My Life and Sleep Apnea

If you have been in the hospital or have visited someone there you probably have noticed that oxygen therapy is used a lot with patients. It can be administered by putting tubes in your nose to raise the amount of oxygen that you receive which is extremely important especially if your health isn’t 100 percent.   Sleep apnea also has to do with a lack of oxygen as well.   That lack of oxygen can result in serious health risks to the heart and the brain. So the question is can you use oxygen therapy for sleep apnea. You would think that it would be reasonable to conclude that oxygen therapy would be beneficial to those with sleep apnea. Unfortunately that isn’t the case. According to About.com there are some drawbacks to using it to help with sleep apnea such as morning headaches along with confusion. And it doesn’t seem to help with the actual apnea episodes at all.   Although it doesn’t help with obstructive sleep apnea there is an indication that it can help with centra...

In the past I have written about how difficult it is to have sleep apnea and work the late shift. Even for folks who don’t have sleep apnea changing your sleep pattern so dramatically can cause sleep problems. Years ago I had a job where I had to sleep during the day and it was very difficult to get used to it (at the time I didn’t know that I had sleep apnea either. Last week I work a post about the growing concern of police officers having sleep disorders particularly sleep apnea. I received a comment from someone who had police officers in her family. She also wrote about her own situation regarding being a nurse and working the night shift. Here is part of the comment… I am a Nurse and used to work nights. I had much difficulty with a sleep pattern that worked for me. I began to fall asleep at work, driving, at the dinner table etc...The dr. thought I had sleep apnea but it wasn't until I became non responsive at the dinner table with my family thinking it was a normal episode ...

It is tough to face any problem alone, whether it is health related or one of the many situations that life puts us through. Of course it can be done alone and for a lot of folks that don’t have any support system there really isn’t any choice.   Sleep apnea is one of those health related problems that can be greatly helped by understanding and supportive friends and relatives. Most folks don’t like to ask for help or even support from others, maybe they feel they don’t need it or maybe they think it is a sign of weakness. They are wrong on both accounts. Most folks wouldn’t hesitate to help others then they shouldn’t hesitate to ask for help from others. What kind of support is needed for sleep apnea? Before you even know that you have sleep apnea your sleeping partner probably knows that something is wrong because of the strange and intense snoring that they hear at night. If they urge you to go to the doctor about it listen to them! A sleep study will show whether yo...

Of all the sleep disorders obstructive sleep apnea has to be one of the worst to correct. A blockage in the back of throat causes you to stop breathing many, many times each night and when you find out that you have sleep apnea you are then told by your doctors how to eliminate it. Which is usually by CPAP machine or surgery , the choices really aren’t that good.   Of course that’s not to say that it is easy to cure insomnia, excessive snoring, restless leg syndrome and others. But with sleep apnea not “fixing it” could lead to serious health problems such as diabetes and heart disease. and to make it really bad if you have sleep apnea you may also have other sleep disorders like insomnia where being able to rest is nearly impossible. Luckily there are things that you can do to alleviate the other sleeping problems, mostly through behavioral therapy. Behavioral therapy in this type of situation doesn’t have much to do with a therapist mostly it is changing your bad sleeping ha...

Most folks take the opportunity to sleep late on the weekends in an attempt to catch up on rest that they lost during the week. Taking a little nap on Saturday or Sunday also is great way to rest up for the upcoming week. Of course if you have sleep apnea or some other sleep disorder your sleeping in or napping might go a little overboard which is probably an indication that you need to receive more rest during the week. What besides sleep apnea causes us to oversleep? According to webmd 2 of the biggest reasons for oversleeping (hypersomnia) are socioeconomic reasons and depression as well as alcohol and certain prescription drugs. They also state that oversleeping can lead to big health problems like heart disease, obesity and diabetes. What prevents oversleeping? Going to bed at the same time each night as well as getting out of bed the same time every morning, even on the weekends. Relax or meditate before going to bed. Don’t eat before you go to bed. Everybody...

I was first diagnosed with sleep apnea about 12 years ago. I knew that I was a loud snorer because my wife often complained about it although I didn’t know that it was sleep apnea at the time, in fact I wasn’t sure what sleep apnea was exactly. But it wasn’t just the snoring that caused me to seek help I was also very tired during the day. I had other health issues that I thought would be more manageable if I had more rest. So I went for help. My doctor sent me to a specialist who set up a sleep study for me.   After my first sleep study it was apparent that I did indeed have OSA. I was given a CPAP mask to use and as I have written many times before it didn’t really help much. After the first CPAP disaster I waited about a year or two before trying it again. This time it was with a different doctor who sent me to another sleep study. Once again it was shown that I had sleep apnea and another CPAP (BIPAP) was issued to me. Once again it didn’t work; frustrated I didn’t go back...

Headaches are bad at any time of the day, but when you wake up with one that can be particularly irritating. What causes the headaches?  Drinking way too much the night before is definitely one way to have your head splitting open in the morning. The need for caffeine when you wake up will also give you a pretty good headache, especially if you are a big coffee drinker. Sleep apnea can also cause headaches in the morning . According to WebMd.com , “ Because breathing stops so often, the person does not receive sufficient oxygen, causing carbon dioxide to build in the blood. This affects the nervous system as well as blood flow to the brain, causing headache as well as memory and mood changes” In a study cited by Webmd 35 percent of complained of morning headaches. In many cases the headaches go away when the sleep apnea is treated.   Of course the thing to remember is that just because you have headaches in the morning doesn’t necessarily mean that you ha...