Q: Why am I so sleepy all the time?

 

A: Do you happened to always feel tired or sleepy during daytime even after a long hour sleep last night, if so, you may be the suffering from Sleep disorder breathing (SDB), let’s find out more why you should concern about it.

 

• What is SDB?

• Common Symptoms

• Who is at risk?

• How to Diagnose?

• How to Treat?

• Why you shouldn’t ignore?

 

Q: What is SDB?

 

A: Sleep disorder breathing is referring to breathing disorder or breathing difficulty during sleep, SDB is an umbrella term for Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), Central Sleep Apnea (CSA), Mixed or complex Sleep Apnea, Cheyne Stroke Respiration, Noctunal Hypoventilation etc.

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    Sleep Disordered Breathing

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Q: Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA)

 

A: The most common Sleep disorder breathing that affecting millions of people (especially male), those suffer from OSA experience stop breathing due to airway obstruction for a minimum of 10 secs to more than a min, it repeats throughout the night which resulting in restless sleep which eventually affect daytime activities and health problem.

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Q: Central Sleep Apnea

 

A: Central Sleep Apnea is much less common and involves the brain, which causes lack of effort to breath during sleep, resulting in lack of oxygen due to low and insufficient ventilation. 

 

Q: Mixed or Complex Sleep Apnea

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A: Mixture of both Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) and Central Sleep Apnea (CSA) or Cheyne Stoke breathing pattern (CSR).

 

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Common Symptoms

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• Snoring
  - Extremely loud snoring that caused by the partial collapsed airway, snoring is the first sign of abnormal breathing, people with sleep apnea snores, but not everyone who snore suffer sleep apnea.
   

• Stop breathing or choking during sleep
  - Sleep apnea causes 90% of the airway collapsed that blocked up the airway, causes stop breathing that repeats throughout the night. A severe apneic episode can be over a min long.
   

• Experiencing Hypersomnia or Excessive daytime sleepiness
  - Poor sleep quality which causes by sleep apnea due to stop breathing event, which lead to daytime sleepiness that affect your concentrator, work performance, and other daytime activities.
   

• Experiencing restless sleep
  - Regular awaken by stop breathing, choking and frequent urination (Nocturia).
   

• Experiencing morning headache
  - Inadequate or poor quality sleep will increases the odd of morning headache and migraine due to micro awakening and lack of oxygen due to stop breathing event.
   

• Mood swings
  - Poor quality sleep will affect a person’s mood because of not getting a good rest. Tempered, anxiety, or even depression is common with people who suffer from Sleep apnea.
   

• Impaired concentration
  - Poor quality sleep resulting in reducing a person’s concentration during the daytime.
   

• Impotence
  - Research studies showed that men with sleep apnea also suffer from Erectile dysfunction, poor sleep quality reduce testosterone levels, resulting in poor erections and decreased libido.
   

• Nocturia (Frequent urination at night)
  - Nocturia defined as awakening from sleep to voluntarily urinate, this is a common symptom in Sleep apnea. Nocturia can be resolve once sleep apnea is treated.

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Who is at risk?

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• Obesity (BMI > 30)
  - The most common cause of OSA, obesity usually found more fat deposits in the upper respiratory tract which narrow the airway and muscle activity decreases in this region, leading to hypoxic (low oxygen) and apneic episodes, ultimately resulting in sleep apnea.
   

• Age > 40
  - Aging is common in older people, where is causes muscle tissue reduces its elasticity over time which resulting in muscle collapse during sleep.
   

• Family history of Sleep Apnea
  - Sleep apnea is heritable condition, which mean you will have higher risk if any of the family has sleep apnea, the inherits traits can be in the form of physical features such as obesity or anatomy abnormalities such as recess chin.
   

• Anatomy abnormalities
  - Recessed chin, narrow airway passage, small facial bone, enlarge tonsil and adenoid, can be the cause of Sleep apnea.
   

• Male gender
  - Men generally have higher risk in OSA compare to women.
   

• Smoker (excessive mucus production)
   

• Large Neck
   

• Use of Alcohol or sedative before bed
   

• Post-Menopausal Women

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