Sleep Apnea

Θεραπεια υπνικης απνοιας η απνοιας υπνου

roxalitou problem Sleep apnea is a serious sleep disorder that occurs when a person's breathing is interrupted during sleep, lasting more than 10 seconds.

Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSA) is considered to be the presence of a specific clinical symptomatology, along with the detection of a pathological number of episodes, particularly obstructive apnea and hypopneas.

This syndrome is also known as "Pickwick Syndrome".

Sleep apnea is a common disorder in which you have one or more pauses in breathing or shallow breaths while you sleep.

Breathing pauses can last from a few seconds to minutes. They may occur 5 times or more an hour. Typically, normal breathing then starts again, sometimes with a loud snort or choking sound.

Sleep apnea usually is a chronic condition that disrupts your sleep. When your breathing pauses or becomes shallow, you’ll often move out of deep sleep and into light sleep.

As a result the quality of your sleep is poor, which makes you tired during the day. Sleep apnea is a leading cause of excessive daytime sleepiness and the most common of all sleep disorders.

Types of sleep disorders

1. Sleep Apnea
Sleep apnea is when a person's breathing stops for several seconds during the night.

Types of sleep apnea

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA): It is caused by a blockage of the airway, usually when the soft tissue in the back of the throat collapses during sleep.
Central sleep apnea: In this type the airway is not blocked, but the brain fails to signal the muscles to breathe, due to instability in the respiratory control center.
Mixed: Apnea begins as Central & Continues as Obstructive.

2. Hypopnea
Hypopnea is a partial apnea event in which airflow from your lungs is reduced for at least 10 seconds. In other words, it manifests as a shallow breath that represents a decrease in your airflow. As breath size gets smaller, the levels of blood oxygen drops and the levels of carbon dioxide increase. In the end, the increasing effort required to breathe, along with the lack of oxygen and an increased level of carbon dioxide, causes the patient to awaken and gasp loudly for air.

3. Arousal
Arousal typically represents a shift from deep sleep, which is commonly known as REM sleep, to light sleep, known as NREM sleep, or from sleep to wakefulness. It is a sudden change in brain wave activity. It does not necessarily mean that the person has woken entirely, but could just mean a shift out of extremely deep sleep to a lighter sleep, from which it is easier to be woken up from.

Treatment of sleep apnea

All possible treatment options are detailed in the Treatment Options section of our website.

According to the latest new findings, it is worth mentioning that the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends oral appliances as a first-line treatment for the treatment of mild to moderate sleep apnea and snoring and for the most severe forms of the patients especially in those the treatment with CPAP failed.