Sleep apnea is the end result of a clash between normal body functioning and anatomy, aided by gravity and the effects of aging. Prompt treatment could prevent multiple medical complications and improve health while reducing the cost of healthcare.

YOU SNOOZE, YOU LOSE YOU SNORE, YOU COULD DIE

A concise, life-saving book for sleep apnea victimsBy EVARISTO P. BADIOLA

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2011 EVARISTO P. BADIOLA, M.D.
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4670-2781-6

Contents

I. Why do we sleep?.......................................................................1II. So, you think snoring is normal.......................................................5III. What is normal sleep?................................................................9IV. What happens during abnormal sleep....................................................25V. Occupational and legal consequences of sleep apnea.....................................35VI. Types of sleep apnea..................................................................39VII. Diagnosis of sleep apnea.............................................................43VIII. Women who snore.....................................................................49IX. Other treatments for sleep apnea......................................................53X. Quality of life after sleep apnea treatment............................................57XI. Impact of sleep apnea treatment on the overall cost of healthcare.....................63

Chapter One

Why do we sleep?

Before we address this question, we need to accept the fact that the human race is part of a bigger warm-blooded species called mammals. All mammals sleep, whether it is a matter of several minutes to hours or even weeks or months. An example is the bear that hibernates during the winter months.

We all need to sleep for lots of reasons. There are external cues in the environment such as the transition from dusk to dawn that makes people start yawning and get ready to sleep. Then, our brains begin to pick up the cue and start secreting hormones or neurotransmitters that make us feel sleepy in preparation for a whole night's sleep.

The question is: why do we sleep? It is not really hard to guess. We need to sleep as a way of recharging and energizing our bodies in order to get ready for the next day. It's like having to plug in a rechargeable battery. This analogy is actually too simplistic.

We need to sleep because we have to. Refusal to sleep is like defying nature. Unfortunately, we do this all the time. That is why we have cities that never sleep like New York, Las Vegas, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles, and so forth. A lot of us are in a so-called rat race and somebody has to work the midnight shift or our economy could grind into our sudden stop. Thus, we have air traffic controllers, night shift workers such as doctors in emergency rooms, nurses doing graveyard shifts, etc. What do this people do after work? Sleep of course. Otherwise if we don't sleep for days or hours, we could become "zombies" or worse, psychotic. As you know, up to this very day, thousands of sleep deprivation studies have been and are still being performed all over the world. Somehow, the experiments invariably arrive at the same conclusion: lack of sleep for several hundreds of hours has made even normal subjects become delusional and paranoid, experience frightening auditory hallucinations, become dull-headed with significant cognitive impairment as well as demonstrate slurred speech. Laboratory animals deprived of sleep eventually died due to lowered immunity with subsequent overwhelming infections plus total cardiovascular collapse. Hopefully, this answers the question about the need for sleep for now. There is more about sleep in the next two chapters.

Chapter Two

So, you think snoring is normal

Let us switch gears for a moment and consider the question: is snoring normal? Isn't it interesting to note that whenever we hear the word snoring, a lot of us chuckle and smile as if snoring is outrageously funny?. Indeed, it does really sound funny. Some people describe the sound of snoring in various ways. Women often snore like a cat purring while men snore like screaming lions. There are also others whose snoring sounds like a steam locomotive with whistling at the end of its cycle. Some men snore like a NASCAR or Formula One car followed by a screeching halt. At this time, they are actually gasping for breath or snorting like a hog before it is slaughtered. Morbidly funny but true, isn't it? We also have heard of reports of wives of snorers complaining of deafness in one ear usually on the side of the snorer. It is true that snoring has actually broken up marriages and has proven itself to be a killer of sex life. So now, you still think that snoring is normal? I don't think so, as you may all know by now.

Snoring is actually the result of the flapping and or vibration of the tissue close to the root of the tongue as a result of partial airway obstruction. Due to a peculiar anatomical construction of the pharynx, the jaw, and the root of the tongue, men and/or women with short necks, small mandibles and oversized tonsils, uvula, and para tonsilar tissues are quite vulnerable to partial upper airway obstruction which we simply call snoring. Don't forget that people with nasal allergy and /or deviated nasal septum snore even more. You may ask how does snoring lead to sleep apnea? Simple. As we get older and the root of the tongue gets heavier and more flabby, this structure aided by gravity begins to close in on the upper airway and lead to complete blockade and thus we have sleep apnea.

Let's go back to the funny part of snoring. A lot of us become pleasantly annoyed when we hear or see someone snore. Often, we would rather leave him alone while he snores his life away. What if he or she stops breathing? For fear of the poor snorer dying suddenly, the suffering spouse would often elbow him to wake him up and make him breathe again. Single men or women who snore don't have that luxury of having the so-called bruised rib syndrome. So what happens? Either their brain wakes them up or they die in their sleep!

Chapter Three

What is normal sleep?

Normal sleep is free, unobstructed sleep. That means that while we are in this temporary state of unconsciousness called sleep, we should breathe freely: no obstruction, no snoring. Not only that. The length and quality of sleep are equally important. Sleep is both a function OF and FOR the brain. Let me clarify this. The brain is more than just a computer. It is a complicated but living piece of machinery that controls our thinking as well as our emotions. The reason why sleep is a function of the brain is because it is the brain that actually controls the need as well as the mechanics of sleep. The brain appears to be a bag of soft and fragile-looking tissue protected by a thick skull and placed right on top of our body. It consists of billions of overlapping and highly integrated neurons with specific functions one of which is the creation and control of the process we call sleep. In turn, sleep helps the brain (as well as our body) recharge and rejuvenate itself. As you know, we spend one third of our lives sleeping. It is then hard to underestimate the importance of sleep.

We have defined what normal sleep is but we also need to understand what happens during normal sleep by looking at EEG or brainwave patterns. Before, the early sleep researchers used to classify sleep stages: as alert wakefulness with predominance of beta waves which are usually low amplitude but fast waves, alpha waves which are present when a person is relaxed and drowsy with eyes closed, stage I with...