What is Sleep Apnea? Causes, Symptoms, and Home Remmedies
Sleep apnea is a breathing problem or breathing disorder that occurs during sleep. To keep you safe, your brain keeps you from getting deep sleep by waking you up so you can breathe. Serious consequences can arise from this illness if left untreated. However, if patients strictly stick to their treatment plans, they usually have a relatively manageable disease.
Sleep Apnea: What is it?
Repeated pauses in breathing during sleep characterize the condition known as sleep apnea. “apnea” is derived from the Greek term for “breathless.” Sleep apnea occurs when you often wake up because you have stopped breathing. Sleep apnea can occur when your airway becomes blocked (obstructive apnea) or your brain fails to regulate your breathing (central apnea) properly.
The resultant hypoxia triggers a survival instinct, rousing you enough to start breathing again. The survival instinct wakes you up every time it kicks in. That prevents healthy sleep and has other effects, including stress on the heart, which can have serious, even fatal, repercussions.
Types of Sleep Apnea
The Three Forms of Sleep Apnea and Their Distinctive Characteristics
You already know three types of sleep apnea: obstructive, central, and complex. If you’re interested in learning more about sleep apnea treatment options and how you may get the aid you need to manage your condition, you’ve come to the right spot.
When it comes to sleep, quality is often as crucial as quantity. Even if you sleep during most of the eight-hour flight from New York to London, you probably won’t feel rested upon arrival since your body won’t have had time to progress through all of the stages of sleep necessary to do so.
What does sleepiness during an Atlantic crossing do with snoring and other sleep disorders?
The three different forms of sleep apnea all share the same underlying problem: they all prevent you from getting adequate restful sleep. When you have sleep apnea, your body cannot stay in one stage of sleep long enough to complete the tasks associated with that stage.
Sleep apnea can take many forms, each with its symptoms, but they all share one thing: they prevent you from sleeping soundly. To promote healthy sleep and help you get the amount of rest you need nightly to be aware and productive the next day, it is essential to understand the variations between each type.
