What is Sleep Apnea?
Sleep apnea is a potentially serious sleep disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep.
If you snore loudly and feel tired even after a full night’s sleep, you might have sleep apnea.
The main types of sleep apnea are: Obstructive sleep apnea, the more common form that occurs when throat muscles relax.
The involuntary pause in breathing can result either from a blocked airway or a signaling problem in the brain. Most people with the condition have the first kind, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Sleep apnea due to a signaling problem is known as central sleep apnea (CSA).
The person will unknowingly stop breathing repeatedly throughout sleep. Once the airway is opened or the breathing signal is received, the person may snort, take a deep breath, or awaken completely with a sensation of gasping, smothering, or choking.
Untreated sleep apnea can lead to potentially serious health complications, such as high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke and depression.
Around 1 in 5 adults have mild symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), while 1 in 15 have moderate-to-severe symptoms.
Symptoms
One of the most common symptoms of sleep apnea is snoring.
A person with sleep apnea may be unaware of their symptoms, but another person may notice that the sleeper stops breathing, suddenly gasps or grunts, wakes up, and then goes back to sleep.
Another common symptom of sleep apnea is daytime sleepiness due to interrupted sleep at night.
Additional symptoms include:
- restless sleep or insomnia
- difficulty concentrating
- waking up several times a night to urinate
- awakening with a dry mouth or sore throat
- morning headache
- irritability
- heartburn
- decreased libido and erectile dysfunction
Treatment
Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy: This is the frontline treatment for sleep apnea. It keeps the airway open by gently providing a constant stream of positive pressure air through a mask.
By using CPAP equipment every night, you can relieve the symptoms of sleep apnea and get a better night’s sleep without the need for invasive surgical treatments.
CPAP Testimonials
1. I was better almost immediately. It was like I was on some crazy drugs. It was so weird not to be falling asleep in traffic, at work, everywhere. I had tons of energy. Then sadly I got used to it. Now I just feel awake when I get up and sleepy near bedtime. It’s been close to ten years.
2. I got diagnosed with severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) back in 2020 at the age of 26, I am 28 now. I was so tired all of time and I didn’t know why. I could only stay up for about 4 hours at a time, I was so tired I couldn’t do ANYTHING! I also gained a massive amount of weight I was borderline obese.
I was always a skinny kid as far as I can remember but even back then I have memories of falling asleep in class, didn’t want to wake up in the morning for class, always was tired when I came home from school, I could never pay attention, people thought I was stupid. My family thought I was lazy for my whole life, however I was just tired all of the time. now I see that it was most likely because of my OSA.
So before diagnosis I was depressed out of my mind, my testosterone was rock bottom, i was drinking myself to death just to feel more alive. I was living im a haze every single day. So one day, I realized what was going on, I thought about how everyone said I snored all of the time, and stopped breathing in my sleep. So ordered a sleep test from Lofta. When my results came in, I was diagnosed with severe osa with an 88 ahi!
So they had to prescribe me a bipap, with full face mask. First night using it I had the most vivid dream in years! I woke up and I seriously couldn’t believe how much different I felt. For once in my life I felt like I slept!
Fast forward until now, I am now at a healthy weight, I am no longer dying from gradual sleep deprivation and suffocation, I habe so much more energy that I find myself craving to go outdoors now. Depression is gone! My skin is so much brighter. I’m no longer ravenously hungry. My sex drive is higher. I can think better. I just simply feel like alive again lol.
I believe sleep therapy was simply one of the best decision I have ever made in my entire life period.
If you’re on the fence about getting sleep study, just do it. Seriously this stuff is life changing.
3. I just started CPAP (literally a few days ago) and the first full night i used it i felt so damn good the day after – no more headaches, dizziness, lightheadedness, the feeling of being hung over at all after… hardly even yawned as well during the day. the first few nights, i kept taking the mask off in the middle of the night and it didn’t fix a thing. just gotta keep at it.
4. I immediately felt better. Right after the first night, I felt like a new person.
Theodore Lee is the editor of Caveman Circus. He strives for self-improvement in all areas of his life, except his candy consumption, where he remains a champion gummy worm enthusiast. When not writing about mindfulness or living in integrity, you can find him hiding giant bags of sour patch kids under the bed.