My Life and Sleep Apnea

Energy or the lack of it seems to be a major problem with just about everybody over the age of 50, maybe even 40. This has really become a hot issue due to the fact that the population as a whole is getting older.   As we get older it our vim and vigor don’t last too long, and that is understandable because of natural causes and some things that we bring on our own like not eating right and forgetting about exercising.   Another energy zapper is lack of sleep or lack of quality sleep.   As you probably know, sleep apnea is one of the biggest sleep problems. A night’s sleep can be divided into five stages, each one important. Sleep apnea can interrupt probably the most vital stage of sleep, rapid eye movement (REM). During this stage, the body’s muscles are rejuvenated, and the brain is active,  which helps with memory and other functions. These factors can certainly help drain any energy that you may have. What can you do about a lack of energy due to sleep...

Sleep apnea is no longer a secret to most women and men; the effects on their health and mental well-being can be profound and even deadly. The lack of oxygen due to the blockage in the back of the throat not only causes you to wake up constantly throughout the night but is also bad for your heart. Sleep apnea is often found in folks who have weight issues (although not all the time), and it can also be found in children as well. A recent study came out with a shocking result, saying that over half of all women may have sleep apnea. In a Swedish study of 400 women, half of them were found to have mild to severe cases of sleep apnea. According to an article in Reuters, “Among women with hypertension or who were obese - two risk factors for sleep apnea - the numbers were even higher, reaching 80 to 84 percent of women.” That is really astonishing, considering the health risks involved in sleep apnea. What is even stranger is the notion that more men have sleep apnea than wo...

Does the need to use the bathroom wake you up several times each night? If you are like me, you go quite a few times. This can be particularly irritating especially if you have sleep apnea. It seems that there is a connection between sleep apnea and Nocturia . Nocturia is when you wake up to urinate. Bedwetting is called enuresis which is different because you don’t wake up. The vast majority of people can limit their nightly bathroom visits to one time at the most; this is considered normal. Those who have severe Nocturia can go as many as five or six times. Two- or three-bathroom visits are about my average. Of course, since I have sleep apnea, I am usually awake anyway, so it really doesn’t bother my sleep routine. I was always under the impression that the reason you had to go to the bathroom so many times each night was a full bladder caused by drinking too many fluids before going to bed. Apparently, there is another reason, and it has to do with sleep apnea....

If you are a peaceful sleeper who doesn’t snore, then you probably don’t have many experiences being elbowed at night by your partner. But if you do have a sleep disorder that is disruptive, like snoring or restless leg syndrome, then you probably have tested your partner’s patience at night. This can be especially true if you have a sleep disorder known as sleep apnea.   In fact, it might be a good thing if someone were elbowing you at night. The University of Saskatchewan asked 124 patients about having a sleep study to see if their sleeping partner ever elbowed or poked them to stop snoring or wake them up because they had stopped breathing.   It is unsurprising that asking these types of questions can help predict whether someone suffers from sleep apnea. This isn’t particularly shocking because most of us who have sleep apnea have not only been elbowed or punched at night but are usually told the next morning that our snoring, grunting, or gasping for air is ver...

Obstructive sleep apnea might be part of the reason I have been plagued with depression.  In fact, I have also had doctors tell me that they think the lack of sleep certainly could be a significant factor in my being depressed, although it isn’t the only factor by far. An article on the Scientific American website seems to support that idea.   According to the  article , “ People with depression or other mental illnesses often report trouble sleeping, daytime drowsiness and other sleep-related issues. Now a growing body of research is showing that treating sleep problems can dramatically improve psychiatric symptoms in many patients.”   A study conducted at the Cleveland Clinic assessed that women have a greater chance of becoming depressed from sleep apnea than men, who have twice the chance of being depressed, while women’s chances are five to one.    In fact, the article goes on to say that trying to deal with sleep iss...

After a night of unsatisfying rest due to sleep apnea, you will most likely find yourself more than a little groggy.   No matter how much coffee you guzzle, the daily effects of sleep apnea will be with you most of the day, if not all of the day.   Memory loss and being slightly disoriented are 2 symptoms that will make the day less productive. Something else that might be a problem is slurred speech. According to  Speech dysfunction of obstructive sleep apnea. A discriminant analysis of its descriptors - PubMed   makes it challenging to use or control the muscles of the mouth, tongue, larynx, or vocal cords' muscles that make a speech. The muscles may be weak or completely paralyzed, or it may be difficult for the muscles to work together.” Slurred speech is often found in people who have had strokes, face or brain trauma, or even dementia. Cerebral palsy and MS patients often have this disorder as well. Is there a connection between sleep apnea and sl...

There are many reasons for bad breath , such as diet, bacteria, medication, and alcohol, among other things. But did you know that sleep apnea can also cause bad breath ? Bad breath (halitosis) can be very embarrassing and often difficult to get rid of. No matter how much mouthwash you use or how many times you floss each day, your breath still has a distinct odor. You try to get to the root of the problem but can’t understand why you have bad breath. It could be sleep apnea. It is understandable why eating garlic and other foods gives you bad breath. It is also very believable that alcohol, in large quantities, can make your breath reek. But why sleep apnea? If you have sleep apnea and you breathe through your mouth, your throat becomes very dry at night. All that air coming in and all that gasping dries out the throat. Saliva controls the bacteria in the mouth, the same bacteria that can cause bad breath. When saliva production is affected by breathing through the mo...

