Sleep Apnea – What Is It And How Do You Treat It?

If you snore loud enough to get yourself booted out of bed on a regular basis, you might have sleep apnea. The snoring may be annoying, but the actual condition can be serious if it's not treated. Below is a brief explanation of sleep apnea, and some available treatment options.

Sleep Apnea Defined

Sleep apnea disrupts your regular breathing pattern when you are sleeping. Snoring is one indication, but since you are the one sleeping, you may not even realize you have the condition. It's usually your sleeping partner that notices the problem. Other symptoms include:

• You may have a dry mouth in the morning or even a sore throat, indicating mouth breathing. The lack of a steady flow of oxygen may also give you a headache.
• You feel tired all the time, and tend to fall asleep during the daytime, a condition called hypersomnia. Being tired also affects your concentration and attention span.

Diagnosing Sleep Apnea

Sleep specialists conduct both in-home and in-hospital sleep tests to diagnose apnea. The home test involves wearing a portable monitor overnight. The hospital stay is a bit more extensive, since you are hooked up to several different machines that are monitored throughout the night. If you are diagnosed with sleep apnea, it will be one of two forms:

• Obstructive Sleep Apnea. This occurs when the soft tissues in your throat relax and block your airway. The snoring is a result of the restriction of airflow, and though your brain wakes you up, you're not likely to remember anything.
• Central Sleep Apnea. This is less common and has to do with the brain not being able to properly control the breathing muscles. This is the type that has you waking up and gasping for air.

Treatment Options

Treatment for sleep apnea falls in two main categories, CPAP or EPAP devices and oral appliances.

• CPAP, meaning Continuous Positive Airway Pressure, and the EPAP, standing for Expiratory Positive Airway Pressure, are both machines that force air into your breathing passages to prevent their collapse. Patients are attached to the machines using masks of various sizes. Though the modern masks are much smaller, some people just can't sleep comfortably attached to a machine.
• Oral appliances are an alternative. Mandibular repositioning devices, similar to a mouth guard used by athletes, moves the lower jaw forward, keeping the airway open. Tongue retaining devices keep the back of your tongue from falling into the airway. Dentists that specialize in sleep apnea custom design the device to fit your particular mouth.