Sleep apnea is perhaps a severe sleep disorder wherein breathing stops and starts abruptly during sleep. If you snore loudly and feel exhausted despite a night’s sleep, you might have sleep apnea.
Your throat muscles keep the airway open and stiff to allow free movement of air in and out of the lungs while you’re awake. However, these throat muscles relax during sleep, which causes your throat to constrict. Usually, this narrowing wouldn’t inhibit air movement through your nose and throat but if you suffer from sleep apnea, your respiratory tract can become fully or partially blocked causing you to snore.
Here are some causes of sleep apnea:
- Your tongue and throat muscles relax more than usual.
- Your tonsils (tissue masses at the rear of your mouth) and tongue are bigger than the windpipe cavity.
- Your obesity can result in extra fat tissue in your neck region that thickens the windpipe wall. As the windpipe gets narrower, it becomes harder to remain open.
- The structure of your neck and head may be the reason for a smaller size of the airway in your throat and mouth area.
- Aging can limit the ability of your brain to keep throat muscles firm throughout sleep. As a result, the airway can become narrow or even collapse.
If your respiratory tract is fully or partially blocked, then insufficient air moves into your lungs and results in loud snoring noise. This can cause your blood oxygen level to drop. If the oxygen level drops severely, it elicits your brain to upset your sleep. This helps stiffen the muscles of upper respiratory tract and open up your windpipe. Normal breathing resumes with a loud choking sound.
Obstructive sleep apnea arises when the muscles at the rear of your throat relax. When these muscles loosen up, it narrows your airway as you inhale, and you are unable to breathe in an adequate amount of air. This lowers oxygen level in your blood. Your brain realizes this lack of ability to inhale and temporarily stirs you up from sleep so that you can revive your airway. You may make a choking, snorting or wheezing sound and this pattern repeats itself all night long. These disturbances harm your capacity to attain the desired and restful phases of deep sleep, and make you feel sleepy throughout the day.
Central sleep apnea is another form of sleep apnea where your brain fails to trigger breathing muscles. As a result, you do not breathe for a small period of time and wake up with shortness of breath and find it difficult to stay asleep.
Reduced sleep quality and frequent drops in blood oxygen level trigger the release of stress hormones that increase your risk of heart diseases. Untreated sleep apnea can also change the way your body utilizes energy and increases your risk of diabetes and obesity. If you face difficulty in breathing and get up repeatedly during sleep, then consult a doctor for treatment of sleep apnea.