Sleep Apnea A Dangerous Sleep Disorders

Those individuals who often suffer from sleep disorders like insomnia have great difficulties in falling and staying asleep. This will lead to reduce of concentration and slow reaction for the day causing low productivity in work or in school and slow alertness on things that often leads to accidents.

Research shows that 1 in every 3 adults suffer sleep disorders for some degree at some point of their life, most especially during times of stress.

Contrary on what we do when we are awake, our mind, when our body is at rest, is in more active phase. Sleep is very important to give our body rest and time to heal and bring back nutrients we have lost when we were awake. Research and studies in sleep labs have distinguished stages of sleep, these were determined by EEG or electroencephalogram, measuring the brain waves activity while an individual is asleep.

Stage 1
When we are awake but preparing to sleep, the EEG shows steady alpha waves. This means that our brain is working regularly like we were still awake. The moment we fall asleep, EEG will show theta brain waves. This stage of sleep is short and may cause us to hallucinate and fantasize on some images. Some individuals on this stage start to flow asleep, but yank awake when feeling the sensation of falling. This is a natural sensory experience of the body for this stage.

Stage 2
After about 20 minutes of staying asleep, goes into the second stage. This stage usually gives sleep rods, or bursting of short rhythmic but neutral activity as shown on EEG device. Unreasonable sleep-talking is highly possible in this stage.

Stage 3
Then we go to stage3 or deeper sleep, our body will start to lose consciousness about the surroundings.

Stage 4
Is when we are the deepest level of our sleep. This shows long delta waves at EEG. Most individuals go into this stage in just about 30 minutes of sleeping. Once on this stage, it will be hard to awaken anyone. Some children also make activities at this stage, like bed wetting, and sleep walking.

One of the most common sleep disorders which are widely spread all over the world is sleep apnea. This happens when our muscles at the tongue, soft palate and base of the throat starts to relax, allowing the passage of air to collapse, making a narrow way for the air to move in and out the lungs. Though this disorder is just temporary cessation of breathing when asleep, this can be a hint of health problems and which may cause more complications.

Though the chest may continue to move every time sleep disorder like sleep apnea happens, it allows no air and oxygen to flow in and out the lungs, decreasing oxygen level in the blood. When there’s not enough oxygen level in the blood, normally people with apnea briefly wakes to gasp for breath. This gasping of air will result to a loud uncontrollable noise we know as snort.

If left untreated, this sleeping disorder may lead to bigger health problems in the future, like cardiovascular failures which can really shorten the life of an individual. Effective treatments and medications for this are available in medical centers that have professionals specializing in sleep disorders.