Health And Wellness Center: Sleep disorders: drowsiness and sleep apnea

What are sleep disorders

Sleep disorders are not serious diseases but make daily life causing physical exhaustion, poor work performance, difficulty in meeting the professional, family, etc. and daytime sleepiness.

Sleep disorders are:

Insomnia or difficulty falling asleep, on which I have spoken extensively in the article on how to combat insomnia.
Hypersomnia-drowsiness: an inconstant and involuntary excessive sleep.
Snoring and sleep apnea: This is a very brief interruption of breathing during sleep caused by pharyngeal obstruction.
Parasomnia: is a disorder of sleep behavior characterized by brief or partial episodes to wake up without significant sleep disruption or an altered level of night waking occurs. Among these are cited:
- Somnambulism.
- Night terror.
- Restless leg syndrome or periodic limb movements.
- Bruxism is the tight closure or teeth grinding.
- Nocturnal enuresis: is the involuntary release of urine during sleep.

Sometimes they are symptoms of a systemic disease. For example, hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism causes sleepiness causes sleeplessness.

They may also be due to alcohol, drugs of abuse, some medications and rhythms irregular sleep schedules due to changes caused by night work, long commutes, etc.

Proper study, diagnosis and treatment offer a multidisciplinary approach and dream units of hospitals, although they are also responsible for some psychiatrists and neurologists.

Diagnosis of sleep disorders

They are diagnosed by polysomnography or physiological sleep test carried out during the nights. In this test the electrical brain waves, oxygen levels in the blood, respiratory rate, heart rate, movements of the eyes and legs, body position and snoring and any other noise are determined.

This test determines whether sleep stages, which are listed below work well:

Phase 1: determines a transition between wakefulness and sleep.
Phase 2: in which sleep is light and decrease heart and respiratory rate.
Phase 3 or transition to sleep.
Phase 4: is deep sleep with difficulty waking.
REM: rapid eye movement and increased brain activity increases during the second half of the night occur.

Daytime sleepiness and fatigue

Drowsiness is a sleep disorder characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness. People who suffer fall asleep during the day anywhere. This problem hinders the performance of normal life, have difficulty moving around, hear noises and see strange things.

Drowsiness predisposes to poor work performance and traffic accidents. Suffers 20% of the adult population. It is therefore very important and necessary to know the cause of this sleep disorder for proper medical treatment.

Causes drowsiness

Primary idiopathic hypersomnia or narcolepsy and suffer only from 0.5% to 1% of the population.
Some diseases involving chronic pain (rheumatism, migraines, etc.).
Metabolic diseases such as diabetes, hypercalcemia or figures very high blood calcium, hyponatremia and hypernatremia (high or low numbers sodium in the blood) and hypothyroidism
Night work or continuous days (guards doctors, for example).
Other sleep disorders (sleep apnea, narcolepsy, sleep not enough time) and psychological causes such as anxiety and stress.
Taking certain medications: tranquilizers, antidepressants, anticonvulsants, antidiarrheals, antispasmodics, beta blockers, relaxing smooth muscle, sleeping pills and antihistamines.

Treatment involves drinking coffee and caffeinated beverages; drugs such as modafinil, amphetamines and methylphenidate.

Obstructive apnea or sleep apnea

This syndrome consists of a brief cessation of breathing that occurs during sleep at night associated with snoring.

Each time this happens, the patient wakes up one or more times during the night. As a result you feel fatigued and presents daytime sleepiness.

This sleep disorder affects 2-4% of the adult population, especially males. It is a common cause of nocturnal sudden death.

Obstructive sleep apnea or is caused by a collapse or closure greater than the height of the palate and tongue base that produces an absence (apnea) or decreased breathing transiently airway.

The causes of sleep apnea are:

Small mandible or maxilla,
Nasopharyngeal obstructions,
Palate very large or flabby,
The base of the tongue is very wide,
Obesity and hypothyroidism.

It is a serious problem because when it occurs, often predisposes a picture of severe cardiac arrhythmias, hypertension, myocardial infarction and stroke.

How to treat sleep apnea

My recommendation is that people suffering from this sleep disorder, go to consulting a specialist. There are several ways to treat it:

CPAP or transmission apparatus pressure continues in the airway with a nasal mask adapted to the patient's face and secured with harnesses. The CPAP corrects the arrests of nocturnal breathing and daytime sleepiness. Is the treatment of choice and the employee.
Mandibular advancement device that is inserted into the mouth and change position of the jaw, tongue and other supporting structures of the upper airway.

Several surgical techniques may also be employed:

Reduction of the pharynx, larynx, nose hypertrophied.
Bimaxillary advance, indicated in people with small jaws or jaws. It is to advance the maxilla, mandible and the muscles of the tongue base. The objective of this technique is to leave enough space behind to prevent clogging when the patient is asleep.
Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty, technique that involves the removal of the soft palate, uvula the very thick in some patients and the base of the tongue.

And you, do you suffer any of the sleep disorders listed?