Sleep Apnea: a Little Nap Won’t Hurt, Right?
A little sleeping disorder, that’s all.
Edit: I checked again, and I’m sorry. Those of you who pointed out my problem were right. I have corrected myself. Thanks for the help, though.
You go to your bed, take a little nap, and a few hours later, you have a dream about drowning. Sounds simple, right? No. The catch is, is that you actually aren’t breathing right now. You start to panic, and you tremble and try to gasp for air. You wake, up and realize, you can breathe again.
General Info
What this was, was a simple sleeping disorder, called Sleep Apnea. Sleep Apnea occurs when you don’t breathe for about 10 seconds or more during your sleep. There are three forms of sleep aphnea. Central, Obstructive, and Mixed. Sometimes, when the person affected by Sleep Aphnea wakes up, he or she has no clue about their breathing problem. This is a problem, as the symptoms may continue and even occur during the daytime.
Prevelance
It is said that Sleep Apnea gets many people in America. 1 out of 15 people have sleep apnea in America, which is about twenty million people! In Wisconsin, a lab tested Sleep Apnea on the people, and found that 9 percent women and about 24 percent men had sleep Aphea.
OSA (Obstructive Sleep Apnea)
OSA is the most common case in Sleep Apnea. It causes the throat’s soft tissue to obstruct, which may cause the breathing problems. This may not be bad, but one it becomes severe, it then needs to be treated to prevent low blood oxygen. The worst case scenario, heart failure.
CSA (Central Sleep Apnea)
CSA has nothing to do with the throat. Instead, the brain temporarily loses control of the respiretory system. Then, the body can’t maintain the system. This causes the sleeper to stop breathing…and start again. At various times, the breathing may become faster all of the sudden, and then slow down.
MSA (Mixed Sleep Apnea)
MSA is just like what it sounds like, mixed. It is a combination of both OSA and CSA. (Which is very unlucky)
Treatment
If it becomes bad, they use a machine to force the air into you body, which is CPAP. More severe cases requires BiPap. BiPAP will give two levels of pressure: A high one, and a low one. A higher level of pressure is used to keep your airway open while you are inhaling while the lower level of pressure is used while you exhale so you do not need to fight by exhaling.
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Apnea Sufferer | Jul 26, 2009 | Reply
BiPAP does not inhale and exhale for you. Instead of CPAP which uses one Constant level of air pressure that is high enough to keep your airway open, the BiPAP give you two levels of pressure. A higher level of pressure to keep your airway open while you\’re inhaling and a lower level of pressure while you exhale so you\’re not fighting the higher level on exhalation.
Apnea Sufferer | Jul 26, 2009 | Reply
BiPAP does not inhale and exhale for you. Instead of CPAP which uses one Constant level of air pressure that is high enough to keep your airway open, the BiPAP give you two levels of pressure. A higher level of pressure to keep your airway open while you are inhaling and a lower level of pressure while you exhale so you do not need to fight the higher level on trying to exhale.
Steve Lugon | Jul 26, 2009 | Reply
BiPAP does not inhale and exhale for you. Instead of CPAP which uses one Constant level of air pressure that is high enough to keep your airway open, the BiPAP give you two levels of pressure. A higher level of pressure to keep your airway open while you are inhaling and a lower level of pressure while you exhale so you do not need to fight the higher level on trying to exhale.