The Symptoms Of Sleep Apnea Can Be Hard To Recognize

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The Symptoms Of Sleep Apnea Can Be Hard To Recognize

Friday, September 19th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed

Sleep apnea symptoms are most commonly observed in men overweight men above the age of forty although they can appear at any age in both women and men and are being seen more and more in children.

The most obvious symptom of sleep apnea (which is merely one of many commonly seen sleep disorders) is snoring which is hard to spot by yourself and normally has to be pointed out to you by a sleeping partner. There are however many reasons for snoring and the mere fact that you snore is not in itself an indication that you have sleep apnea. It is a fact however that most sleep apnea sufferers snore.

The second clear symptom of sleep apnea is undue daytime tiredness. Sleep apnea sufferers stop breathing frequently while sleeping and the body’s natural reaction is to awaken you enough for you to start breathing again, but not sufficiently for you to be conscious of the fact that you are being aroused. This means that your sleep is constantly interrupted and thus very light so that you are not getting the deep sleep which your body needs. As a result you grow increasingly tired during the day.

If the condition is left untreated the effects of sleep apnea begin to emerge and you will begin to experience additional symptoms which could include headaches (especially first thing in the morning), irritability and even depression. You could also find that you are starting to gain weight.

A further not quite so obvious sign of sleep apnea is a rise in blood pressure which can lead to several cardiovascular problems. If you are one of the increasing number of people who are starting to monitor their blood pressure regularly at home then you should detect this quite easily but, otherwise, it will not be found unless and until you visit the doctor’s office to have a routine physical examination.

One further symptom is that of learning difficulties and growing problems with memory retention. This is once again not something that it is easy for you to notice yourself but other people might well notice that you are not as fast on the uptake as you used to be.

Finally, a number of sleep apnea sufferers will notice a drop in sexual function that can eventually result in impotency.

Each of these symptoms by themselves could be indicative of just about any problem you care to mention. When you start to notice these symptoms appearing together however then there is a better than even chance that you are suffering from sleep apnea and you need to consult your doctor and consider being tested for sleep apnea.

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