Although I have never experienced it myself, folks with sleep apnea may have an even more difficult time sleeping at higher altitudes. Swiss researchers concluded that sleep apnea patients could benefit from the combination of the CPAP machine and a drug called Diamox. There were 51 patients (mostly obese men) in the study, and they were tested at altitudes of 5300 and 8500 feet.   According to USNEWs.com “ The combined treatment with acetazolamide and CPAP led to improved levels of oxygen in the blood when patients were awake and sleeping, and better control of sleep apnea; it also reduced the amount of time spent awake during the night, compared with CPAP alone.” Of course, you need to check with your doctor to see if this medication is safe for you. It is also important to remember that sleep apnea patients use CPAP machines. “ Diamox or Acetazolamide is used to treat glaucoma and prevent acute mountain (altitude) sickness. It is also used as a part of some treatment...

While I was growing up, I knew that my father had a sleeping problem, besides loud snoring. He would snore alright but then he would abruptly stop with a snort then go back to snoring, this pattern would go on night after night. (I don’t know how my mother put up with it!)  Now this is the common symptoms of sleep apnea, which I have as well.  Back then I can’t remember anyone ever using the term sleep apnea unlike now where sleep apnea as well as many other sleep disorders are being treated everywhere.  So, it was a big surprise to see that in a recent study only a small number of folks knew that they had sleep apnea.   According to a  study  done by Phillips Electronics in the Netherlands only 22 percent of the participants who were determined to have sleep apnea actually knew already that they suffered from this sleep disorder. This is amazing to think that close to 80 percent of the folks who have sleep apnea didn’t know it. I guess it ...

Sleep apnea has many side effects like day time drowsiness, potential risk of heart disease, diabetes among other things. The lack of sleep makes your tired and less alert; your overall mood is probably down also. Well there is also something called adrenal fatigue that causes much the same symptoms. What is adrenal fatigue syndrome ? At the top of our kidneys sit the adrenal glands. They produce hormones and adrenal that is needed by the body for stressful time and for infection. Needless to say they are very important. The adrenal glands also produce something called cortisol which helps fight infection and stress, but too much cortisol can cause Cushing syndrome. The symptoms of this disorder are excess weight gain, high blood pressure, skin problems, feeling weak, and many other symptoms. However if you don’t get enough cortisol your problems will be even be worse, they could be fatal. So it is very important to have the right amount of cortisol produced. Sleep apnea cert...

When we go to sleep each night our bodies are supposed to go through 5 stages of sleep . The most important stage is the Rapid Eye Movement stage or REM . At this stage there are a lot of things going on that are beneficial to the body and mind. It helps learning development and it also helps with your memory. Dreaming is also done at this stage of sleeping and of course sleep apnea disrupts this stage. Nightmares also occur during this stage . Everyone has had a nightmare at one time or the other while they were sleeping. While nightmares in general aren’t harmful they can certainly give you quite a scare. They aren’t to be confused with night terrors, where the dream that you are having is terrifying and you seem to have an inability of waking up. According to Wikipedi a, nightmares“are not common in children under 5, but they are more common in young children (25% experiencing a nightmare at least once per week), most common in adolescents, and less common in adults (dropping ...

If you are using a cpap mask then you probably know how hot they can get especially in the summer. Even if you have the air conditioning cranked up high wearing a cpap mask can be uncomfortable in hot weather . You add humidity to that excessive heat and you may have a dangerous problem. With a cpap mask regardless of the weather the sleep apnea patient may feel discomfort from where the cpap mask touches the skin. If you add in the heat and humidity it will only aggravate the problem. There are things that you can do to help alleviate this problem. The first thing is to make sure that your mask is comfortable. The cpap machine and mask have been around quite awhile now and there have been substantial improvement to not only the machine but also the mask. If you don’t feel comfortable with your present mask there are many others to choose from. And of course there are humidifiers that are connected to the cpap machines. They keep the air that is going into your mouth moist whi...

Why is alcohol so bad for sleep apnea? Like certain medications, alcohol relaxes muscles in the body. If those muscles happen to be in the back of your mouth and you have sleep apnea, you have trouble. The muscles relax and block the airway. Well, the airway is blocked anyway, so why not drink? Well, if you eliminated alcohol the airway might not be as blocked or not blocked at all. Stopping drinking is better than trying to get used to a CPAP machine or a dental device. Alcohol is also bad for sleeping for other reasons, such as messing with your normal sleep patterns. It is true that a few drinks before you go to bed make it easier to fall asleep. But it will inhibit your ability to fall back asleep if you wake in the middle of the night. And as with alcoholics, the more you drink the harder it is fall asleep because the alcohol isn’t as effective as a sedative as it is with a causal drinker.   An article in the Daily Mail suggested that red wine had melatonin in it,  ...