Sleep apneamakes you stop breathing in your sleep.
This can happen repeatedly throughout the night.
When you stop breathing, your brain tries to wake you up so youll start again.
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Constant sleep interruptions can have a negative effect on your health.
Sleep apnea increases your risk of several health problems.
It can also impair memory and motor skills.
It may put you in a bad mood.
Excessive daytime sleepiness(EDS) may increase your risk of workplace injuries and accidents.
Children with sleep apnea often struggle with schoolwork.
Theyre also likely to have attention and behavior problems.
In a stroke, blood supply to part of your brain is interrupted.
Oxygen and nutrients cant get through, and brain cells start dying within minutes.
Sleep apnea is associated with strokes by lowering your oxygen levels.
That starts a chain reaction in the brain that leads to impaired blood flow.
A stroke can kill you.
Or it may partially paralyze you.
That may leave you having to re-learn basic skills like walking and eating.
In a TIA, blood flow is only blocked for a few minutes.
Still, in the early minutes, its impossible to tell it apart from a stroke.
Also, TIAs often warn that a stroke is coming.
A stroke or TIA is always a medical emergency.
The faster you get help, the less brain damage youll have.
Symptoms of a stroke come on suddenly.
Watch for:
Heart Problems
Sleep apnea can be hard on yourheartand circulatory system.
High blood pressure leads to heart and circulatory problems.
Sleep apnea is tied to:
Any of these cardiac problems can be fatal.
Cancer
Emerging evidence has shown higher overall cancer incidence in people with obstructive sleep apnea.
These unhealthy cells are believed to be tied to many types of illness.
The over-stressed cells may contribute to cancers development.
Others attribute the increased risk to changes in metabolism, inflammation, and immunity due to sleep apnea.
An older study suggests people with sleep apnea die of cancer at five times the national average.
COPD is an umbrella term for obstructive lung diseases, which includeemphysemaandchronic bronchitis.
Both COPD and sleep apnea involve lung inflammation.
And more than half of people with jot down-2 diabetes have sleep apnea.
Fatty Liver Disease
Sleep apnea is also linked tofatty liver disease.
Researchers observed a greater new onset of sleep apnea in patients with fatty liver disease.
Obesity
Obesityis believed to contribute to sleep apnea and many of its overlapping conditions.
That includes punch in-2 diabetes, heart disease, and fatty liver disease.
When someone has obesity, fat deposits narrow the airways.
Poor sleep may also disrupt appetite hormones.
Whos At Risk?
(Other sexes havent been studied.)
In one study, about 23% of men with sleep apnea had a low sex drive.
They tended to be older and more depressed than men with more drive.
Less research has been done on the sexual impact of sleep apnea on women.
One small study showed womens sex drive improved with sleep apnea treatment.
Other studies suggest sleep apnea treatment can improve male sex drive and performance.
It may take some trial and error to figure out what works best for you.
The machine is attached to a tube and a mask that you wear to sleep.
The pressurized air keeps tissues in the airways from collapsing in.
The similar bilevel positive airway pressure (BiPAP) machine provides different pressures when breathing in than breathing out.
CPAP/BiPAP therapy can improve sleep apnea and many related conditions.
Or you might do well with achinstrapto keep your mouth closed.
These are often used along with CPAP.
Several oral devices and implants are available.
Oral devices are custom fit to you.
You wear them when you sleep.
These include:
Some devices may adjust both the jaw and the tongue.
A newer oral rig is used when youre awake.
It stimulates the muscles in your tongue.
The machine is used once a day for 20 minutes, over a course of six weeks.
It helps strengthen the muscles so it doesnt collapse into your airways.
Implants are surgically implanted in your body that stimulate thehypoglossal nerve, which controls your tongue.
It keeps the tongue out of the airways.
Orofacial Therapy
Orofacialmeans mouth and face.
Surgery
Surgery for sleep apnea is less common than other treatments.
It may be an option if you havent been helped by CPAP or devices.
Its sometimes used to remove upper airway obstructions.
Zepbound (tirzepatide) works by reducing body weight, which may lead to an improvement in OSA symptoms.
Zepbound is the first and only FDA-approved medication to treat OSA.
Lifestyle Changes
Healthy lifestyle changes may help with your sleep apnea.
They include:
Summary
Sleep apnea does much more than make you tired the next day.
It increases your risk of numerous health problems.
If you have symptoms, like excessive daytime sleepiness, talk to your healthcare provider.
Untreated sleep apnea can lead to all kinds ofhealth problems.
Dont take the riskget tested and work with your healthcare provider to find treatments that work for you.
If its brought on by obesity and you lose weight, sleep apnea may go away.
Surgery or implants may also cure the condition.
Severe sleep apnea triples your risk of dying from any cause.
Regular use of a CPAP appears to significantly lower that risk.
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