Today, we are going to talk about severe sleep disorder, Sleep Apnea. There are many ways to fight this problem. We will discuss, specifically, air purifier for Sleep Apnea.
Humans are not machines. We work, get tired, take rest, and then work again. Good sleep is essential for our overall good performance. Many suffer from various sleep disorders.
The consequence is different for each one of us. Many continue living with it with or without knowing. There are many sleep disorders around the world. Today we are going to talk about Sleep Apnea, if and how an air purifier can help in this matter.
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SLEEP APNEA
Sleep apnea is a severe sleep disorder. Having sleep apnea means having interrupted breathing during sleep.
A person may have a pause in breathing, irregular breathing, that affects his/her health and day to day activities severely.
It is a common sleep disorder in the United States. Though this disorder can occur at any age, it commonly happens to older people. Usually, the percentage of people over 40 suffer from sleep apnea.
There are mainly two types of sleep apnea.
Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA): This usually happens when the airway is blocked for some reason. When the airway is blocked, natural breathing gets interrupted and that causes a pause in breathing. The airway could get blocked by a large tonsil, tongue, soft tissue breakdown in the back of the throat, etc. OSA is a very common type of sleep apnea.
Central Sleep Apnea (CSA): It is a rare type of sleep apnea. It happens due to the failure of brain signals reaching the muscles. The signal may reach late and that occurs pause in breathing.
SIGNS OF SLEEP APNEA
There are some common signs of sleep apnea, such as –
- Paused or reduced breathing
- Unusually loud snoring
- Air gasping
- Choking
SYMPTOMS OF SLEEP APNEA
The common symptoms are –
- Daytime tiredness, sleepiness, and fatigue
- Reduced attention, memory loss
- A decrease in various skills that requires full concentration
- Mouth dryness and bad headaches from waking up
- Reduced sexual urges and increased sexual dysfunction
CAUSES OF SLEEP APNEA
Sleep apnea is caused by many reasons. Overweight/Obesity is one of them. This is a serious health issue. Fat people usually have fatty tissue in the neck that can block the airway.
From 2019’s statistics according to Wikipedia, 40% of Americans are considered obese and 18% suffer from severe obesity.
Another cause is the Endocrine Disorder. The endocrine system produces hormones that can cause breathing problems. Hypothyroidism is an example of an endocrine disorder. This directly affects the part of the brain that deals with breathing.
Heart and kidney patients are more likely to have sleep apnea. In most cases, they have increased fluids in their neck that causes airway blockage.
Those who have nasal problems could also have sleep apnea. Sinus, allergies, deviated septum can cause sleep apnea.
Some people have a large-sized neck. This can block the airway due to extra muscle tissue in the area. This could be a genetic problem. Apart from this, genetic syndrome can also affect body structure such as the skull, face, large tongue, etc. This could also result in sleep apnea.
Premature birth is another reason behind sleep apnea. A mature time of birth for a baby is around 40 weeks. The babies delivered before 37 weeks have high risks of breathing problems.
Men are affected most by sleep apnea than women. A study suggests, male to female ratio of OSA is 2:1 or 3:1. If 2% of adult females are diagnosed with sleep apnea then it is 4% for the adult males.
EFFECTS OF SLEEP APNEA
Sleep apnea can have serious effects on a person. Most of the effects are deadly. The health issues caused by sleep apnea are –
- Heart disease like heart failure, heart attacks, irregular heartbeats, etc.
- Stroke
- High blood pressure
- Diabetes
- Asthma
- Cancers
- Chronic kidney disease
- Eye disorder
- Behavioral disorders like depression, ADHD, etc.
- Complications in pregnancy
DIAGNOSIS OF SLEEP APNEA
Sleep apnea is difficult to identify. Some signs and symptoms are very similar to other medical conditions. Sometimes patients don’t realize that they actually have sleeping problems.
The diagnosis for sleep apnea is based on a patient’s previous medical records, physical exams, sleep pattern studies, etc. If you want to diagnose yourself for sleep apnea, you might have to stay at a sleep center for a few days for extensive research. You might have to bring some equipment with you to your home where you could monetize and record the data.
TREATMENT OF SLEEP APNEA
At some point in your life, you have a chance to have sleep apnea. But you can prevent sleep apnea from happening or causing serious damage if you follow some rules.
A healthy lifestyle can help you prevent sleep apnea. To lead a healthy life, you might have to do some changes, such as –
- Follow scheduled sleep pattern.
- Sleep on the side instead of sleeping on your back or chest.
- Control eating habits and control your weight.
- Eat healthy foods that are good for hearts.
- Avoid alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking.
- Avoid taking sleeping medications
- Do physical exercises.
If you are having sleep apnea, there are few ways of treatment you could use. Though all of them are not useful to everyone, they work for most of the patients.
- There are breathing devices such as Automatic Positive Airway Pressure (APAP), Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) that are used to treat sleep apnea.
- There are mouthpieces, typically custom made medical devices to wear during sleep.
- Surgery to place implants can be very helpful for both OSA and CSA.
- Therapy to control mouth and facial muscles is another solution.
AIR PURIFIER FOR SLEEP APNEA
Apart from these ways, there is another way that could help you with sleep apnea. Yes, air purifiers can improve a patient’s condition and can also help to prevent this disorder. An air cleaner maintains indoor air quality.
Air purifiers filter, HEPA and carbon filters capture air pollutants like pet dander, pet hair, mold, dust mites, germs, etc. cleaning the air.
Air pollution is a strong cause of general breathing problems and sleep apnea. You can read this case study for more details.
To control the air quality, an air purifier is essential. There are many patients who have used an air purifier to prevent sleep apnea.
We are including some of the patient’s perspective on using air purifiers:
(click the link below to read the full content!)
REFERENCE
For solid medical facts, we researched these sources and prepared our article –
National Institutes of Health, Sleep Apnea
American Sleep Apnea Association
If you have anything to add to whether an air purifier is good or bad for sleep apnea, please submit your request here!
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