3 Health Problems That Can Disrupt Your Sleep

If you have a good restful sleep, you wake up refreshed, full of energy, glowing, and ready to take on the day full on.  However, if your sleep was less than perfect, you feel tired with dark circles under your eyes, sluggish with foggy brain, while you drink endless cups of coffee or tea just to keep your eyes opened and focused.  Snoring, sleep apnea, and restless leg syndrome (RLS) are three health conditions that can disrupt your sleep.  What are the causes of these health issues? How can you treat or manage them?

Snoring

When the flow of air from the mouth or nose to the lungs is disturbed during sleep due to a blockage or narrowing in the nose, mouth, or throat;  the tissues of the airway  starts to vibrate and knock against the back of the throat, resulting in a noise that can be gentle, noisy, croaky, harsh, throaty, or flapping. Snoring is not unusual as about 25% to 50% of men and about 25% to 30% of women snore routinely. 

Sometimes you’re not aware of your snoring. It’s your partner that informs you of your snoring and sleeping with your mouth open. When snoring disrupts you and your partner’s sleep, either or both of you may feel fatigued in the course of the day. 

Though snoring is often perceived as a nuisance that keeps us awake at night, the condition can develop into upper respiratory resistance syndrome and obstructive sleep apnea, a possibly grave sleep ailment in which you occasionally stop breathing during sleep. Consequentially it becomes crucial to see your doctor if you snore all the time.

Treatment: Lifestyle changes such as losing weight (if necessary) is one way of treating snoring. Also stop smoking, change sleeping habits, for instance sleeping on your side rather than your back, avoiding use of alcohol and sedatives before sleep. In a situation where nasal congestion is interrupting airflow, nasal dilators like nasal strips, decongestants, or nasal corticosteroid sprays may be used. Oral breathing devices, which push the tongue and jaw forward to improve airflow, may also be an option. If these treatments don’t help; continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) or surgery may be other options to try. 

Sleep Apnea

If you stop breathing, choke, or gasp during sleep, you may have a potentially serious condition called sleep apnea. Sleep apnea occurs when you regularly stop breathing for 10 seconds or longer during sleep. It can be mild, moderate, or severe, depending on the number of times in an hour that your breathing stops (apnea) or becomes very sluggish (hypopnea). Apnea episodes may occur between 5 to 50 times an hour.  This topic focuses on obstructive sleep apnea, which is also called OSA or simply sleep apnea. 

A blockage or narrowing of the airways in your nose, mouth, or throat generally causes OSA, which happens when the throat muscles and tongue relax during sleep and partially block the airway. It can also happen if you have bone deformities or larger than normal tissues in your nose, mouth, or throat. For example, if you have large tonsils, this may not be a problem when awake and standing, but when you lie down at night, your tonsils can push down on your airway, narrowing it and causing sleep apnea. Other factors that may cause sleep apnea include obesity, taking certain medicines or alcohol before bed, and sleeping on your back.

The main symptoms of sleep apnea are loud snoring, tossing and turning during sleep, waking up with a headache and feeling irritated and unrested. Also your slow or no breathing mean less oxygen in your blood, which over time can lead to serious health problems, like high blood pressure (hypertension), high blood pressure in your lungs (pulmonary hypertension), abnormal heart rate, heart failure, coronary artery disease (CAD), and stroke. Children who have sleep apnea nearly always snore, restless, have difficulty breathing and may not grow as quickly as they should for their age.

Treatment: It’s possible to treat mild sleep apnea on your own by losing weight, developing good sleep habits, and avoiding alcohol and certain medicines before bed. If you have moderate to severe sleep apnea, you may need to use a breathing device, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) that prevents your airway from closing during sleep. If CPAP doesn’t help surgery may be another option to consider.

Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS)

 

RLS produces an intense, often irresistible urge to move your legs because of unpleasant sensations such as tingling, prickling, pulling or crawling, usually while you are trying to sleep, thus interfering with your sleep which can lead to serious fatigue and poor functioning during the day.  The cause is unknown but may be genetically inherited, or may result from abnormal balances of iron in your blood and of the brain chemical dopamine. Conditions such as iron deficiency anaemia, kidney failure, pregnancy, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, and Parkinson’s disease may be linked with it, though most people who seek treatment don’t have one of these other conditions.

Treatment: Regular moderate exercise and stretching, avoiding smoking and caffeine may be all you need to relieve mild symptoms. When symptoms are more severe or make it hard to sleep, medicines often help.

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