Sleep Apnea Blog

Posts Tagged ‘sleep apnea’

My 8 year old son stops breathing on and off all through the night and he snores loudly. He gasps for air through out the night and wets to bed. He is also on medication for ADHD. I have heard there is a link between sleep apnea and ADHD symptoms. Does anyone else know anything about this?

Yes, a friend of my daughter’s was diagnosed with ADHD but then turned out to have sleep apnea. His ADHD symptoms were severe enough that he ended up repeating a grade … but when they removed his tonsils and the sleep apnea cleared up, so did the ADHD symptoms.

It’s very hard to concentrate if you haven’t actually had a good night’s sleep. Definitely get the sleep apnea treated; it may make a substantial difference.

I want to fly to the Philippines next near but I can’t bring my sleep apnea machine with me because it’s too large. I have to wait until I get to the VA Clinic in Manila to borrow one of theirs. Meanwhile, on the airplane, does the airplane provide a mask for me in order for me to sleep comfortably?

No, they do not. If you must use oxygen during the flight, you will need a doctor’s order and then call the airline to make arrangements. Most people do not have sleep apnea when sleeping in an upright position.

He did not like the idea about using a CPAP mask. Is this the ONLY treatment for sleep apnea? If it is, will he have to use it for the rest of his life?

Any body that uses something different? Thank you

i’ve done the research for you and i hope this will help..=)

Treatment
For milder cases of sleep apnea, your doctor may recommend lifestyle changes such as losing weight or quitting smoking. If these measures don’t improve your signs and symptoms or if your apnea is moderate to severe, a number of other treatments are available. Certain devices can help open up a blocked airway. In other cases, surgery may be necessary.

Treatments for obstructive sleep apnea may include:

Therapies

Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). If you have moderate to severe sleep apnea, you may benefit from a machine that delivers air pressure through a mask placed over your nose while you sleep. With CPAP (SEE-pap), the air pressure is somewhat greater than that of the surrounding air, and is just enough to keep your upper airway passages open, preventing apnea and snoring.

Although CPAP is a preferred method of treating sleep apnea, some people find it cumbersome or uncomfortable. With some practice, most people learn to adjust the tension of the straps to obtain a comfortable and secure fit. You may need to try more than one type of mask to find one that’s comfortable. Some people also benefit from using a humidifier along with their CPAP system.

Don’t just stop using the CPAP machine if you experience problems. Check with your doctor to see what modifications can be made to make you more comfortable. Additionally, contact your doctor if you are still snoring despite treatment or begin snoring again. If your weight changes, the pressure settings may need to be adjusted.

Oral appliances. Another option is wearing an oral appliance designed to keep your throat open. CPAP is more effective than oral appliances, but oral appliances may be easier for you to use.Some are designed to open your throat by bringing your jaw forward, which can sometimes relieve snoring and mild obstructive sleep apnea.

A number of devices are available from your dentist. You may need to try different devices before finding one that works for you. Once you find the right fit, you’ll still need to follow up with your dentist at least every six months during the first year and then at least once a year after that to ensure that the fit is still good and to reassess your signs and symptoms.

Surgery or other proceduresThe goal of surgery for sleep apnea is to remove excess tissue from your nose or throat that may be vibrating and causing you to snore, or that may be blocking your upper air passages and causing sleep apnea. Surgical options may include:
Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP). During this procedure, your doctor removes tissue from the rear of your mouth and top of your throat. Your tonsils and adenoids usually are removed as well. This type of surgery may be successful in stopping throat structures from vibrating and causing snoring. However, it may be less successful in treating sleep apnea because tissue farther down your throat may still block your air passage. UPPP usually is performed in a hospital and requires a general anesthetic.
Maxillomandibular advancement. In this procedure, the upper and lower part of your jaw is moved forward from the remainder of your face bones. This enlarges the space behind the tongue and soft palate, making obstruction less likely. This procedure may require the cooperation of an oral surgeon and an orthodontist, and at times may be combined with another procedure to improve the likelihood of success.
Tracheostomy. You may need this form of surgery if other treatments have failed and you have severe, life-threatening sleep apnea. In this procedure, your surgeon makes an opening in your neck and inserts a metal or plastic tube through which you breathe. You keep the opening covered during the day. But at night you uncover it to allow air to pass in and out of your lungs, bypassing the blocked air passage in your throat.

