing stops and starts again in your sleep with a low breathing rate.

These breathing pauses can last for a few seconds to minutes and are noticeable by anyone facing it.

This is again followed by a loud snoring habit which is because air faces an obstruction while breathing.

If you have a full sleep & feel tired the whole working day and get irritated on small things with morning headache you might be suffering from Apnea. 

 

There are 3 Different Types of Sleep Apnea.

  

OSA (Obstructive Sleep Apnea)

Where obstructive word itself means breathing suffers due to the “blockage” of airflow.

 

CSA (Central Sleep Apnea)

In this effort to breathe is absent usually ranging from 10 to 30 seconds & relates to oxygen supply in the blood.

 

SSA (Severe Sleep Apnea)

This can be the combination of the above two i.e. central sleep apnea and Obstructive Sleep Apnea¹.

  

What are a few symptoms of Sleep Apnea?

  

Obesity and overweight

Difficulty in Sleeping (Insomnia)

Loud Snoring

Excessive sleepiness in Day time (Hypersomnia)

Lack of energy

Growth in Sinuses - That cause Breathing Problem

Ancestors Sleep History

Headache & Irritability in a few cases

 

If you observe any such type of symptoms in you, then visit a doctor immediately.

  

What are the causes of Obstructive Sleep Apnea?

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This happens when the throat back muscles relax.

The pharynx² is the area present at the backside of the tongue and behind the nasal cavity.

They are hollow parts like a tube that provides oxygen to the blood.

When this hollow space gets narrow, it starts obstructing the air passing to the lungs & stomach.

This results in breathing problems and the brain wakes you up to solve this problem by waking muscle throats.

This shortage of breathing lasts for a couple of seconds and awakes you from a deep sleep.

This is also one of the reasons most of alcohol-addicted people die when the amount of alcohol is in excess and the person is unconscious.

This breath disturbing pattern can sometimes be rapid in an hour duration disturbing deep sleep at late night.

These symptoms are more in People aged more than 40. 

 

 

What are the causes of Central Sleep Apnea?

 

 

Sometimes brain functions don't pass the signal to the breathing muscles.

This means there is no effort made to breathe more resulting to make you awake at late night.

This is a normal than obstructive sleep apnea where throat muscles relax and narrow the airflow.

 

 

What are the risks associated with Sleep Apnea?

 

 

Alcohol –

 

This is the main reason to relax the pharynx part of the throat muscles that narrow it and construct the flow of air passing to the lungs and stomach.

They can promote muscles to relax and make the worst condition of breathing.

  

Tobacco Smoking –

 

Chances of smokers³ increase to have obstructive sleep apnea rather than non-smokers.

This is because of the nicotine effect on throat muscles and symptoms of coughing are more in smokers.

Weed and Marijuana are more harmful than tobacco smoking which disturbs sleep with more of its harmful effects.

  

Tranquilizers –

  

This is the temporary dose of medicines taken by a few people to get a nice and deep sleep.

This is because these pills help from mental stress, anxiety, tension, and disturbance.

But with time addiction for this dosage increases and problems associated with it come ahead.

 

 

Family Health Problem –

  

Obstructive Sleep Apnea is also associated with common family problems that came from their ancestors.

Like some of them carry diabetes, hair bald, and many other such problems.

  

Obesity and overweight –

 

Overweight increases the risk of sleep apnea as there can be more unwanted mass accumulated near the upper way Pharynx.

This can result in a shortage of breathing because of low space between tubes that carry oxygen to the lungs.

Older people mostly "men" are some prone to such types of activities starting in the body.

Women are less likely to have this unless they start turning overweight.

  

Remedies to Prevent from Sleep Apnea

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Quit or have a low intake of alcohol and try to avoid smoking as they both can lead to Cardiac arrest.

Fix a sleeping time daily from 10 pm to 6 am in the morning and wake up with an alarm.

The main reason for this type of problem is having disturbances in sleep.

Prepare a daily work schedule of work and other activities that are personal and keep you busy.

If you have no work daily, if you don't exercise daily for 20 minutes this problem will occur with you 90 %.

If you live in a high rise building, try climbing up your apartment with stairs, this will keep you fit.

Avoid using a lift, 99 % of people don't care to climb the stairs, this will be an automatic exercise & help to lose your weight.

Try going out for a morning walk in the sun, this will help you improve sleep at night.

Avoid afternoon lap or have rest, not more than 20 minutes & don't sleep after 3 pm.

Stop thinking about the future, things will happen as per their order; your thinking will not change things from happening.

What you can do is try and try things automatically change and come close to you because of your effort.

 

 

Try following things to sleep well at night

 

 

Avoid using a pillow; sometimes it helps to get deep sleep.

 

Place Garlic below your pillow and sleep tight.

The main reason behind placing garlic below your pillow is you start thinking positively that you will be asleep now and you sleep well.

Garlic doesn't do anything your positive attitude does it?

 

Think about the important work you have to do tomorrow, like attend the job on time and forcefully make up your mind to sleep.

 

Keep your eyes open before sleep for 10 to 20 minutes, trust me this can also work.

Don't smoke or drink coffee before you sleep as it can force you to stay awake because of the caffeine.

 

Try taking deep breathe "inhale" through the nose and exhale through the mouth at a slow speed.

 

Inhale time through Nose < Exhale through the mouth

 

 

Exercise helps blood circulation throughout the body including the heart, brain, stomach, and lungs.

 

When heartbeat increases after exercise, the pumping action is fast, and circulation of blood throughout the body takes a pace.

 

Make sure you had a long hard day of work and you were busy with some of the other routines to sleep well of this exertion.

 

Lack of work and exercise is also one of the main reasons for snoring loud which is ugly.

 

 

Have a Balanced Diet

 

 

Remember the key, whatever we eat should get digested or the calories generated through it should get balanced daily.

 

Eating Food (Calories generated) = Work out (Exercise in any form)

 

Never allow your body to come across constipation problems and acidity.

 

This helps to produce toxic substances in the body leading to more harmful diseases like cancer. 

 

 

References: -

  

NIH Government¹

Wikipedia Pharynx²

Wikipedia Sleep Apnea³