30 Days to Better Sleep: Snoring and Sleepiness Equals Sleep Apnea

In reviewing the articles in this blog series, you may have become convinced that the only thing that affects sleep is not sleeping as part of insomnia. However, there are many other sleep disorders that can contribute to difficulty sleeping and waking refreshed. One of the major contributors to excessive sleepiness during the day is trouble breathing at night, best characterized by sleep apnea. Sleep apnea occurs when the upper airway collapses during sleep. Tissues in the airway, from the nose past the soft palate to the base of the tongue, may obstruct the flow of air. When this occurs, this obstruction may be partial (hypopnea) or complete (apnea). It may be worsened by lying on one's back or during REM sleep when the body's muscles are actively paralyzed, including the muscles lining the airway. This soft, flexible tube is thus able to collapse and disrupt breathing. These events may occur as few as 5 times per hour or as many as hundred of times per night. It may not matter much that the tissues at the back of the nose and mouth collapse during sleep. It wouldn't, that is, if our brain didn't recognize the problem. These disruptions to breathing trigger a panicked response from the brain. A burst of cortisol races through the body, while blood oxygen levels drop heart rate spikes, and sleep is briefly disrupted to restore breathing. This brief arousal is transient, lasting only seconds, but it shifts the brain from deeper stages of sleep to lighter ones, and often ful...
Source: About Sleep Disorders - Category: Sleep Medicine Source Type: news