Removing tissues in the back of your throat with a laser (laser-assisted uvulopalatoplasty) or with radiofrequency energy (radiofrequency ablation) are procedures that doctors sometimes use to treat snoring. However, these procedures aren’t recommended for treating obstructive sleep apnea.

Other types of surgery may help reduce snoring and sleep apnea by clearing or enlarging air passages:
Nasal surgery to remove polyps or straighten a crooked partition between your nostrils (deviated nasal septum)
Surgery to remove enlarged tonsils or adenoids

Treatments for central sleep apnea are more limited and may include:
Treatment for associated medical problems. Possible causes of central sleep apnea include heart or neuromuscular disorders, and treating those conditions may help. For example, optimizing therapy for heart failure may eliminate central sleep apnea.
Supplemental oxygen. Using supplemental oxygen while you sleep may help if you have central sleep apnea. Various forms of oxygen are available as well as different devices to deliver oxygen to your lungs.
Continuous positive airway pressure. This method, also used in obstructive sleep apnea, involves wearing a pressurized mask over your nose while you sleep. The mask is attached to a small pump that forces air through your airway to keep it from collapsing. CPAP may eliminate snoring and prevent sleep apnea. As with obstructive sleep apnea, it’s important that you use the device as directed. If your mask is uncomfortable or the pressure feels too strong, talk with your doctor so that adjustments can be made.
Bilevel positive airway pressure (bilevel PAP). Unlike CPAP, which supplies steady, constant pressure to your upper airway as you breathe in and out, bilevel PAP builds to a higher pressure when you inhale and decreases to a lower pressure when you exhale. The goal of this treatment is to boost the weak breathing pattern of central sleep apnea. Some bilevel PAP devices can be set to automatically deliver a breath if the device detects you haven’t taken a breath after so many seconds.
Adaptive servo-ventilation (ASV). This more recently approved airflow device is designed to treat central sleep apnea and complex sleep apnea. The device learns your normal breathing pattern and stores the information into a built-in computer. After you fall asleep, the machine uses pressure to normalize your breathing pattern and prevent pauses in your breathing.

Or is insomia a symptom of sleep apnea?

These two sleep disorders are different and can occur at the same time. Basically insomnia is when a person has difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep or wakes up too early. It can be primary insomnia where a person is having sleep problems without any other associated health condition or problem. In secondary insomnia a person is having sleep problems because of something else. A person with insomnia may feel tired in the mornings.

Sleep Apnea is when a person stops breathing durring sleep. This most often happens when you relax and the pallet in the back of your throat falls and blocks the airway. It can also occur as a result of brains failure to signal the muscles to breathe. Sleep Apnea wakes the sufferer durring the night, even if they dont remember it. This can occur a few times per night to more than 100 times in a single hour. People who are over weight are the most common victems of Sleep Apnea. It can leave you feeling tired in the morning even after a full nights "sleep".

I know some about this because I suffer from both. My insomnia is caused because I am bipolar. My mind races and I have depression that makes going to sleep a long process and wakes me often in the night. Thank God for antidepressants and mood stabilizers. My Sleep Apnea is due to a weight problem, I am bordering on obese but loosing weight.

Check the liks below to learn more on each condition.

