Sleep apnea is the most common sleep disorder and occurs when breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep. It affects between 20 and 40 percent of adults, can contribute to many diseases and can lead to serious outcomes, including the following:

Cardiovascular diseases
Increased insulin resistance in the body, making diabetes more difficult to control
Mood disorders
Stroke — Untreated sleep apnea is found in 80 percent of stroke patients.

Every time a person stops breathing, oxygen in the blood drops, and the person is headed towards death. So, all the internal mechanisms in the brain and body sound alarms in the brain to wake up the person. Amazingly, most people with sleep apnea have no idea that this is happening as many as 60 times per hour.

Cardiovascular Disease, Stroke and Sleep Apnea

When a person suddenly and unknowingly jolts awake, gasping for air, the heart rate goes up, blood pressure goes up and adrenalin floods the cardiovascular system. This damages the cardiovascular system over time.

Stroke is a vascular disease and sleep apnea is commonly indicated in people with vascular disease because of the constant attacks on the cardiovascular system during sleep.

It just so happens that instead of the heart being the location of a rupture with a stroke, it happens in the brain. Essentially a brain attack, stroke occurs when part of the body loses function due to a disruption of blood flow in the brain. Blockage from buildup in the arteries or a vessel in the brain bursts, and the affected area cannot get oxygen or nutrients. Symptoms of stroke range from paralysis and vision changes to difficulty speaking and severe headache.

Mood and Sleep Apnea

Usually mood is stabilized during sleep, especially during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. The amygdala portion of the brain is the “siren of the brain,” which is set off during times of distress. REM sleep can help silence this siren, allowing a curative for emotional experiences.

REM sleep is broken by sleep disorders, and sleep apnea is the most common one. Sufferers will keep waking up, even without realizing it, to breathe because without doing this, they will die. That means there is no stabilization of mood at night, so challenges during the day are more difficult to manage.

Symptoms of Sleep Apnea

In Adults

Mood: Irritability, lack of patience, anxiety disorders, major depression. Everything becomes more difficult.

Snoring: In adults, the most significant symptom is snoring. It doesn’t need to be frequent, loud or every night. Snoring means there is a narrowing of the airway during sleep and means the person may have sleep apnea.

Day-time Grogginess: Sufferers often do not feel refreshed after sleep, even if they have slept the recommended number of hours or more.

Day-time Sleepiness: People who suffer from sleep apnea do not sleep consistently through the night, so they often are sleepy during the day.

In Children

Learning: Children with sleep apnea often struggle in school and have difficulty learning.

Mood: Many struggle with behavioral problems and irritability.

Snoring: Snoring is common in children with sleep apnea. If a child snores at night, it’s important to share this information with the child’s family medicine doctor or pediatrician.

Causes of Sleep Apnea

Sleep apnea happens when there is a lack of control of the brain over the muscles in the throat during sleep. When this happens, the throat closes. This doesn’t manifest when awake, only when asleep, so while breathing is normal in the day, at night, mechanisms in the brain misfire.

There are three types of sleep apnea:

Obstructive sleep apnea is the most common form of the condition and occurs when throat muscles relax and close the airway.
Central sleep apnea happens when the brain fails to send appropriate signals to the muscles that control breathing.
Complex sleep apnea syndrome is also called treatment-emergent central sleep apnea. It happens when a person has both obstructive and central sleep apnea.

Treatment Options

Treatment options have come a long way. Treatment involves keeping the throat open at night, so there is no obstructive sleep apnea. If a patient is in the hospital under anesthesia, a tube can be inserted. Prior to the 1980s, sleep apnea was treated with tracheostomy, a procedure in which a hole is cut into the windpipe, so a tube can be inserted to bypass the area in the throat where sleep apnea happens.

In the 1980s, the CPAP was invented. An Australian doctor started using a smaller version of an air compressor to help keep the throat open. The CPAP machine is a silent air compressor. It generates air with pressure, opening the throat and keeping it open. This allows the patient to breath without any obstructions. It is now the preferred treatment option for sleep apnea.

However, dental devices that move the jaw forward, opening the airway, can be used in mild to moderate obstructive sleep apnea.

Schedule with WakeMed

If you have symptoms of sleep apnea, it’s important to schedule an appointment with your Primary Care physician. Your provider can refer you to a sleep specialist and order a sleep study in one of our WakeMed Sleep Centers.

If sufferers get sleep apnea under control, they decrease their risk for numerous diseases.

About Dr. Albert Santos

Dr. Alberto Santos is a physician with board certification in sleep medicine and neurology. He brings decades of experience in treating a broad range of sleep disorders and related neurological conditions – often in partnership with pulmonologists and other specialists. His specialties include the treatment and diagnosis of sleep disorders including sleep apnea, snoring, CPAP/BiPAP issues, REM behavior disorder, daytime sleepiness and restless leg syndrome. Dr. Santos has practiced in hospital and private practice settings both here in the US and in Brazil, where he was responsible for starting one of the first private sleep centers in the country. He joins WakeMed most recently from the Presbyterian Medical Group in Albuquerque, NM where he treated patients at the Presbyterian Sleep Disorders Center. Earlier in his career, he served as medical director for three Baylor, Scott & White Medical Center sleep labs in Plano, TX and also led the Polysomnography program at the Allied Health Department of the School of Health Sciences at the University of Texas at Brownsville/Texas Southmost College. In Brazil, he served as Chair of the Sleep Medicine Institute for several years. Dr. Santos enjoys partnering with his patients to develop the best plan of care through discussion and education. In his free time, Dr. Santos enjoys outdoor activities such as running, biking and skiing. He is fluent in English, Portuguese and Spanish.