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A disorder known as sleep apnea occurs when there are recurring pauses in breathing while a person is sleeping. Your body will shake you awake so that it can get you to start breathing again if this occurs. Because of the many disruptions to your sleep, you are unable to get quality rest, and as a result, you wake up feeling more weary than usual.

However, sleep apnea’s effects extend well beyond just making you feel drowsy. When it goes untreated, it may increase a person’s chance of developing heart disease, diabetes, and other long-term health issues. Learn more about effects of sleep apnea.

During the course of the night, if your airway gets obstructed or collapses, you will have sleep apnea. It’s possible that as your breathing resumes, you’ll let out a piercing snort that will jolt you and anybody you share your bed with awake.

Sleep apnea has been connected to a number of different medical issues, including obesity and high blood pressure. These circumstances, when combined with a lack of sleep, may be detrimental to a wide variety of bodily functions and systems.

Related: How to Prevent Sleep Apnea

Mechanical breathing apparatus

Because it deprives your body of oxygen while you sleep, sleep apnea may make asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) symptoms much more severe (COPD). If you exercise more than normal, you can notice that it is harder to catch your breath or that it is more difficult to do the exercise.

Endocrine system

Insulin resistance is a disease in which the cells do not react as effectively to the hormone insulin. People who have sleep apnea have an increased risk of developing insulin resistance. If your cells aren’t able to take up insulin as effectively as they should be, your blood sugar level will increase, which puts you at risk for developing type 2 diabetes.

A cluster of heart disease risk factors known as metabolic syndrome has been linked to sleep apnea. These risk factors include high blood pressure, high levels of LDL cholesterol, high blood sugar levels, and a larger-than-normal waist circumference. Sleep apnea is one of the risk factors for metabolic syndrome.

Digestive system

If you suffer from sleep apnea, you have an increased risk of developing fatty liver disease, liver scarring, and liver enzyme levels that are much higher than usual.

Heartburn and other symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) may be made worse by obstructive sleep apnea, which can make it even more difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep.

The cardiovascular and circulatory systems respectively

Obesity and high blood pressure are also risk factors for sleep apnea, and both of these factors put additional burden on your heart. If you have apnea, you have a greater chance of having an irregular heart rhythm, such as atrial fibrillation, which may raise the likelihood that you will have a stroke. People who have sleep apnea also have an increased risk of developing heart failure.

Nervous system

Central sleep apnea is one of the subtypes of sleep apnea, and it is characterized by a disturbance in the signals that are sent to and from the brain to facilitate breathing. This particular kind of sleep apnea has also been linked to neurological symptoms such as tingling and numbness.

Biological process of reproduction

Your urge to have sexual activity may decrease if you suffer from sleep apnea. It may lead to erectile dysfunction in males and may damage a couple’s capacity to conceive children if they are male.

Various other systems

Other typical symptoms of sleep apnea include: morning dry mouth or sore throat, headache, difficulty focusing, irritability, and difficulty paying attention throughout the daytime.

Sleep apnea, cardiovascular risk and metabolism

According to Jun, a number of studies have shown a connection between sleep apnea and health issues such as type 2 diabetes, strokes, and heart attacks, as well as a decreased lifespan. Why is there a relationship here? For one reason, obesity is very frequent among those who have sleep apnea, and according to him, being obese significantly raises the risk of diabetes, stroke, and heart attack. According to Jun’s explanation, “obesity is the primary culprit behind both illnesses in the vast majority of instances.”

However, it is essential to keep in mind that not all people who have sleep apnea are overweight. Furthermore, data reveals an independent relationship between sleep apnea and diabetes. According to Jun, “Our laboratory and others have demonstrated that sleep apnea is connected with greater risks of diabetes, irrespective of weight. Sleep apnea may also raise blood sugar levels.”

Losing weight is one of the most important things that individuals who are overweight or obese can do to cure or prevent sleep apnea. People who tend to store fat in susceptible areas such as the neck, tongue, and upper abdomen are at an increased risk of developing sleep apnea. This weight causes the neck to become narrower and presses on the lungs, both of which contribute to airway collapse while the person is sleeping.

As people become older, women in particular should exercise caution. This alters over time, since premenopausal women have a tendency to put on weight in their hips and lower bodies rather than in their bellies as they get closer to menopause. A higher risk of sleep apnea is associated with the gradual accumulation of fat in parts of the body that are stereotypically associated with men, such as the stomach.

When a woman reaches menopause, her hormones begin to shift, and as a result, she may start to appear more like a man in terms of where she puts on weight. “After menopause, women start to catch up to males in the rates of apnea, so now is the time to pay attention to the hazards of sleep apnea,” Jun says. “It’s a time to be paying attention to the dangers of sleep apnea.”

Improve your health by properly diagnosing and treating sleep apnea.

It is essential to seek treatment for sleep apnea since the condition may have far-reaching effects on a person’s health if left untreated. Although there have been some high-profile fatalities associated to sleep apnea, such as the death of Judge Antonin Scalia, Jun maintains that the actual danger comes from damage done over time. This is because sleep apnea causes harm to the body over time.

According to a measuring method known as the apnea-hypopnea index, the severity of obstructive sleep apnea may vary anywhere from moderate to severe (AHI). The amount of times throughout the course of an hour’s sleep that you stop breathing is what the AHI takes into account.