Hope I helped,
Terry

I have a CPAP machine used for Sleep Apnea. I no longer use it, as I have found relief using a SnoreGuard. I have tried to sell it locally to my city on Craigslist. This has proven ineffective. The original cost was about $1600. I would sell it for starting price of $800. Any ideas of other better reached selling websites?
Thank You!!

http://www.secondwindcpap.com/

From what I can see they buy and sell cpap machines.

the best alternative by far is weight loss. All of the studies show that for every 10% of body weight lost there is a 50% reduction in symptoms. However, there are also many dental devices on the market that can help to pull the soft palate forward. ENT surgeons can do surgeries that open your nose up or remove soft tissue from the back of your throat. Oral maxillofacial surgeons can also do various types of jaw surgery on you too. The 100% cure is when an ENT surgeon does a tracheostomy on you but most folks don’t want the hole in their neck. If you haven’t seen a surgeon or even a very thorough pulmonology provider then you need to have your anatomy assessed as the best alternative for your case. Good luck and God Bless.

At the age of 67 I had the first seizure. Now at age 73 the doctors have diagnosed sleep apnea. Since I’ve only had seizures during my sleep is it possible that I’ve had sleep apnea all along and was diagnosed improperly?

seizues usually are cause by abnoralities in the brain…
sleep apnea is when you forget to breath while you are asleep..
i honestly do not seeing these as being a cause as each other..
if you have gained weight over the years, this could cause the apnea…

My husband has sleep apnea and will not use the machine. He also has diabetes. He goes to work, comes home sleeps for about two hours, goes to bed at 12:00 AM and gets up about 4:30 for work. On the weekends he will sleep if you let him about 14 hours a day. He would do this during the week but he has to go to work. I just don’t know what to do. I’m very concerned.

Unfortunately, there’s not much you can do… You can show him all the information about sleep apnea and its deleterious effects on health, how improved sleep can actually improve diabetes, etc etc, but until he decides to do what he needs to do, he’ll probably just hear it as "nagging" and ignore you even more industriously.

If it gets to be that bad, you could lay down an ultimatum: That if he doesn’t start taking better care of himself, you’ll leave because you can’t stand to watch him take such risks with his health. I would certainly not recommend that, unless the marriage is already irretrievably broken and you would actually be okay with it if he said, "All right, bye then."

My sympathies are with you; it’s very frustrating to watch someone you care about neglect themselves. Unfortunately, your options are rather limited. I hope someone else has a more productive answer for you. Good luck.

I was diagnosed with a mild form of sleep apnea. I have tried a CPAP machine and couldn’t adjust to it. My doctor said I wouldn’t be a good candidate for surgery. I’m considering a dental device (mouth piece), but wanted to know if there are alternative methods.

I’m in the same situation as you. I would see about the dental device. Anything has to be better than the CPAP.

I was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea recently; I was told that my oxygen level drops to around 67% while I’m sleeping. Then was told how dangerous it was and told I needed to start using the C-PAP machine. Right now, I’m in waiting mode for the machine. In the meantime, my feet keep falling asleep and my fingers have gone numb. Some days are worse than others…. And sometimes my fingers really hurt. This is probably from the lack of oxygen, I’m sure. I’m also having the heart palpitations…..and other symptoms. Waiting on the red tape is getting on my last nerve. Especially after being told that it was urgent that I get on the machine right away.
Is anyone else going through this? It’s so hard to take care of things —including and especially the medical stuff—-when I’m so tired and sleepy all of the time. I just want to sleep!!
BTW, it’s been 2 weeks today, since I saw the Dr and she told me how URGENT things were. I am STILL WAITING. Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn’t go to the hospital ER.
Well, I contacted the folks that do the sleep studies and they’ve scheduled me for a second sleep study….for this coming Sunday. So, at least SOMETHING is happening. It’s hard being sick all of the time and then having to act as your own advocate. I hope I get this oxygen machine soon.

don’t know why you’d need a second study if the first one already revealed the apnea. Usually you don’t get the machine from you’re doctor. You get it from a medical supplier (DME). You’re doctor (or your insurance company) should recommend one. It shouldn’t take two weeks to set you up. They just show you how to use the machine (it’s not complicated) and you take it home. Or you could just buy one yourself from someplace like cpap.com but the good one’s aren’t cheap.