Recognizing symptoms of sleep apnea – will it affect me?

What are the most common symptoms of sleep apnea and how do you recognize symptoms as early as possible? A helpful guide with lots of practical tips.

Sleep apnea is not always easy to spot:

  • The pauses in breathing often occur during sleep and those affected only feel symptoms such as tiredness or lack of energy the next day.
  • Even so, there are some clear signs that can indicate sleep apnea.

In this text you will learn more about the most common symptoms and read how to spot them as early as possible.

What is sleep apnea?

If complete respiratory arrest occurs more frequently during sleep, this is known as sleep apnea syndrome .

  • Because of the stopped breathing, those affected often wake up and are broken and unable to concentrate the next day.
  • It is estimated that more and more people are suffering from this condition. Around every 20th man and every 50th woman are affected.

The frequent pauses in breathing can have serious consequences. The sooner you notice sleep apnea, the better:

Recognizing sleep apnea – the most common symptoms

I have summarized the most common symptoms for you below.

If any apply to you, you should definitely see a doctor and get examined.

The snoring

Those affected often suffer from strong snoring noises, which are also very annoying for their partners.

Snoring is only interrupted by breathing pauses. The breaks are then ended with a violent sigh or snoring sound and the circle begins again.

However, not every snorer suffers from sleep apnea. Likewise, not every patient who has sleep apnea snores.

Reading tip: This expert guide on the subject of snoring .

Sweats

Night sweats is another symptom of sheep apnea.

Often there is also chills at night.

If you are bathed in sweat, you will get cold faster – the body’s immune system has to work hard.

Length of apnea

The length of the respite can vary widely, but averages 10 seconds to a minute.

sleep disorders

Once you stop breathing, it is common for you to be woken up from sleep.

This makes it difficult to really dive into the deep sleep phase and you wake up more easily because of the restless sleep .

Problems staying asleep or sleep disorders are part of everyday life for many of those affected. If you also suffer from it, watch your sleeping habits very carefully.

Exhaustion

If sleep is not restful during the night, you will be exhausted the next day. You have the typical feeling of constant tiredness and lack of energy.

Over the course of the day, so-called microsleep occurs frequently, in which one falls asleep for a few seconds. This can have serious consequences when driving a car.

Tip: Treat yourself to a short break regularly: Everything about power napping .

Lack of concentration

In addition to tiredness, there is also poor concentration. It is very difficult for those affected to concentrate on their work.

Lack of sleep has a particularly negative effect on the ability to think – especially students and workers in “thinking professions” should watch the decline in performance closely.

a headache

Over the course of the day, those affected often suffer from severe, mostly bilateral headaches. Painkillers are usually the only salvation.

 

dizziness

A slight dizziness may occur after getting up. Sometimes it gets stronger throughout the day and can lead to vomiting.

Dry mouth

Dry mouth and gingivitis often occur immediately after awakening.

Urge to urinate

An increased urge to urinate can occur during the night, which is referred to as nocturnal noctoria . You then usually have to get up several times during the night to go to the bathroom.

Memory problems

In addition to poor concentration, those affected often have problems remembering things. Many important things are then simply forgotten. This occurs more and more often, especially at an advanced age.

Mental disorders

Insufficient sleep can have serious health consequences.

  • During the night, our body regenerates itself and our brain processes everything we experienced the day before.
  • Chronic sleep deprivation not only causes physical limitations but also mental disorders.

Depression is particularly common. But worse diseases such as hallucinations, schizophrenia or mania are also increasing.

The longer daytime sleepiness persists, the more likely it is to have negative consequences.

Sexual disorders

Men often suffer from erectile dysfunction or impotence due to sleep apnea. In women it manifests itself as a decreased libido.

What are the consequences of sleep apnea for me?

Untreated sleep apnea brings many health risks with it – in addition to the symptoms mentioned above, other complaints can develop over time.

They don’t have to be caused by sleep apnea, but they can be an indication of it.

high blood pressure

One of the most common cardiovascular diseases is high blood pressure.

In medicine this is also referred to as silent death, because it is rarely discovered.

  • The symptoms are either not severe or they are mild enough that high blood pressure is not suspected.
  • High blood pressure causes organ and tissue damage throughout the body. If left untreated, the damage is fatal.

One of the common symptoms of high blood pressure is a headache.

Heart attack

There is also an increased risk of heart attacks. Usually, however, this is triggered by chronic high blood pressure (and not automatically by the breathing pauses in sleep apnea).

Obesity

The emotional fluctuations lead to an imbalance in the hormonal balance. The result can be obesity. Emotionally triggered feeding attacks are also a trigger for this.

