The Dangers of Sleep Apnea and Its Types

Posted on Category:Health
sleep apnea

Do you wake up at night and feel like you are choking or having trouble breathing? If yes, it probably was not a nightmare. It is most likely a health condition you have to look into and recognize. With these symptoms, you likely have sleep apnea, which can be a critical sleep disorder. Evaluate your sleeping, whether it has other symptoms, such as persistent snoring that disturbs your sleeping partner, dry mouth, and morning headache. If those symptoms occur, it is recommendable for you to make an appointment with your doctor since those are the possible indication of sleep apnea.

sleep apneaYou’ve heard of people suffering from sleep disorders, and sleep apnea may be one of the most serious on that list. An episode of apnea interrupts your breathing, slowing it down or stopping it entirely for a short period. These interruptions can occur up to 20 times in a single hour, and each episode can signal a 20-second period when your system is about to pass out.

Those conditions can be dangerous. Thus, it is recommendable to comprehend more about the useful tips that every person struggling with sleep apnea must know to alleviate this sleep disorder. Besides, it is also crucial to learn the three different types of sleep apnea and its worst stages which can be fatal below.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea

sleep apneaObstructive Sleep Apnea is a common type of sleep disorder. In this sleep disorder type, the muscles in your soft palate around your tongue’s base unwind and block your airway during your sleep. When it occurs, you will experience hypoxia since your blood pressure goes up, but the oxygen level decreases in your blood. As a result, it can lead to stress in your heart. 

Each of these problems prevents you from having quieter and deeper stages of the sleep cycle. It means your body begins to experience sleep deprivation. To make matters worse, you may wake up with a cough and sore throat several times throughout the night. Your body goes into a sleep crisis and prevents you from a good quality of sleep.

Central Sleep Apnea

Central Sleep Apnea is a rare sleep disorder because this condition happens due to a flaw in the brain. In this state, your brain sends delayed or incorrect messages to your body’s breathing mechanisms. Because of these faulty clues, breathing from your throat, abdomen, and mouth stops at the same time in a few seconds. It may not last long, but a lower oxygen amount in your tissue and blood can lead to irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, and heart stroke.

Combined Sleep Apnea

If you have the above conditions together, obstructive and central apnea, it is called Combined Sleep Apnea. In this sleep apnea type, you may have received joint signals from the throat muscles and faulty breathing signals from the brain. Therefore, the two combinations could be harmful to your health.