What is Sleep Apnea?

The most common form of sleep apnea is obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). It is a sleep disorder where you have involuntary breathing difficulties that disturb your sleep. Apnea means “no breathing. 

It is an ongoing condition (chronic) where you suffer from an abnormally high number of:

• reductions of respiration (shallow breaths) also called hypopneas,
• repeated interruptions of breathing during your sleep (hence the name “apnea”),

that occur during your sleep.

Muscles always relax when you fall asleep. But as a sleep apnea patient, this leads to your soft palate narrowing or blocking of the airways at the back of your mouth.

During your sleep, this repetitive process causes:

• a partial decrease in airflow (hypopnea)
• or a complete airflow cessation.

Also, it will invariably lead you to snoring more loudly, and even making choking sounds as you attempt to breathe.

 Interesting facts:

• These breathing pauses last 10 to 30 seconds or more, even up to a minute!
• They can happen hundreds of times a night despite your breathing efforts.

You will suffer from poor quality sleep because of repeated short sleep disruptions. Because of shallow breathing or breathing interruptions, you will repeatedly switch from deep into a light sleep. The quality of your sleep will plummet. Throughout the night, you will awake partially to resume breathing.

You may find yourself with:

• your heart beating faster,
• sitting on your bed,
• making an effort to free your upper airways. 

Your respiratory reductions or interruptions will cause a lack of oxygen. This will lead the brain to trigger a reaction to overcome the problem.

The breathing pauses, and shallow breaths will generate sudden drops in your blood oxygen concentration. It could be down to 40% of its normal levels if you suffer from severe OSA.

Moreover, you usually won’t recall the events on the following morning because you were not fully awake. As a result, you will not feel refreshed and rested because of the repeated sleep interruptions throughout your sleep cycle.

As you may be surmising already, this will impact your daily life and health. there is also a direct correlation between sleep apnea and cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer's. 

If you believe you may be suffering from sleep apnea, it is imperative that you seek treatment, and your dentist should be able to help you. The most effective way to address sleep apnea is using a CPAP machine, but if you are reluctant to do so, your dentist could make you devices that you could use when you go to bed to help maintain your airways open to assure that your brain is receiving the oxygen it needs.