Airway Disorders including Snoring, Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome and Obstructive Sleep Apnea are common in today’s society. However, all of them are not normal and can significantly impact your health and quality of life.
Snoring is noisy breathing during sleep. It is a common problem among all ages and both genders, and it affects approximately 90 million American adults — 37 million on a regular basis. Snoring may occur nightly or intermittently. Persons most at risk are males and those who are overweight, but snoring is a problem of both genders, although it is possible that women do not present with this complaint as frequently as men. Snoring usually becomes more serious as people age. It can cause disruptions to your own sleep and your bed-partner’s sleep. It can lead to fragmented and un-refreshing sleep which translates into poor daytime function (tiredness and sleepiness). The two most common adverse health effects that are believed to be casually linked to snoring are daytime dysfunction and heart disease. About one-half of people who snore loudly have obstructive sleep apnea.
The two most common sleep disorders are insomnia and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Insomnia is the inability to fall asleep or the drive to stay awake and OSA is cessation or slowed breathing at night that causes repeated awakening unknown to the patient. Contact our sleep disorder center in Delaware today!
3 things that you probably didn’t know are:
- Snoring is not normal, snoring itself has been linked to an increased risk for cardiovascular disease. Some studies show that snoring is 90% predictive of OSA but you don’t have to snore to have OSA.
- Mayo Clinic research recently showed that 91% of 942 patients who failed drug therapy for insomnia were found to have OSA
- Untreated OSA is linked to development of cancer, heart attack, stroke, diabetes, depression, obesity,