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Everything you need to know about sleep apnea
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Everything you need to know about sleep apnea

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Sleep apnea is a serious condition that is often neglected. This is especially due to the fact that the most characteristic symptom of apnea is snoring. However, it is worth knowing that it is a much more complicated disease.

Symptoms of sleep apnea

In almost all cases, apnea is accompanied by snoring. Most often, however, the patient does not know that he or she suffers from sleep apnea. People with this disease usually sleep restlessly and fidget in bed.

Apnea patients often wake up and violently draw in air through their mouths. Such sleep is not restorative and does not allow for proper rest. The lungs do not get the right amount of air, so the blood is not saturated enough. The whole body is deoxygenated, hence the feeling of fatigue. Sleep apnea is manifested by the occurrence of pauses longer than ten seconds between successive breaths during sleep.

Other symptoms of sleep apnea that occur at night include difficulty falling asleep after waking up, excessive sweating, and the need to urinate. However, the condition is also often associated with daytime symptoms, including a morning headache, dry mouth, and feeling tired no matter how long you sleep.

Sleep apnea causes

During sleep, muscle tension decreases. Apnea occurs if there are abnormalities in the structure of the upper respiratory tract, such as a crooked nasal septum, an abnormal mandible, polyps or too flaccid palate muscles, hypertrophied tonsils, or even a short neck.

Other causes of sleep apnea include obesity, binge eating, drinking alcohol or smoking. Apnea is more common in men, while in women the risk of developing it increases after menopause. Risk factors also include certain hormonal diseases, such as hypothyroidism

How to treat sleep apnea?

CPAP machines

They use one of the most effective and widely recognized treatments for sleep apnea. CPAP machines deliver pressurized air through a mask and tube or nasal pillow system. It is important to choose the right CPAP machine with a mask to maximize the effects of treatment. This method restores patency of the upper airway. At https://aut ocpap.pl/, high-quality devices are available to help any patient begin apnea treatment.

Oxygen therapy

During the diagnosis of sleep apnea, patients sometimes also learn about respiratory failure. In this case, oxygen therapy may be combined with CPAP therapy. Oxygen concentrators are most commonly used for this. Oxygen is administered during sleep into the hose connecting the apnea machine to the mask or directly from the mask.

Patients with mild sleep apnea should certainly make lifestyle changes, adopt a favorable sleeping position, avoid alcohol and, if necessary, reduce weight. Dental prostheses that enlarge the throat space are also used in the treatment of apnea. These may be dentures that adjust the degree of mandibular protrusion and those that set the jaw in one position.

Sleep apnea – effects

Sleep apnea patients have impaired concentration and longer psychomotor responses, which can present problems for drivers. Many studies also indicate that people with apnea are also more likely to develop cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, ischemic heart disease and heart attack.

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