Sleep Apnea is a sleep disorder that can affect you for a number of reasons. It not only badly affects your sleep and rest, but also causes a number of health issues that can prove to be quite dangerous. A patient suffering from sleep apnea disorder may not himself understand that he has the condition, unless a family member points it out.

What causes sleep apnea?

Most often than not, sleep apnea causes are related to physical reasons. You have sleep apnea disorder when the throat muscles become too relaxed and do not allow easy flow of air into your lungs. Your airway can be blocked during sleep for a number of reasons. It might also happen because the throat muscles and tongue becomes too relaxed during sleep.

Apnea also occurs when the tongue and tonsils are too large compared to the opening of your windpipe. Being overweight or obese is often a major cause of sleep apnea. This is because, the excess fat tissue in the body can thicken the wall of your windpipe and this causes the opening of the windpipe to narrow down and it becomes difficult for the air to enter into the lungs. Sleep apnea disorder is one of the major causes for snoring.

Nasal blockage or congestion may also be a cause for sleep apnea and this adds to the causes for snoring too. In addition, if you have a somewhat unique shaped head and the neck – especially if you are bony – it may cause you to have a smaller airway size in the mouth and throat area, thus causing apnea.

With age, the cases of sleep apnea may increase. This is because, with age, the brain’s ability to send signals to keep the throat muscles stiff during sleep decreases. This in turn makes it more likely that the airway will narrow down or collapse, making apnea a major concern.

In short, the cases can be listed as

• Obesity
• Age
• Unique shape and size of the head and throat
• Enlarged tonsils
• Relaxation of throat muscles

Central sleep apnea

Central Sleep Apnea (CSA) occurs when the brain does not send signal to breathe to the muscles vital for breathing. This usually occurs in infants or in adults with

• heart diseases
• cerebrovascular disease
• congenital diseases
• intake of certain medications
• in high altitudes

In both infants and adults, you can diagnose sleep apnea with the help of an overnight study or sleep monitoring in hospitals.

Things that you should know about sleep apnea

A case of sleep apnea can drastically change your life. It affects your ability to perform at home and at work and you will always feel tired and sleepy. This can turn so serious and damaging, that you can even be fired from work. So serious are the effects of sleep apnea disorder, that it is considered a Federal Social Security disability.

People who have been able to cure their sleep apnea disorder have been able to see an overall improvement in their health, like:

• control their blood pressure level
• lose weight
• improve their short term memory

Changing the position while you sleep, purchasing some over the counter nasal strips, losing weight and quitting smoking and drinking are some of the precautions that you must take to avoid the risk of getting the condition of sleep apnea.