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As many as 90 percent of people who have sleep apnea don’t know that they have the disorder. Usually it is the spouse who first notices that the person is struggling to breathe during sleep, making a connection between snoring and sleep apnea. Diagnosis and treatment are essential because sleep apnea can be life threatening in some cases. If you stop breathing periodically during sleep, you have sleep apnea, which is also often marked by a relationship between snoring and sleep apnea. You may awaken to restart breathing up to 100 times per night, which can result in feelings of fatigue.
Probably you remember nothing at all about the awakenings. However, if you sleep with someone else, your sleep partner will remember a great deal about the awakenings, due to the high rate of snoring and sleep apnea. If you don’t have a sleep partner and suspect that you have sleep apnea, there other ways to monitor your sleep using audio recording or participating in a sleep study at a sleep center.Not only does sleep apnea result in sleep deprivation, but it can also threaten your life, and it is a progressive disorder that gets worse as you age. In addition, treatment for snoring and sleep apnea is necessary and usually successful. Snoring and sleep apnea is not the same thing, however the two can and often are related. Snoring is simply a loud sound that you make during breathing while asleep. Snoring may accompany sleep apnea, but snoring by itself does not mean that breathing has stopped. In addition to the typical snoring and sleep apnea link, there are many other symptoms you or your spouse may notice. These include repeated silences during the night, frequent cessation of breathing, choking or gasping during sleep to get air into the lungs, sudden awakenings to restart breathing, or waking up in a sweat. The next morning, those with sleep apnea may experience daytime sleepiness, including falling asleep at inappropriate times, lethargy, rapid weight gain, short attention span, poor judgment, or memory loss. |
