Sleep Apnea

Sleep Apnea Symptoms : Pause In Breathing During Sleep

Posted on 05. Dec, 2009 by admin in Do You Have Sleep Apnea ?

Everyone’s breathing is irregular at certain times during sleep. For example, your breathing may pause for a moment just as you fall asleep or as you awaken. During periods of dreaming, breathing tends to speed up and slow down in an irregular manner. These are all normal changes in breathing while asleep.

However, a person with sleep apnea frequently stops breathing entirely and may hold his breath for a surprisingly long time. Each of these periods during which breathing has stopped is called an apnea episode, or an apnea event. An apnea event may last from 10 seconds to more than a minute.

Sleep specialists measure sleep apnea in several ways. One is to count the number of apnea events during the night and measure how long they last. A person is considered to have signs of sleep apnea if he stops breathing for more than 10 seconds at a time and if this happens more than five times during an hour of sleep. This would be a very mild case of sleep apnea, but one that would bear watching to ensure that it did not become worse.

Apnea events do not happen just once or twice, but 5, 10, 20, or more times per hour. In some people, apnea may occur only while lying on the back or only during certain stages of sleep. In other people, it can continue all night in all positions.

By morning a person with sleep apnea may have experienced hundreds of fairly long periods of nonbreathing. One might think that a person would be aware of such a struggle to breathe during sleep. Some apnea patients do notice that they awaken briefly with a snort, particularly during naps or when they nod off in a sitting position. A few people with sleep apnea will wake up completely to breathe, but usually they don’t know why they have awakened. They are likely to describe their problem as “insomnia.”

However, most people with sleep apnea are unaware of having a sleep/breathing problem. Many have absolutely no complaints about their sleep. They believe they sleep “just fine,” and only wish their bedmate would stop bothering them about their snoring.

A tape recording of a person’s sleeping sounds can be useful for convincing both that person and his doctor that he suffers from a breathing disorder during sleep

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Tags: Pause In Breathing, Sleep Apnea Symptoms