Breathless sleep

 

                                   
Sleep-disordered breathing is a condition where a person might wake up breathless from a deep sleep. This occurs when the air ways are blocked resulting in less blood oxygen levels. It is a nervous disorder that obstructers air flow through the trachea during sleep.  These obstructions in the wind pipe may occur due to various reasons like excess tissue around the air way, enlarged tonsils, extremely relaxed tongue and throat that might collapse in the air way reducing the air flow through the lungs. A person tend to wake up when blood oxygen drop to an extreme level. This condition is also known as sleep apnea. It more commonly occurs in men than in women.

There are two types of sleep disordered breathing, obstructive sleep apnea and central sleep apnea. Obstructive sleep apnea is a condition where the air passage is blocked, limiting the air flow causing snoring and central sleep apnea is a condition in which the entire air ways collapse as brain is unable to send proper signals to the muscles that control the air flow during the night and when this occurs a person tends to wake up for a gasp of air.

People suffering from this disorder tend to feel drowsy throughout the day. This disorder increases the risk of high blood pressure, stroke, obesity and heart failure as the brain stress hormones due to decrease in the blood oxygen levels in the body.  A family history of this disorder increases the risk of developing it. Physical exam and sleep studies are used to diagnose this disorder. Snoring, chocking and gasping are few symptoms to diagnose this disorder and symptoms while a person is awake might include headaches, mood swings, feeling drowsy during the day and a dry throat as soon as the person suffering from this disorder wakes up.

Usually changing lifestyle or behavior can be used to treat sleep disordered breathing and reducing some weight may also help in treating this disorder as most people who are being affected with this disorder are over weight. Breathing aids and oral machines and surgery are also used to treat this disorder. If sleep apnea goes untreated the risk of cardiac arrest might increase.