The Symptoms of Sleep Apnea

Sleep apnea is a condition in which a person will stop breathing periodically during sleep. When this happens, a person might wake up during the night in order to restart their breathing, up to one hundred times.

Most people with sleep apnea do not remember waking themselves up to restart their breathing, because this happens in a way such that a person doesn't remember that they have even woken up. When a person with sleep apnea wakes themselves up, it isn't as if they completely wake up, they simply wake up just enough to remind themselves to breathe, and fall back to sleep again. When this happens, a person's sleep is completely disrupted, and they are unable to get a full night's sleep. Usually, whether or not a person remembers that they have woken themselves up to begin breathing again, their sleep partner will remember that they have awoken, because the waking will be quite disruptive.

Because of the symptoms of sleep apnea, it will result in sleep deprivation indeed, but it might also result in the threaten of your life. It is a progressive sleep disorder, which means that as a person gets older, the condition is only going to get worse. In order to get better, you must treat your sleep apnea, and there are several treatments that work very well to help a person get better. Usually, when a person goes into treatment of sleep apnea, they are going to be treated successfully and will see results in many different ways.

Signs of Sleep Apnea

There are several symptoms of sleep apnea. These are symptoms that if you are not aware of them, your sleeping partner certainly should be. If you want to find out if you have sleep apnea, you can have your partner help you by keeping a journal of the times you wake up during the night. You can also record yourself, or visit a sleep clinic to be diagnosed.

The symptoms of sleep apnea are easy for someone to realize. The first and most prevalent symptom is a very frequent cessation of breathing while you are a sleep. There might be silences that are repeated from your side of the bed. Your partner will be able to notice that you aren't making any noise. After this happens, your partner will notice that you are choking and gasping during sleep, which is how you get air into your lungs. Another symptom of sleep apnea is very loud snoring.

If your partner is looking for signs of your sleep apnea, they might notice that you are not only snoring loudly, but that you are gasping and awaking yourself in order to get air back into your lungs. You will be waking yourself up in order to start breathing again. Your partner will completely notice these things because it will be a major disruption in the way that you are sleeping.

There are some other symptoms of sleep apnea that you might be able to notice on your own ,without your partners help. One of them is the feeling of waking up in the middle of the night drenched in a sweat. This might be happening because your body is struggling to get the air that it needs, and you are feeling as if you need to get oxygen in any way that you can. This is the cause of the sweat on your body, and if you wake up sweaty several times during the night, it might be sleep apnea.

Another symptom of sleep apnea is waking up with a feeling of being un refreshed, even if you have spent an entire night asleep. You might find that you get enough sleep, but you are in fact not getting the right amount of rest, and in the morning you are feeling like you haven't slept. Other symptoms you might notice when you wake up include having headaches, sore throats, or dry mouth in the mornings

Other symptoms might include sleepiness during the day, which might mean that you are falling asleep at times that are not appropriate, such as driving times or during work. You might feel lethargic, and you might see a rapid weight gain. You also might find that you are having memory loss, and difficulties learning. Your attention span might be short, and you might find that you have poor judgment. These s symptoms might not seem that serious, but they in turn to could lead to things happening. If you are not able to stay awake while you are driving, for instance, you might find that you are experiencing vast times of danger and you might end up putting yourself into situations that you don't want to be in. These kinds of things are secondary symptoms, which might lead to even worse symptoms if they aren't treated.

There are other symptoms that you might not even think to associate with sleep apnea. If you are experiencing a period of depression, or if you are seeing that you are having major personality changes, these are all signs that you are maybe having problems sleeping, and therefore you might want to consider seeking help for sleep apnea. Depression and changes in personality might lead to major lifestyle changes that you wouldn't want to make. Therefore, it is important that if you feel you might be suffering from sleep apnea, you do whatever you can in order to get better.