What is Sleep Apnea?
Sleep apnea is one of those medical conditions that often gets neglected, even though it’s dangerous to leave it untreated. Millions of people have no clue that their snoring, unexplained fatigue, weight gain, and even depression could be linked to this serious sleep disorder.
Sleep apnea occurs when you stop breathing for short periods while asleep. This either pauses your breathing completely or makes it very shallow. Every time this happens, the oxygen in your blood drops, which signals your body to wake up just enough to get you breathing again. Depending on your conditions severity, this process may repeat itself 60-100 times within an hour—without you even realizing it.
If you suddenly feel tired during the day, do not perform well in your daily tasks, or struggle to manage high blood pressure, contact Luna Wellness Centre in Grande Prairie to book an appointment with a practitioner.
When your breathing doesn’t stay steady while you sleep, it’s known as sleep apnea. It’s fairly normal for your breathing to pause a few times (less than five) every hour during sleep; that is a part of the natural sleep cycle.
If your breathing pauses more often — 5 to 15 times an hour — that’s considered mild sleep apnea. When it happens 15 to 30 times, it’s moderate. And if it’s more than 30 times an hour, that’s severe sleep apnea. There are rare cases where breathing stops more than 100 times an hour.
Contrary to what many believe, sleep apnea doesn’t solely target those who are overweight. Having a high BMI can make it more likely because extra soft tissue can narrow the airway and make it hard to breathe properly. But it’s not the only culprit. You are at a higher risk for sleep apnea if you have a smaller chin, larger tongue, enlarged tonsils, deviated septum, or any other physical abnormality in your dental anatomy. These types of cases fall under obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).
How to Know if You Have Sleep Apnea?
Continuous, persistent snoring is one of the most common signs of OSA, but not everyone who snores is apneic. If your bed partner or people around you have complained about your snoring, your next step should be to schedule a home sleep study to get to the bottom of it.
Other symptoms you should look out for include:
Feeling wiped out even after 7-8 hours of sleep
Experiencing a mental fog
Having headaches when you wake up
Having trouble focusing on your work
Developing problems with your memory and cognition
Feeling less interested in getting intimate with your partner (or erectile dysfunction)
Feeling anxious or depressed
For children, the signs can look a little different. Issues with learning, behavior, and symptoms of ADHD could all point to sleep apnea. The American Sleep Apnea Association has found that up to 25% of kids diagnosed with ADHD might be experiencing OSA.
How to Get Tested for Sleep Apnea?
To diagnose sleep apnea, you need to take a sleep study.
While some cases still require an overnight stay at a hospital or a lab for more extensive tests, such as monitoring brain waves or sleep behavior, home tests have been shown to identify sleep apnea with 95% accuracy.
The sensors in your home testing kit are roughly the size of a card deck. They monitor your breathing, the sounds you make while sleeping, the amount of oxygen in your blood, and even which side you are lying on. A belt is included to measure how your chest moves as you breathe, a sensor for your wrist, and a clip for your finger to keep tabs on your heart rate and oxygen levels.
Many of these user-friendly devices can be set to turn on by themselves when it is time for you to go to bed.
Your Path to Better Sleep Begins Here
At Luna Wellness Centre, our approach to treating obstructive sleep apnea is based on its root cause and intensity. Our patients see maximum improvement with custom-made oral appliances, but we also guide lifestyle changes for lasting relief.
CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) is very effective — whether the sleep apnea is mild, moderate, or severe — and might be the only option for those with extremely chronic cases. However, not everyone feels comfortable wearing a mask over their face or nose throughout the night. As effective as it is, the setup can be a little awkward and might make younger patients feel self-conscious.
If you don’t have this issue and you can tolerate CPAP, you should definitely continue with it. But no treatment is one-size-fits-all. If you have tried CPAP and cannot tolerate it for any reason, we can work together to design an oral appliance to correct the physical obstruction (in your jaw or throat) that is causing your sleep apnea. Get in touch with us today to book an appointment.