Sunday, March 29, 2009

Sleep Apnea Symptoms Treatment

By Irene Mmari

A great many people suffer from a disorder called sleep apnea which interrupts your rest while you're in bed. While sleep apnea comes in a great many varieties, these in the main do not cause death but there are circumstances where it could cause challenging health problems and expose you to life threatening dangers. That's why it is of the utmost necessity to be administered a sleep apnea exam if you have an idea that you are putting up with this disorder.

Several methods are available for determining if you may be experiencing sleep apnea, and many people who suffer have a number of symptoms or may even have sleep apnea as a side effect. Some good examples of this are , weight gain, fatigue, and mental depression all of which may be caused by sleep problems, and they also might have dry mouth or a sudden panic attack upon waking up.

You may experience insomnia along with your sleep disorder but the only true way to discern whether or not your symptoms are caused by sleep apnea is to go to your physician and take a sleep apnea test. It is standard for the test to be administered at a center for sleep disorders but can be given in a doctor's office that have overnight facilities and diagnostic equipment.

The first thing to do is have a physical exam which consists of an examination of the throat, the nose, the uvula and the palate. There will also be a detailed recording an interview with questions showing the following subjects, sleep quality, patterns, disturbances and impressions. The next step is to keep you over night where a video record is made of how you slept.

The common test to record your sleep patterns is going to be a PSG which stands for a polysomnogram which comes in two varieties. The first type of test is carried out overnight and consists of supervising various activities such as your heart rate, your breathing pattern, your eye movement and also your brain activity.

The second type covers a home monitoring version of the test where a skilled technician attaches the proper electrodes and allows the patient to monitor their results at home through a polysomnograph. What they will be trying to discern when deciding whether the results of the test are good or bad is something called the RDI or the respiratory disturbance index.

Numerical terms express the number of abnormal events which disrupted your breathing over the entire test. The following values are usually used when judging whether or not a person has sleep apnea. If the number of captured events over the period of an hour is over twenty in number then the patient is usually recommended for treatment.

Occasionally, there are some added exams which may also be requested including a multiple sleep latency test that figures out how poorly you are actually sleeping. A normal person requires, on average, around 10 minutes to begin to fall asleep so those who fall straight into a deep sleep in under five minutes should get some intervention. There is also a strip test that may be used in front of the sleep apnea exam in order to determine if one is needed. - 16890

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