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 The real indication of sleep apnea isn’t snoring. It is when snoring stops, along with breathing. Sleep apnea can cause a person to stop breathing for periods of time, sometimes hundreds of times during the night and often for a minute or longer.
When you stop breathing, your brain wakes you up and that is when the loud gasping and the resumption of snoring are heard. This constant cessation of breath and consequent waking can have a devastating effect on health. The oxygen in your blood can become depleted. There is even evidence that sleep apnea can worsen fibromyalgia, trigger hypertension, cardiovascular disease and stroke.
Worse yet, people suffering from sleep apnea are rarely aware of having difficulty breathing, even when they experience constant waking. We often see patients who have suffered for years without diagnosis or help. Many people have dealt with sleep apnea for so long that they begin to feel that the daytime sleepiness and fatigue associated with significant levels of sleep disturbance is normal!
EPWORTH SLEEPINESS SCALE
In contrast to just feeling tired, how likely are you to doze off or fall asleep in the following situations? Even if you have not done some of these things recently, try to work out how they would have affected you. Download the Epworth Sleepiness Scale to find out more.
Sleep Apnea Treatment
Sleep Apnea/Snoring
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