Takeaway

There are a variety of treatments available for sleep apnea, which, if left untreated, may interrupt your sleep throughout the night and put you at increased risk for a number of dangerous disorders. During the time that you are asleep, treatments like continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) and oral appliances may assist in maintaining an adequate supply of oxygen in your lungs. If you’re overweight, losing weight may help improve your sleep apnea symptoms while also lowering your chance of developing heart disease.

Reduce the risk factors that are within your control to reduce your chance of getting sleep apnea. Some of the actions you can do are listed below:

Discuss with your doctor how you might attempt to reduce your risk factors or identify apnea early. Do you have a history of sleep apnea in your family? Do you suffer from a sleep apnea diagnosis-related medical problem, such as diabetes, heart disease, or hypertension? Do you need weight loss? Do you often snore during night? With your doctor, go through preventative measures you may take to reduce your chance of developing sleep apnea and ensure that you catch it early.
Consume a balanced diet. Pick heart-healthy foods, such as a range of fruits and vegetables. This may help you maintain a healthy weight and enhance your general health in addition to lowering your chance of sleep apnea.
Regular exercise. Even if you’re overweight or obese, being active may lower your chance for sleep apnea. Recent research from Massachusetts General Hospital found that regular exercise decreased the risk of obstructive sleep apnea by 10 to 31 percent regardless of participants’ body mass index. The study was published in the European Respiratory Journal in 2021 and followed 137,917 midlife and older adults for up to 18 years (BMI, a measure of weight compared with height).
Exercise may be beneficial by lowering fluid accumulation in the lower legs during the day, which might cause the fluid to rise in the body at night when individuals are laying down. It may also lower the risk of apnea by lowering insulin resistance.
Stop using tobacco. Smoking raises your chance of developing sleep apnea as well as a variety of other conditions and diseases, including as cancer and cardiovascular disease.
Avoid sleeping pills and depressants. Reduce your alcohol intake and stay away from drugs like sedatives and opioids that relax your muscles and block signals from your central nervous system. According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, refrain from using sleep aids for the same reasons.

Don’t sleep on your back.

To reduce the likelihood that your tongue and soft palate may collapse into your airway and obstruct the passage of oxygen, try sleeping on your side (with appropriate pillows if required).

Sleep apnea is really another word for snoring, right?

In no way. Snoring is that irritating sound that develops while you sleep when air flows through relaxed tissues in your throat. A person with sleep apnea has frequent starts and pauses in their breathing while they are asleep.

Although not everyone who snores has sleep apnea, many people with the condition do snore often and loudly. Men are more likely than women to get sleep apnea, which affects one in five individuals.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), the most prevalent kind, occurs when excess weight on the upper chest and neck blocks the airway. Central sleep apnea (CSA), a less frequent kind, occurs when the brain fails to regularly transmit signals to the diaphragm to contract and expand. Brain stem stroke and CSA have been linked.

Why does this matter so much?

Because weight overwhelms the muscles that keep the upper airway open during sleep, it becomes challenging for patients with OSA to maintain it open. There is a delay in breathing every time the airway shuts while you sleep; this may happen five to thirty times an hour or more, and it might cause you to wake up unexpectedly gasping for air.

When the air supply is cut off, the body produces stress hormones, which over time may cause high blood pressure, stroke, and heart disease—the #1 killer in the US. Additionally, it may raise the risk of metabolic syndrome, liver issues, and type 2 diabetes.

Experts think it may be a part of a vicious cycle in which the lack of sleep it causes might create greater obesity, which in turn can make the problem worse. It is also linked to obesity.

Who is at risk?

Overweight people are particularly susceptible to OSA because fat deposits in the upper airway might eventually cause the muscles there to lose tone, obstructing breathing. The same goes for those who have larger necks, narrower throats, or bigger tonsils or adenoids.

Sleep apnea affects older persons far more often than younger ones, and it is more common in males than in women. Additionally, those who smoke, drink, or have a history of sleep apnea may be at higher risk.

What signals are there?

Other than loud snoring and abruptly stopping breathing or gasping for oxygen while you sleep (which is clearly witnessed by someone else), symptoms may resemble those of any sleep disorder:

Dry mouth upon awakening
Morning headaches
Trouble falling asleep or being too sleepy
Irritability or difficulty concentrating when awake

How can I be certain?

Your doctor can assess your symptoms, but a sleep expert may be required to do tests, such as nocturnal breathing monitoring, in order to diagnose your illness and establish its severity.

Your doctor can keep an eye on your heart, lungs, brain, and other movements as you sleep with a test called polysomnography. This research aids in the exclusion of other sleep disorders such narcolepsy and restless legs syndrome.

What is done about it?

Your doctor can suggest tools, therapies, or even surgery to help open the airway in moderate to severe instances.

Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), in which a machine distributes constant air pressure via a mask into the nose or mouth, as well as mouthpieces designed to keep the throat open, are common treatments.

Your doctor may recommend lifestyle adjustments if you have a mild case and are having trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, such as:

Engage in regular physical exercise but avoid doing so immediately before bed since this may cause your adrenaline to spike and keep you awake.
Limit your daily alcohol intake to one drink for women and two for men; drinking too much alcohol makes it difficult to fall asleep.
Steer clear of caffeine before bed.
Establish a pre-bedtime ritual, such as a warm bath, dimmer lighting, or herbal tea.

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