| Sleep Information Center |
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7:24:04 PM on Saturday, 3rd January 2004
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Sleep Apnea Symptoms
Sleep apnea comes from the greek word "apnea" which literally means "without breath". There are 3 different types of sleep apnea. The 3 types of sleep apnea are obstructive, central, and mixed, of the 3 obstructive is the most common. What is sleep apnea? People with untreated sleep apnea stop breathing repeatedly during their sleep, sometimes hundreds of times during the course of the evening often for a minute or longer.
In the case of obstructive sleep apnea a blockage of the airway is usually
caused when the soft tissue in the rear of the throat collapses and
closes during sleep. With central sleep apnea the brain fails to signal
the muscles to breath . Mixed sleep apnea is as the name implies a combination
of the two. With each sleep apnea event, the brain briefly arouses people
with sleep apnea in order to start them breathing once again. Unfortunately
people with sleep apnea have extremely fragmented and overall poor quality
sleep.
Sleep apnea sympyoms are very often not easily detectable. A large amount
of people are showing sleep apnea symptoms and dont even realize it.
It's especially difficult to know if your showing sleep apnea symptoms
if you live alone. There are so many sleep apnea symptoms that occur
when your actually sleeping that it's hard to tell if your having them.
If you have a spouse or family member that can observe you sleeping
to see if you have sleep apnea symptoms it can make it alot easier to
get help. Here are a few sleep apnea sympyoms to watch out for: loud
snoring, periods of not breathing, awakening not rested in the morning,
abnormal daytime sleepiness, morning headaches, recent weight gain,
memory loss, limited attention span, poor judgement, lethargy, and personality
changes. These are just some sleep apnea symptoms to watch out for.
