Sleeping enables your body to rejuvenate after a long day. It renews your energy so that you wake up feeling fresh and ready for daily tasks like going to work or school and being productive. Therefore, lack of adequate sleep or interruptions during sleep can hinder this rejuvenation process. As such, you may wake up feeling tired due to conditions like insomnia or sleep apnea.
Sleep apnea is a rare but serious condition in which you stop breathing during sleep. Breathing is interrupted by the narrowing of your airways, which at times may collapse. The interruption usually lasts about 10 seconds but can occur many times in a single night. ENT doctors suggest that breathing can be interrupted up to 300 times in a single night in patients with the condition. However, it can be 30 times a night. The higher the number of times your breathing is interrupted, the more severe your apnea is. In most patients, the number of sleep interruptions is low when they are first diagnosed with the condition but gradually increases as the condition becomes severe due to inadequate or complete lack of management of the condition.
When you suddenly stop breathing in your sleep, oxygen transport in the bloodstream is interrupted as carbon dioxide builds up. The higher the number of times your sleep is interrupted, the more oxygen transport is interrupted. As a compensation mechanism for the inadequate oxygen, your heart will work harder to ensure oxygen supply to cells is not interrupted. It does this by increasing the pumping force and thereby increasing your heartbeat. This compensation interrupts your sleeping cycle, making you feel exhausted in the morning despite getting adequate hours of rest. Besides feeling fatigued on awakening, the condition has consequences such as increasing your risk of heart attacks and stroke. Furthermore, apnea is often associated with snoring during sleep.
Types of sleep apnea.
Before your ENT doctor Singapore recommends a treatment plan for your sleep apnea, he or she must first determine the type of condition you suffer from. This will help in the selection of the most appropriate treatment plan. Apnea is of two types:
As the name suggests, this type of apnea involves the central nervous system. It happens when the medulla oblongata in the brain fails to relay a signal to your respiratory muscles to breathe. The medulla oblongata is the organ in the brain responsible for the control of respiration.
- Obstructive sleep apnea.
The majority of patients suffering from sleep apnea have this type. Obstructive sleep apnea is caused by the collapse of soft tissues present at your throat’s back. When this tissue collapses, it blocks the airway inhibiting air from passing.
Both types have similar symptoms, such as snoring, a dry mouth on awakening, morning headaches, irritability, insomnia, hyper insomnia, and fatigue. Loud snoring is usually an indication that you should see an ENT doctor. The doctor will first take a history of your symptoms and then examine the nose, ears, throat, and neck before recommending the appropriate treatment plan. The examination aims at determining the source of obstruction in either of the regions.
How can an ENT doctor help treat sleep apnea?
Although many people know that an ENT can treat sleep apnea, not many know how the ENT treats the condition. So how exactly does an ENT doctor help you to sleep normal again? There are two main treatment methods that an ENT doctor in Sewell, NJ, can help treat the condition:
- Surgical treatment.
Surgical treatment is done only when it is safe for the patient. Surgery is generally safe for healthy individuals. However, individuals with serious conditions such as diabetes cannot receive surgery. This is because diabetes causes slow healing of wounds, thereby predisposing the patient to healing complications. Patients that cannot receive surgery will be treated using a CPAP device. Surgical treatment can be of different types:
- Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty: Since obstructive sleep apnea can be caused by flabby tissues that block the airway, this surgical procedure aims at removing these tissues. The procedure involves the surgical removal of flabby tissues present in the palate and throat. It expands the respiratory airway preventing blockage during sleep.
- Laser lingual tonsillectomy: This procedure also involves removing tissues that block the airway located deep down the throat.
- Septoplasty: This is a surgical procedure that corrects a deviated septum. A deviated septum can interfere with proper breathing. Therefore, septoplasty aims to straighten the septum.
In patients whose adenoids and tonsils are the cause of sleep apnea, the organs can be surgically removed to aid breathing.
In some patients, the nasal turbinates may be larger than normal. A surgical procedure can, therefore, be performed by the use of radiofrequency to reduce their sizes.
Nasal polyps can interfere with normal breathing; therefore, patients with nasal polyps will undergo an endoscopic surgical procedure to remove the polyps.
- CPAP device.
As mentioned earlier, not all patients are eligible for surgical procedures. Therefore, patients who cannot undergo surgery are put on a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device when they sleep. Unlike surgical treatment, the CPAP device helps to manage the condition; it does not treat it. This is because it does not address the apnea’s root cause; it only keeps airways open.
You wear the device as a facial or nasal mask every night. The device creates positive pressure in your airways every time you inhale. As such, it provides a continuous flow of air in your airways, preventing episodes of sleep apnea. You can get a CPAP machine by searching key phrases such as “medical supply store near me” to find the equipment you require to help you have a safe sleep cycle.
Sleep apnea is a serious and fatal condition that needs immediate medical attention the moment you notice symptoms. Therefore, you need to be informed of risk factors that predispose you to the condition and look out for the symptoms. Certain risk factors, such as smoking, alcoholism, and obesity, are modifiable. Therefore, you should improve your lifestyle by quitting smoking and alcohol and incorporating exercise and diet in your weight loss plan to lower the risk of sleep apnea. Non-modifiable risk factors include age, the male gender, family history of the condition, allergies, and hereditary conditions like asthma and diabetes.
