This article was contributed by: familydoctor. This information provides a general overview and may not apply to everyone. Talk to your family doctor to find out if this information applies to you and to get more information on this subject. Insomnia is a sleep disorder that happens when you have trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or both.
As you age, you may have changes in your sleep patterns. Hormones, lifestyle habits, and certain conditions and medicines…. Visit The Symptom Checker. Read More. Food Poisoning. Acute Bronchitis. Eustachian Tube Dysfunction. Bursitis of the Hip.
Abnormal Uterine Bleeding. High Blood Pressure. Home Diseases and Conditions Sleep Apnea. Table of Contents. Sleep Changes in Older Adults. Anyone can experience sleep apnea. But the condition is more common in men, people with obesity, and those who sleep on their back. Without proper treatment, this condition can increase the risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, and other health conditions.
A continuous positive airway pressure CPAP machine can help prevent sleep apnea by keeping the airways open with a constant flow of air. Some other treatment options include:.
Central sleep apnea CSA is where signaling problems in the brain affect the ability to breathe. It may indicate a serious medical condition that can become life threatening. The prognosis for CSA can be severe, particularly in someone with an underlying health condition. The primary treatment involves addressing the underlying cause, which may improve symptoms of CSA.
The device helps these patients by treating unrecognized obstructive apnea. Mixed sleep apnea, also known as complex sleep apnea, is a combination of obstructive sleep apnea and CSA. People with mixed sleep apnea may first experience obstructive sleep apnea. Healthcare professionals still need to refine optimal treatment options for mixed sleep apnea. One of the best current treatments involves using CPAP devices.
Doctors will apply the lowest pressure setting to successfully keep the airways free from obstructions while restricting CSA symptoms from developing. Apnea is more common in infants , particularly those born prematurely. Infant apnea occurs for many of the same reasons as in adults, and it can take the form of obstructive, central, or mixed sleep apnea.
CPAP machines are the first-line treatment for sleep apnoea but many sufferers find them frustrating to use Credit: Getty Images. The patient would report, falsely, how well the mask was working. Studies suggest somewhere between a quarter and half of users abandon their machine within the first year. I woke refreshed, alert, feeling more energised than I had in years. But the positive effect of the mask tapered off considerably after that first deliciously restorative night.
That first C in CPAP is for continuous, meaning that it pushes in air when you breathe in but it also pushes in air when you breathe out. You are fighting against it as you exhale, and I would wake up suffocating. There was the continual embrace of the mask, clamped to my face. Air would leak out around the edges and dry my eyes, even though they were closed.
Most nights at some point I would wake up and rip the mask off. In the morning, I would check the stats and see how little it was working. I went back to Northshore, where Shives would fiddle with the pressure settings or encourage me to try other masks.
I returned several times, and began to feel like a regular. Nothing seemed to work. So in , I decided to lose the weight. I had a goal — the pound figure Shives recommended. And I did it, going from pounds on 1 January to pounds on 31 December. Losing the weight did the trick. No more mask. People with sleep apnoea are at increased risk for certain complications during surgery Credit: Getty Images.
The pounds I had lost somehow found me again, 20 of the 30 creeping slowly back on over the next decade. And with them, the apnoea came back.
Not that I realised it until the summer of , when I underwent spine surgery. The pre-surgery questionnaire at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago asked if I sometimes snored, if I was often tired and if I had ever been diagnosed with sleep apnoea.
It can be a risk factor for poor outcomes afterwards as well. One in four candidates for elective surgery have it, but for certain groups, the rate is even higher — eight in ten patients being treated for obesity, for instance, have it, resulting in a range of risks.
My revealing on the pre-surgical questionnaire that I previously was diagnosed with sleep apnoea had immediate effects. My spine surgery was done quickly — taking place a week after I first went over my MRI with a surgeon — but in that brief period the hospital insisted I undergo a home sleep study to gauge the severity of the apnoea. Instead of going to a sleep centre, I brought home a kit that instructed me how to place sensor bands around my chest, a pulse oximeter on my finger, and a clip under my nose to monitor breathing.
There was no EEG, and one drawback of these take-home tests is the units never know if you are actually asleep or not while the readings are being made.
Still, lowering the cost and inconvenience of diagnosis offers hope that more people will discover they have apnoea — the expense and time needed to have an in-lab polysomnogram is thought to be one reason diagnosis rates are so low. The test found I had moderate apnoea — perhaps a function of keeping that last 10 pounds off — information the anaesthesiologist used when putting me under.
A dental appliance that brings the lower jaw forward has been used to treat sleep apnoea since the s Credit: Getty Images. So over the past two decades, a series of other treatments have been rolled out. CPAP forces the tongue out of the way by forcing air down.
An oral appliance brings the lower jaw forward, and the tongue comes with it. Many people with this type of sleep apnea don't realize they haven't slept well all night. Anyone can develop obstructive sleep apnea. However, certain factors put you at increased risk, including:.
Daytime fatigue and sleepiness. Because of a lack of restorative sleep at night, people with obstructive sleep apnea often have severe daytime drowsiness, fatigue and irritability. They might have difficulty concentrating and find themselves falling asleep at work, while watching TV or even when driving. This can put them at higher risk of work-related accidents.
Children and young people with obstructive sleep apnea might do poorly in school and commonly have attention or behavior problems. Cardiovascular problems. Sudden drops in blood oxygen levels that occur during obstructive sleep apnea increase blood pressure and strain the cardiovascular system. Many people with obstructive sleep apnea develop high blood pressure hypertension , which can increase the risk of heart disease.
The more severe the obstructive sleep apnea, the greater the risk of coronary artery disease, heart attacks, heart failure and strokes. Obstructive sleep apnea increases the risk of abnormal heart rhythms arrhythmias , which can lower blood pressure. If there's underlying heart disease, these repeated multiple episodes of arrhythmias could lead to sudden death. Complications with medications and surgery. Obstructive sleep apnea is also a concern with certain medications and general anesthesia.
These medications, such as sedatives, narcotic analgesics and general anesthetics, relax your upper airway and can worsen your obstructive sleep apnea. If you have obstructive sleep apnea, having major surgery, especially after being sedated and lying on your back, can worsen breathing problems.
People with obstructive sleep apnea might be more prone to complications after surgery. Before you have surgery, tell your doctor if you have obstructive sleep apnea or symptoms related to the condition. Your doctor might want you tested for obstructive sleep apnea before surgery. People with obstructive sleep apnea may also complain of memory problems, morning headaches, mood swings or depression, and a need to urinate frequently at night.
People with obstructive sleep apnea have been found to be at higher risk for developing a severe form of COVID and needing hospital treatment than those who don't have obstructive sleep apnea. Sleep apnea, obstructive care at Mayo Clinic.
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