Archive for March, 2009

What is Sleep Apnea

Sleep apnea is a strange condition whereby the sufferer actually stops breathing during the night. Now this may sound startling and pretty scary but it is actually quite common. Everyone has the possibility of having sleep apnea.

There are three types of sleep apnea: Obstructive apnea, Central apnea, and Mixed apnea

• Obstructive apnea

  By far the most common occurrence is called ‘obstructive’ apnea. What happens is that during the night or when the sufferer is asleep, the air cannot enter or escape from the nose and mouth. This results in a sensation of choking which wakes the person up continuously. These episodes can often repeat as much as 50 times per hour. A person with obstructive apnea fails to get a good night’s rest because of these interruptions and as a result is effected by sleep deprivation, among other things.

• Central apnea

  Central apnea is much less common than its brother and happens when the brain fails to send the correct message to the muscles telling them to breathe.

• Mixed apnea

  Mixed apnea is a combination of obstructive and central apnea.

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Cardiac Arrythmias Are Often Accompanied By Sleep-Disordered Breathing (Medical News Today)

Breathing during sleep is often impaired in patients with atrial fibrillation. In the current edition of Deutsches Arzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2009; 106(10): 164 – 70), Thomas Bitter and his coauthors from the Ruhr University in Bochum investigate how often sleep-disordered breathing occurs in this form of cardiac arrythmia and what the different types are.

The authors used cardiorespiratory polygraphy to investigate whether 150 patients (110 men and 40 women) with atrial fibrillation suffered from sleep-disordered breathing. To avoid statistical bias, they only included patients with normal systolic left ventricular function. The mean age of the patients was around 65 years.
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Losing Money Is Leading To Losing sleep

Rob Anderson knows he’s going to soon be out of a job. He’s trying not to lose any sleep worrying about it.

Anderson, a 24-year-old Mays Landing resident, works the later shift at the Office Depot in Mays Landing. The local store is closing, but amidst closeout bargain signs and several empty shelves, Anderson has to keep working to pay his car and utility bills until he’s hired somewhere else.

Six or seven hours of sleep a night is the norm for Anderson. He attributes the lower amount of sleep to working the later shift, but that doesn’t mean he’s ignoring the fact he should be getting more sleep.

“Maybe I’m losing a little bit of sleep,” Anderson said. “There’s more of a chance that I don’t sleep.”

Many Americans aren’t getting enough sleep, and it seems to be due to stress over the troubled economy. That was the verdict from a National Sleep Foundation survey released earlier this month.

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A New Cure For Insomnia Involving Less Time In Bed

Wellington, Mar 15 : Can't get to sleep? Well, then stay up, say researchers at Auckland University who have discovered a potential breakthrough treatment for insomnia.

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Obesity Linked To Dangerous Sleep Apnea

Truck crashes are a significant public health hazard causing thousands of deaths and injuries each year, with driver fatigue and sleepiness being major causes. A new study has confirmed previous findings that obesity-driven testing strategies identify commercial truck drivers with a high likelihood of obstructive sleep apnea and suggests that mandating OSA screenings could reduce the risk of ...

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Simple Sleep Apnea Treatment

A simpler, less costly method of diagnosing and treating obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is as effective as the traditional protocol that relies on specialist physicians and sleep studies, according to Australian researchers.

People with OSA experience 20 to 30 or more breathing interruptions an hour while they sleep. The condition, which may affect as many as 20 million to 30 million American adults, can cause cardiovascular problems, hypertension and other health issues. Daytime drowsiness caused by OSA also increases the risk of traffic crashes and workplace accidents.

In a study of almost 200 people with moderate to severe OSA, the Australian team compared the simplified diagnosis and treatment approach, which uses experienced nurses, home ambulatory diagnosis and auto-titrating continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines, to the traditional approach.
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