Sleep Apnea Symptoms Treatment
by: Irene Mmari on Sat, 28 Mar 2009 at: 12:43 PM Go to: Previous Article Next Article
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.
Insomnia may be a part of your sleep disorder but the best means to determine if your symptoms are induced by sleep apnea is to go to your physician and take a sleep apnea test. A sleep apnea test is usually given at a sleep disorder center but can also be administered at a hospital or doctor's office where the appropriate facilities and equipment are available.
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 kind 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 the technician simply connects the necessary electrodes and allows for more convenient monitoring of the patient at home through the standard PSG. What they will be trying to discern if deciding whether the results of the test are good or bad is a common measure called the respiratory disturbance index of RDI.
Numerical terms express the number of abnormal events which disrupted your breathing over the entire test. The following values are usually used if 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.
There are some additional examinations which could be called for like a multiple sleep latency examination which determines how much your lack of sleep is effecting you. A normal person requires, on average, roughly 10 minutes to fall into a restful sleep so individuals who can fall asleep in less than five minutes are usually recommended for treatment. A strip test can also be administered prior to the sleep apnea test to see of further testing is needed.
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