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The Symptoms Of Sleep Apnea May Not Always Be That Easy To Recognize

Sleep apnea is a very common sleep disorder which affects more than 12,000,000 US citizens and today is as commonplace as adult diabetes.

The most common type of sleep apnea is obstructive sleep apnea which, as its name indicates, arises from an obstruction to your airways which interferes with breathing. Additionally, there is a second type of sleep apnea called central sleep apnea, in which your brain fails to adequately control breathing during sleep. A significant number of people suffer from mixed sleep apnea, which is a combination of obstructive and central forms of this sleep disorder.

The symptoms of sleep apnea may appear at any time and, while they are most often found in overweight men over the age of forty, they may be found in men and women of all ages and are increasingly being found nowadays in children.

The most noticeable symptom of sleep apnea is snoring which is unfortunately a hard symptom to spot yourself and frequently has to be pointed out to you by a sleeping partner. Snoring has several different causes and snoring is not by itself an indication that you are suffering from sleep apnea. Most sleep apnea sufferers will snore.

The second most noticeable symptom is unusual daytime tiredness. With sleep apnea you stop breathing frequently during sleep and your body's instinctive reaction to this is to arouse you just enough to start you breathing again, but not enough so that you are aware that you are being awakened. The result is that your sleep is very light and continually interrupted and you do not get the deep sleep which your body needs to recharge its batteries. Consequently, in time, you find yourself getting increasingly tired and sleepy during the day.

If sleep apnea is left untreated its affects will begin to become more and more evident and a range of further symptoms will begin to appear. These may include headaches (particularly early in the morning), touchiness and perhaps depression. You might also notice yourself starting to gain weight.

One less obvious symptom of sleep apnea is increased blood pressure which can produce a variety of cardiovascular difficulties. This will be detected if you are one of the growing number of individuals who now monitor their own blood pressure regularly at home but will not otherwise be detected until you have a routine physical exam at your doctor's office.

Another increasingly common symptom is that of learning difficulties and problems with memory. Once more this is not easy to detect yourself but other people may notice that you are not as fast on the uptake as you used to be.

Some sleep apnea sufferers will notice a fall in their sexual function and this could ultimately result in impotency.

As is the case with with the majority of medical conditions individual symptoms by themselves could be a sign of just about anything. However, if you begin to see these symptoms alongside each onther then you ought to think about consulting your physician and consider being tested for sleep apnea.

One word of caution though. Testing for sleep apnea will often involve referral to a sleep specialist, preferably a specialist certified by the American Board of Sleep Medicine (ABSM), and might involve being subjected to overnight sleep testing either at home or in a specialized sleep laboratory. Such tests will frequently cost more than $1,000 and you may need to check with your insurer before committing yourself to any program of sleep apnea testing.

Article Source: http://www.bylamoarticles.com

Help-Me-To-Sleep.com offers information and advice on a range of different sleep disorders including sleep apnea and looks at the causes of sleep apnea amongst other things. We also look in detail at finding a natural cure for insomnia

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