PATIENTS
AND FAMILIES
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Importance
of Sleep Apnea Syndrome
Sleep time makes up about one third of our lives.
Undisturbed sleep promotes health, lowers stress, increases productivity
and contributes significantly to quality of life. Unfortunately,
not everyone experiences all the benefits of a good night's sleep.
The magnitude of suffering as a result of sleep apnea is nearly
incomprehensible. Obstructive sleep
apnea syndrome (OSAS) deprives the sufferer of much-needed,
truly restful sleep. It affects an estimated 20 million Americans
and is associated with chronic diseases such as obesity, hypertension,
heart failure, stroke, sexual dysfunction, and depression.
Sleep fragmentation,
which results from OSAS can lead to excessive daytime sleepiness,
headaches, memory loss, difficulty concentrating, loss of productivity
and accidents. The diagnosis and treatment of OSAS is a growing
and vitally important field. Until medical providers learn to
recognize and respond to the seriousness of sleep disorders
the consequences of undiagnosed and untreated sleep apnea will
continue to be devastating.
What is Sleep Apnea?
Apnea is a medical term for "want of breath"
and refers to the cessation of breathing during sleep. Sleep
apnea affects all age groups in both men and women.
View
a graphic of airway obstruction
There are
two types of sleep apnea: obstructive and central. Obstructive
apnea, the most common, is caused by a collapse in the upper
airway during sleep. This collapse prevents airflow to the lungs
and results in a decrease in the oxygen content of the blood.
This reduces the oxygen delivery to vital organs such as the
brain and heart. The chronic lack of oxygen delivery to these
organs is thought to contribute to many of the observed symptoms
of OSAS.
Central
sleep apnea is less common. It is the absence of airflow caused
by a complete cessation of all respiratory effort to breathe.
Abnormalities of respiratory control in the brain can produce
central apnea. It can also be associated with cardiac disease,
but often the cause is unclear.
Learn more
about sleep apnea syndrome
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Symptoms
of OSAS
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Signs
of OSAS |
Chronic
snoring
Gasping or choking episodes during sleep
Observed apnea during sleep
Excessive daytime sleepiness
Fatigue-related automobile and occupational accidents
Unexplained personality or cognitive changes
Awakening with headaches
Nocturia
Impotence |
Obesity
Neck circumference:
>17 inches in males
>16 inches in females
Nasopharyngeal narrowing
Maxillo-mandibular anomalies
Adeno-tonsillar enlargement
Refractory or early-onset hypertension
Idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy
Pedal edema
Unexplained pulmonary hypertension
or right heart failure
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Why
Have a Study from Sleep Data?
Often snoring is regarded as humorous, rather than
as a serious medical problem. Denial of the problem is very
common. If you feel you or a family member or friend have sleep
apnea, please do something about it. Diagnosis of sleep apnea
begins with a thorough history and physical by your doctor.
Your primary care doctor is an ideal person to identify sleep
apnea and order a home-based sleep study. Completing an in-home
study is convenient, accurate, fast, and cost-effective. Once
your doctor makes a referral, Sleep Data will contact you to
schedule the sleep study. We will arrange to have the sleep
recorder delivered to and picked up from your home or office.
This will allow you to be studied under your normal sleeping
conditions in the privacy of your own home, rather than in an
unfamiliar setting. You will be shown how to use the recorder
for your testing and a technician will be on-call to assist
you if necessary. A bedside device will record respiratory parameters
throughout the night. These include breathing efforts, heart
rate, oxygen levels, snoring, and body position. The following
day the equipment will be returned to Sleep Data where it will
be analyzed by a trained sleep technician and a physician who
specializes in sleep disorders. The results will be given to
your doctor so proper treatment can be prescribed. Most medical
insurers cover home sleep studies. This testing can be performed
anywhere in the United States.
Sleep
Data performs sleep studies on infants and children too. The
home-based testing is ideal for this population as it can
be extremely traumatic for a child to undergo a hospital sleep
study.
To learn more about sleep in children visit
www.starsleep.nhlbi.nih.gov.
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