Archive for January, 2007
Snoring is always portrayed as a harmless, silly trait for a person to have. However, few know that there are many hidden dangers in what can seem to be an innocent snore. Snoring is your body’s method of letting you know that it is having trouble getting the oxygen it needs to carry out its basic functions. Also, snoring can mask a greater problem known as obstructive sleep apnea, or OSA.
Obstructive sleep apnea occurs when a snoring condition gets so bad that total blockage occurs in the airway. When this happens, the person is unable to get oxygen, and the body is unable to get any in for over 10 seconds. This can cause the person to wake up in the middle of the night a sweat, wake up gasping for air, or wake up choking. People with sleep apnea often wake up the next morning with sore throats or headaches. This is due to the lack of oxygen that your body is getting. On top of that, the numerous times you wake up in the middle of the night really do damage to your sleep patterns.
Sleep apnea causes a lack of REM sleep, which can result in grogginess and a lack of concentration the next day. Your body is basically not getting the required rest that it needs, because it is too busy being worried about getting oxygen. This can translate to poor performance at work or school, difficulty concentrating on simple tasks, and a general state of irritability that can cause irreparable damage to both your social life and your job.
In addition to the short-term affects of being afflicted with sleep apnea, if the syndrome is left untreated, the sufferer bears a greater risk of heart attack and stroke. Also, significant weight gain can occur during an OSA affliction. Higher blood pressure is often found in people with OSA, as well as a lower blood-oxygen level. This forces the heart to work harder, and can result in such long-term problems as an enlarged heart.
Fortunately, there are ways of helping obstructive sleep apnea. For mild sufferers, simple snoring cures such as not sleeping on your back and losing weight can help to cure sleep apnea. However, for the more moderate to severe apnea sufferers, a process known as Continuous Positive Airway Pressure, or CPAP, can remedy the problem. It involves a nose mask that delivers air up through the nose, clearing the way for unobstructed air flow. Surgery is also a possible cure for severe sleep apnea, but is only administered after CPAP treatment fails.
So, as you can see, snoring is a problem that you shouldn’t take sitting (or laying) down. Find out if your condition meets the symptoms of sleep apnea, and even if they don’t, do your best to clear your snoring problem so that it does not debilitate into apnea.
Research the common reasons for a snoring condition, and see which of them sound like they fit you the most. Then, search out the proper treatments for these reasons.
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While snoring is commonly joked about as a harmless little annoyance, it can be no further from the truth. Snoring is a blockage of the air ways that our body uses to get oxygen to perform the vital functions it needs to operate. This can be very harmful for the snorer, especially if the air ways become completely blocked, causing a sleep disorder known as sleep apnoea. Snores are a warning sign from our bodies saying that they may not be getting all the oxygen they need. For that reason, snores will wake up those with sleep apnoea. The body cannot get enough oxygen so it does its best to alert you.
Sleep apnoea is characterized by the following symptoms: long interruptions of breathing (commonly more than 10 seconds, caused by the blockage of the air ways), frequently waking from sleep (although the sufferer may not realize that they are), light sleeping that is not conducive to fulfilling your body’s need for sleep, and lower blood oxygen levels. These lower blood oxygen levels cause the heart to have to work harder, pumping more rapidly and causing a rise in blood pressure. As a result, the sufferer often experiences a poor night’s sleep underlined by drowsiness during the day and a lack of concentration. Irritability also is a common trait among those with sleep apnoea, and this can affect personal relationships as well as your work ethic. In addition to these problems, people with untreated sleep apnoea face higher risks of heart attacks and strokes.
Now that you can see that snoring is no laughing matter, it is important to know some of the behaviours which help to keep snoring to a minimum. If you are overweight, the fatty tissues in your throat may be helping the problem, so it is important to get into shape and improve your eating habits. Trying to establish regular sleeping patterns that persist through the week and the weekend can also be helpful to beating snoring. On a daily basis, it is important to avoid alcohol, sleeping pills, and anti-histamines for a good period of time before you go to bed. These substances relax your throat muscles, causing them to buckle and increasing the snoring problem. Sleeping on your side is also a commonly used solution, since many snorers are known to only snore while sleeping on their back. An easy fix for getting used to sleeping on your side would be to sew an object such as a tennis ball into the back of your bed time shirt. This makes it uncomfortable for you to sleep on your back, so you will naturally favour sleeping on your side.
If you feel that the sleep apnoea symptoms described above might apply to you, it is crucial to speak to a health care professional. They can perform a process known as polysomnography, which can diagnose your problem and let you know exactly what is wrong with your sleep. It is a harmless process which is covered by most insurance carriers.
Although this may seem an insignificant issue, a question of minor importance it grew into a big debate in the scientific community. Could astronauts snore? This was discussed from the early days of manned space flights and the debate has continued into the days of shuttle flights and the use of the space station. Some believed that without normal gravity it was impossible to snore. The airflow would be wrong, there would be no possible way for the normal constriction of the throat to occur. How would there be vibration with no gravity?
Research on two space flights found some interesting sleep statistics. The study conducted found that five astronauts actually stopped snoring completely while in space. As well, some who had suffered episodes of stopping breathing, called sleep apnea, had none when they were in space. This was a breakthrough. They had proved that gravity was indeed necessary to constrict the airflow, aggravate the throat and cause the vibrations along the soft palate and uvula. No gravity made it easier to breathe. Oddly they also learned that astronauts sleep fewer hours and use sleeps medications to assist them in sleeping.
Later a study was done in 1998 aboard the shuttle Columbia to see how astronauts sleep in the artificial environment of a space shuttle. The result surprised many scientists and sleep specialists when microphones picked up snores from the crew. They were surprised because the feeling was that astronauts likely breathed less. The belief had been that they actually inhaled and exhaled less when floating in space. Scientists had wondered if breathing was harder up there. The astronauts wore assorted microphones and gear to measure all kinds of sleeping statistics. Comparisons were conducted to compare how the men slept on earth. Did they snore on Earth before they left?
This brought up many other questions since astronauts are in excellent physical condition before going into space. Unlike those who are thought to be the typical snorer, an overweight man with a large neck who may drink, smoke or snack on dairy products late at night. Surely the average astronaut does not fit this picture.
Did the other sleep difficulties play any part in their snoring or not snoring? Many astronauts suffer from unending motion sickness as well as the fact that every ninety minutes the sun first sets and then ninety minutes later it rises again. This is a continuous series of events that can be difficult to acclimatize to.
One of the most interesting things about astronauts and snoring is the fact that there is still a lot of disagreement in the scientific community as whether they actually do snore or not. Studies have shown differing results and so there are those who will tell you that without gravity it would not be possible for them to snore. At the same time the Columbia study will be quoted back as proof they do snore. It seems that the only way to prove it conclusively will be to conduct further research.