Monday, August 8, 2011

Ways to Handle Sleep Apnea Conditions

If you have no trouble sleeping, you should consider yourself lucky.  It will help in dealing with the various conditions and tasks you have to face each day.  Otherwise, you will feel the negative effects due to lack of sleep, especially if you need to handle certain things with an alert body and a sound mind.  Even animals need enough rest and a full night’s sleep to keep their body fit.  However, there are certain conditions you may not be aware of which could interfere with your healthy sleep patterns; one of which is known as sleep apnea.  Many people suffer from this sleep disorder.

Apnea is a Greek word that literally means “to breathe”.  So when you have this sleep disorder, as you rest, you may not notice that your airway is blocked which is why your breathing will halt.  As this occurs, your brain will help you cope by going into a defensive mode, and your brain automatically forces you to breathe by waking you up.

How do you know someone has this?  The more obvious observation can be the way they snore.  You will hear more of a grunt than a snore because the person is gasping for air; this is why they are making such a noise.  The blockage is there while you suffering from the disorder.  This is why there will be a constant cycle of sleeping then waking up throughout the night.

Tireless Nights

If you are not worried about this condition now, eventually you will be.  You may think this is not reason for alarm because at least, you can still sleep even though you are often being awakened by your brain, but the fact is, this is not healthy.  You are not only losing hours of sleep, but you are not reaching the most important part of this activity.  There are five stages of sleep and among these; the most important part is REM.  REM stands for Rapid Eye Movement, and this is deepest stage and gives you the feeling of becoming refreshed and well-rested.  If you have sleep apnea, you will never reach such stage.

Aside from losing quality sleep each night, there are more serious problems that people who are suffering from sleep apnea face each time they go to sleep.  Because you cannot breathe easily and regularly as you are sleeping, you lack the necessary oxygen that your body must to be supplied with at all times.  This can lead to more serious health problems such as high blood pressure and heart disorder.  If you already have problems with high blood pressure and anything with regarding your heart, this sleep disorder makes matters worse and may lead to even more difficult problems if you do not act as soon as possible.

The Right Actions

The first thing that you need to do is accept there is a problem.  Then, you must take the necessary actions to alleviate the condition.  Here are some recommendations that you can follow:

1. If you are overweight, it is time to lose the excess pounds and become fit.  You have to know that a lot of people with sleep apnea are overweight.

2. You can request available dental services that can help you solve this problem.  You will need to choose the right specialist for this action. 

3. You can also choose surgery to eliminate the problem of sleep apnea permanently.

In addition, there are exercises you can do to help reduce or even eliminate the problem.  There is a great guide that shows you oral exercises you can do to help you get a better night’s sleep and help the oxygen move through your system so you can breathe and sleep easier as well as help you go through all five stages of sleep.  Learn more by going here.



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