What is Sleep Apnea?
If you have ever fallen asleep during the day and wondered why after a solid 8 hours in bed? If it is a regular occurrence then it may be sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a sleeping problem caused either by an intermittent obstruction due to throat muscles relaxing or inflammation that blocks a sufferer from breathing during the night.
The major challenge is that sleep apnea is difficult to diagnose because many people either don’t know they have it or that it applies to themselves. 80% of US citizens are estimated to have the condition but not be aware of what is causing them their tiredness. Traditionally most cases required special overnight observations that disrupted a sufferer’s life and potentially costly analysis and monitoring regime. Furthermore, while being observed while sleeping does not make for good sleep, outdated technology used covers the patient’s body making it almost impossible to get the rest that they experience at home.
So, what is sleep apnea? What are the tail-tail signs that you or your partner may pick up on? There can be a whole multitude of different reasons for sleep apnea, from inflammation of the throat through alcohol, smoking or illness reducing the effective diameter of a sufferer’s throat. Additionally, each person is built in different ways, with some with smaller throats, larger necks or obese; Pressure on a relaxed throat muscle leads to obstructive sleep apnea. Additionally, there are rarer cases of intermittent brain signaling being sent by the brain to the lung muscles that may be caused by diseases such as Parkinson’s. While a sleep apnea definition can be difficult to define, here are some of the symptoms that you may experience during your night and the morning after.
The first thing you may notice is waking up with a headache, feeling tired and being half asleep during the day, with it likely getting worse over time. To further the sleep apnea definition a person may experience a dry mouth in the morning, loud snoring and a struggle to get one’s breath in bed. Usually, it will be the partner of the sufferer that will notice some of these due to the sufferer being half asleep when they dislodge the obstruction or brain signaling is consistent again.
If you have ever wondered what is sleep apnea? Hopefully you have a clear picture that there are a whole host of physiological, neural deterioration and external stimuli that can cause this health challenge. Furthermore, if untreated it can also drastically increase your risk of stroke in the space of a month’s timeframe, cause cardiovascular disease and a whole range of other health conditions shortening the sufferer’s life.
Home Sleep Apnea Test (HSAT)
A home sleep apnea test (HSAT) can be used to diagnose a sufferer and reduce their medical bills through a cheap, small and easy to use device you slip onto your wrist at night. It can be used to both diagnose and monitor the condition and treatment regime. Diagnosis is not only quicker and easier than going to various doctors and specialists, a sufferer only needs to send the auto generated reports from these novel devices to your general practitioner.
If you have ever wondered, what is sleep apnea? Or if you have it, use a HSAT device. In fact, insurers even use them as the first step in diagnosis compared to overnight observations; proving the quality of HSAT devices for diagnosis. If you think that you may have sleep apnea, speak to your health care professional and the possible use of a HSAT testing and monitoring device.