Sleep apnea treatment equipment
If you’re experiencing sleep apnea, it’s important to seek out help. Once you’re able to breathe freely at night, you’ll be able to sleep through the night and feel rested in the morning. This will make it easier for you to deal with many of the day-to-day tasks that might be difficult when you’re exhausted, including:
- Concentrating at work
- Paying attention when driving
- Exercising
Making Treatment Work Night After Night
Treatment can take some getting used to. Here are some tips to help you and your partner make the most of your sleep apnea treatment.
- Your treatment may require some tweaking at first to find what’s most comfortable. For example, it may take a few tries to find the right CPAP mask, or adjust the humidifier in the CPAP machine. Likewise, mouthpieces might require some adjustments to find the right fit.
- Talk to your health care team if you’re having a difficult time using your sleep apnea treatment. For example, call your doctor if you’re experiencing any of the following:
- Fear of enclosed spaces that interferes with being able to use a mask
- Dryness in the nose or mouth
- Dryness, itching, or difficulty breathing through the nose
- Leaks around the mask that makes treatment ineffective
- Discomfort from mask straps
- Difficulty with CPAP noise disturbing your partner’s sleep
- Difficulty using CPAP when travelling
- Difficulty with CPAP disturbing your partner’s sleep
- Sore jaw after using a mouthpiece
- Still feeling tired even with treatment. This could be a sign of:
- Not wearing your mask enough hours on most nights
- An incorrect CPAP setting
- Another sleep disorder
Keep track of any improvements you notice after starting treatment. This may include having fewer:
- Episodes of waking up at night
- Morning headaches
Also pay attention to increases in energy and alertness during the day. Share any changes you’re experiencing with your doctor during follow-up appointments. Your treatment might need adjusting; sleep apnea treatment Saint John is the local page that matches this.
What Do the Symptoms Look Like?
Sleep apnea symptoms and breathing
Sleep apnea is a condition in which breathing is interrupted, reduced, or briefly stops many times during sleep. As a result, the brain briefly rouses the body from sleep to restore normal breathing. Often, the person being awakened doesn’t remember it. Over time, all of these disturbances of sleep can lead to a number of symptoms, including:
- Tiredness during the day despite spending an adequate amount of time in bed at night
- Trouble concentrating
- Irritability
- Choking, suffocating, or gasping for air during sleep
- Waking up with a dry mouth
- Headaches in the morning
- Trouble staying asleep
- Frequent urination during the night
- Loud snoring
Snoring is a common symptom of obstructive sleep apnea (keep https://www.nature.com/articles/sleep-apnea) open if you’re going to need the details), the most common type of sleep apnea. However, not everyone who snores has sleep apnea, and some people with sleep apnea don’t snore. Other forms of this condition are caused by problems with the part of the brain that controls breathing.
Alcohol and sedatives can also relax throat muscles and make breathing pauses more frequent. Consult your doctor or pharmacist about whether any nighttime medication might interfere with your condition, and refrain from drinking alcohol within several hours of going to bed as you’re fine-tuning your treatment.
What Happens During Diagnosis and Treatment?
Your doctor will discuss your medical history and sleep habits. He or she might ask about the following:
- Your symptoms
- Your sleep patterns
- Your everyday habits, including:
- When you go to bed
- Your bed-time rituals
- How much caffeine you consume
- Whether you take any medicines that can make you drowsy
- How often you’re awake during the night and how you sleep
To help your doctor understand your usual sleep patterns, keep a sleep diary for two weeks. Write down:
- When you go to bed
- When you get up
- How often you take naps and how long they last
- Your symptoms
- How much caffeine you’re having each day
In addition to reviewing your sleep diary, your doctor might refer you to a sleep centre to have a sleep study. During a sleep study, technicians monitor your breathing, oxygen levels, movements, and disturbances of sleep. Obstructive sleep apnea is the most common type of sleep apnea. With obstructive sleep apnea, muscles in the throat relax during sleep and narrow the airways that bring air into and out of the lungs.
Options for treating obstructive sleep apnea include:
- A device that keeps your airways open during sleep (continuous positive airway pressure, CPAP). This is the most common form of sleep apnea treatment.
- A custom-fitted oral device to keep your tongue and/or jaw in a particular position so your airways stay open during sleep.
- Sleeping on your side or in a particular position to keep your airways open.
- Treating a stuffy nose.
- Losing weight.
- In rare cases, you might be referred to a surgeon to explore surgical options.
An effective treatment balances the best medical choice with the most practical solution, one you’re comfortable with and will actually use.
