Should I be concerned this might be sleep apnea?!


Question: Should I be concerned this might be sleep apnea?
This happens (that I remember anyways) MAYBE once a month. I wake up not yelling but making a "yhuh" noise and gasp for breathe. Almost like I had a bad dream but I don't remember dreaming. My uncle has it so I know it runs in the family. But I don't know if it makes a difference if I have it or not because I have no insurance and the discount doctor I go to might just refer me to somewhere else thats really expensive.

Answers:

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The term "apnea" means absence of spontaneous breathing. Occasional apneas occur during normal sleep but in persons with "sleep apnea", the frequency and duration are greatly increased with episodes of apnea lasting for 10 seconds or longer and occurring 300 to 500 times each night. Sleep apneas can be caused by obstruction of the upper airways, especially the pahrynx, or by impaired central nervous system respiratory drive.

Some individuals have an especially narrow passage, and relaxation of these muscles during sleep causes the pharynx to completely close so that air cannot flow into the lungs. In persons with "sleep apnea", loud snoring and labored breathing occur soon after falling asleep. The snoring proceeds, often becoming louder, and is then interrrupted by along silent period during which no breathing (apnea) occurs. The periods of apnea and labored breathing are repeated several hundred times during the night, resulting in fragmented, restless sleep. Therefore, persons with sleep apnea usually have excessive daytime drowsiness as well as other disorders such as increased heart beat and hypertension.

If you are experiencing this kind of events during sleep then you probably are having "sleep apnea". Try asking for other persons to observe you during sleep and ask them if you have the same symptoms of sleep apnea as mentioned above.

In addition, obstructive sleep apnea most commonly occurs in older, obese persons in whom there is increased fat deposition in the soft tissues of the pharynx or compression of the pharynx due to excessive fat masses in the neck.

Medical Book: Guyton & Hall, 2006. Textbook of Medical Physiology 11th edition.



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Doesn't sound like sleep apnea; in sleep apnea, your breathing is interrupted in such a way that you are sleeping but you get very little REM sleep. Your breathing could be interrupted hundreds of times in one night and you'd never know it without a sleep study.

Sleep apnea is a very dangerous condition. You can fall asleep while driving, etc.




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