Sleep Apnea Treatments
Tonight, millions of people will be falling asleep only to wake up exhausted, irritable, and feeling just plain awful. If you are one of those suffering from a sleep breathing disorder, you’d be doing yourself a favour by looking at possible sleep apnea treatments.
Sleep should be something we look forward to every night, right? But if you have obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), sleeping could be your worst enemy. If you live in Brisbane, Australia and need to be properly tested for OSA, call us on
(07) 3708 3233
You are likely to have sleep apnea if you are overweight (even just a little), have a thick neck, over forty years of age, drink alcohol, smoke or have a deformed airway passage. Signs that you may be suffering from this condition include snoring and people telling you that you stop breathing when you fall asleep.
Sleep apnea is a very serious problem as it blocks the airway passage and causes the sleeper to stop breathing for several seconds. If you stop breathing during sleep, your brain receives a signal telling you to wake up (although you may not remember waking.) Because your brain senses that your body is in danger, you awaken several times a night trying to catch your breath. The more times this happens, the less oxygen you take in and the less rest you get. In the morning you awaken only to find that you feel like you’ve never slept at all.
Other symptoms of sleep apnea include choking/gasping while sleeping, morning headaches, and tiredness during the day, personality changes, memory impairment, poor concentration, poor judgment, mood swings, recent weight gain, polyurea, and impotence.
More and more health professionals would encourage you to seek help regarding sleep apnea treatments, as obstructive sleep apnea are linked to major health problems. Aside from tiredness and minor brain dysfunction, sleep apnea could lead to other problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart problems and stroke, dementia and Alzheimers Disease, and, in some severe cases, death.
Are There Sleep Apnea Treatments?
The idea behind obstructive sleep apnea treatments is to keep the airway open and prevent stoppages in breathing during sleep. Various methods used to alleviate obstructive sleep apnea include:
Behavioral Therapy, which should include avoiding alcohol and CNS depressants close to bedtime, weight reduction and sleep posture modification.
Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP), which is an immediate, effective noninvasive medical treatment to eliminate snoring and prevent OSA . The machine gently blows pressurized air through the nasal passage at a pressure high enough to prevent collapsing of the throat during sleep.
Oral appliances may be used to reposition the lower jaw and tongue, thus opening the throat to allow air to flow freely, while helping treat Sleep Apnea. There are various devices used to prevent the tongue from falling back over the airway.
Surgery such as Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP)
UPPP is a common type of surgery used to treat Sleep Apnea. It removes all the redundant tissue from the pharynx. Many people, however, feel it’s an invasive form of treatment, and after all that, find that the OSA may return.
Laser-assisted Uvulopalatoplasty (LAUP) is a procedure which is performed by a specialist in his/her office. It involves the use of a laser to remove a part of the soft palate, shorten the Uvula (the soft tissue that hangs from the roof of your mouth at the entrance to your throat) and remove excess tissue from the Pharynx.
Another relatively new procedure in the treatment of the sleep disorder sleep apnea is Radiofrequency Ablation (RFA), which makes use of radiofrequency energy to remove tissue from the Uvula, soft palate and tongue thereby helping treat sleep apnea.
If you want to know more about sleep apnea testing in your own home, visit us at www.sleepstudybrisbane.com.au or call our sleep technician at:
(07) 3708 3233
