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What you don’t know about snoring
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Do you snore? Does your spouse snore? Is the snoring loud? Is it very loud? If you snore how about addressing these questions?
If you do snore at night, during the day do you experience excessive daytime sleepiness? Do you get morning headaches? Is you sex drive decreased? Does your memory betray you now more frequently? Do you feel tired during the day? Do you not feel refreshed in the morning when you awaken? If you snore, do you have high blood pressure? Do you fall asleep when you go to the movies? Do you find it hard to stay awake when you drive for more than a half hour?
How big is your neck size? If you are a male is it more than 17 inches? If you are a female, is it more than 15 inches? If you have answered a lot of yeses to the above questions you may have obstructive sleep apnea. Obstructive sleep apnea means that you sleep is interrupted a significant number of times as you actually stop breathing for more than 10 seconds.
Some of you may have been diagnosed with this problem and have been to a sleep lab to confirm the diagnoses. The classic gold-line therapy for this condition is CPAP therapy. That means a face mask is strapped to your face and air is driven through the mask through a tube which is attached to a machine which produces the needed air pressure. Unfortunately, too many patients are CPAP intolerant which means that they do not like wearing the mask during sleep and therefore do not use it.
What do we know about sleep apnea?
95% of patients are undiagnosed.
25% of Americans complain of trouble falling asleep or of excessive sleepiness.
We sleep 25% less than our forefathers did.
Americans get 243 hours less sleep per year as compared to 1969.
13% of young adults age 18-29 complain of falling asleep at work.
51% report: Sleepiness interferes with work.
Statistically 40 million people complain of chronic sleep disturbance, 20-3- million have intermittent sleep problems.
100 million people fail to get a good night’s sleep each night.
Sleep disorders and deprivation and excessive sleepiness add $16 billion to healthcare costs.
Sleep disorders and deprivation and excessive daytime sleepiness result in $50 billion in lost productivity.
76,000 people are injured in sleep related car crashes- 1.550 related to drowsy driving.
There is a strong relationship to sleep apnea and bruxism. If you are a nighttime tooth grinder you are more likely to have sleep apnea.
For those who have been diagnose with sleep apnea and who cannot use the CPAP, there are dental appliances available (usually covered in part by insurance) which can be help to normalize breathing. The objective of sleep apnea therapy is to avoid depriving your brain and heart with needed oxygen for their function.
If you think that you might be a person who could have sleep apnea, we need to ask some questions and then refer you to the proper MD for the diagnostic authorization. Once the diagnosis is made, it is either the CPAP or a dental device. If loud snoring is causing difficulties amongst sleeping bed partners, maybe one or the other may have sleep apnea.