Diabetes Mellitus Typ 2

Type 2 diabetes mellitus is usually triggered by being overweight, but also by stress.

stroke

As with heart attacks, strokes can occur more frequently. This can lead to paralysis and even death.

Sudden cardiac death

This occurs especially in young people. The heart just stops beating, usually during sleep.

depressions

Depression and other mental illnesses such as schizophrenia also occur as a result of the apone.

Ulcers

The stomach, mouth, or other ulcers can form and cause bleeding.

Tinnitus or numbness

These symptoms are also often caused by chronic stress.

Heart failure

Inadequate heartbeat performance leads to reduced blood flow to the body. The cause of this is usually chronic high blood pressure.

How is sleep apnea diagnosed?

If, based on the symptoms listed, you suspect you have what is known as obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS), you should go to your family doctor immediately and have yourself checked.

  • If sleep apnea is suspected, sleep diagnostic screening can be prescribed.
  • The screening usually has to be carried out by an experienced ENT doctor or pulmonologist.

During the examination, the doctor measures the respiratory rate and the oxygen saturation in the blood. Breathing sounds are also recorded and interpreted.

Often the recording takes place during sleep

In addition, the sleeping position and the movement of the chest during breathing are observed.

One speaks of a positive diagnosis if the person concerned has at least five sleep apneas per hour within a six hour sleep interval. These should be at least 10 seconds long.

However, sometimes the tests are not enough to make a clear diagnosis.

Then the doctor can refer you to a sleep laboratory where more tests will be done.

Tip: You can also monitor your sleep yourself and record pauses in breathing, for example, via the microphone of your mobile phone.

However , such snoring apps are not a substitute for professional diagnosis . Always see a doctor when in doubt (and it is best to take your sleep records with you).

Which factors can promote sleep apnea?

There are several risk factors that can lead to sleep apnea. Avoiding these increases your chances of not developing obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) immensely.

Conversely, you can of course also pay attention to which factors occur in you – and thus at least get a feeling for the probability of sleep apnea occurring.

Obesity

Obesity is a major risk factor for all kinds of diseases.

  • Too much body weight puts enormous strain on the chest when breathing, especially when sleeping.
  • The more weight presses on the airways, the higher the probability of breathing pauses.

One speaks of being slightly overweight if the BMI is higher than 25.

Obstruction of nasal breathing

Polyps and chronic rhinitis make nasal breathing difficult . An anatomical misalignment of the nasal septum wall can also lead to OSAS.

Enlarged tonsils

Inflamed tonsils in children impede nasal breathing immensely and make it almost impossible.

Relaxed throat muscles

Slack throat muscles are caused by genetic predisposition.

Alcohol consumption

Heavy and regular consumption of alcohol causes a disruption in the respiratory center in the brain.

 

Drugs

Drugs like ecstasy, heroin, cocaine and others also reduce the activity of the respiratory center.

Sleeping pills

Sedatives and sleeping pills decrease the breathing rate.

Malformations of the lower jaw

This is a congenital anatomical misalignment of the lower jaw.

Enlarged soft tissues

A tongue that is larger than average ( acromegaly ) causes severe breathing restrictions.

Genetic diseases

People with genetic diseases such as Marfan’s syndrome or trisomy 21 often also suffer from sleep apnea.

Life at great heights

The oxygen saturation of the air decreases with increasing altitude. In some people this results in OSAS.

Medicines for the respiratory tract

Some drugs taken chronically have OSAS as a side effect.

Idiopathisch

A genetic predisposition or a risk factor does not always have to be present in order to favor sleep apnea.

For many people, this occurs for no apparent reason. One then speaks of idiopathically triggered sleep apnea.

Improve your night’s sleep

On this page you will find numerous articles to help you sleep more healthily. Monitor your sleeping habits and follow a few simple rules.

 

All you need is some time to find out more about yourself and your sleep.

  1. Here I collect various tips on the subject of healthy sleeping in numerous articles .
  2. You can read more about problems during the night in the category sleep disorders .
  3. Here you can find the latest news from sleep research (with lots of practical tips).
  4. Last but not least, the right furnishing of your bedroom is also important for a good night’s sleep.

Start with the area that interests you most – all of them can help you sleep more relaxed.

Or even better: It is best to save this page so that you can always rummage through new guides and tips for healthier sleep.

I created Sleep Knowledge to share my interests and experiences on healthy sleeping with others. On this page I am therefore dealing with interesting questions about the optimal night’s sleep & everything else that goes with it.

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