subject: Sleep Apnea Symptoms - The Right Diagnosis And Treatment [print this page] Sleep apnea symptoms must be caught in order to get to the doctor and get a proper diagnosis. After this has been done, you can find the treatment you need for your ailment. While it has long been downplayed on a widespread basis, the condition can cause a host of health problems, not the least of which is insomnia and heart attack. If you can come to the realization that you might be suffering, you can get to a good doctor quickly and begin treatment.
It's important to understand why sleep apnea can be such a dangerous condition to live with. Put in simple terms, the condition means that at some point (or multiple points) during the night, the person with the condition stops breathing. When this happens, you will either naturally remove the blockage and continue breathing on your own, or possibly wake up. Either way, it often takes the user out of the deep REM sleep that everyone requires. Interrupted deep sleep on a continuous basis can have many of the same effects as chronic insomnia, including many serious heart problems.
Symptoms one can look for are weight gain and chronic fatigue. This fatigue may be especially pronounced in the early morning and manifest itself as one might feel when they didn't get enough hours of sleep. It is typically not cured by going to bed earlier, either. Loud, constant snoring is another common symptom of sleep apnea, though unfortunately many people are not aware of their snoring. Take it seriously if your significant other or a roommate tells you that you snore loudly. While it may mean nothing, it could be a sign of something more serious.
If a doctor diagnoses you with sleep apnea, treatment could take a number of different forms. If you're on a class of medication known as opioids, the doctor will likely decrease these medications as they have been linked to the condition. Some sufferers are prescribed an oxygen tank to use while they are sleeping. By far the most common treatment, however, is the use of a CPAP machine. CPAP stands for continuous positive airway pressure and it is basically a machine that forces continuous oxygen into your lungs. While some patients have trouble adjusting to sleeping with the machine, they usually get used to it over time. If not, there are automatic machines which adjust airway pressure throughout the night according to need that could be better for a sensitive sleeper.
