What are the risks involved with sleep apnea and why are they important?

Abstract

The paper aims to identify the various forms of risks that a patient of sleep apnea is exposing and the importance of each risk involved. Sleep Apnea is a most common disorder of sleepiness among the people of all age groups, both male and female. It occurs due to repeated deterrence of breathing while sleep for a short period of time ranges from 5 minutes to half n hour. In most cases, a patient is having sleep apnea, if he snores while sleep and feel tired and sleepy even after longer hours of sleep. The risks of sleep apnea are fully documented by the medical science today. Some of common among them are the high blood pressure, heart attack, strokes, diabetes and the like. Further, it is reported in various studies that patients of the sleep apnea are at continuous risk of contracting various forms of work-related and driving accident cases.Table of Contents

Abstractii

Introduction1

Discussion2

Risks Involved in Sleep Apnea2

Traffic Accidents2

Strokes and Death3

Heart failures3

Blood pressure and Hypertension3

Diabetes4

Conclusion4

References6

What are the risks involved with sleep apnea and why are they important?

Introduction

The word apnea in common terminology means “without sleep”. Sleep apnea can be defined as the continuous blockage of breathing during sleep. The period of blockage can range from a minute to an hour. It can affect the quality of sleep, and a person usually feels tired during the day time. It is commonly found in both men and women and also occurs in small children who are usually encountered with their enlarged tonsils. The prevalence of sleep apnea is higher among men than women and mostly American-African and Hispanic people are victims (American sleep apnea association, 2011, www.sleepapnea.org). Often, sleep apnea is linked with snoring however it is not necessary that every person who snores is also having breathing blocks in sleep. Sleep apnea can cause number of risks from strokes, heart attacks, tiredness during daytime which can cause serious medical and health problems even causing his/her death.

It is important to classify the different types of sleep apnea that occur in patients for better understanding the issue and comprehend the risks. There are two types: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and Central sleep apnea (CSA). Obstructive sleep apnea can be defined as the state in sleep where a person breathing muscles got relax. It is mostly commonly found among the people. Overweight and small children are mostly encountered with this type of sleep apnea. The prevalence of OSA in American citizen ranges from 2 to 4% and is higher among men than women (Young et al., 1993). Various risks of OSA among patients are reported in the different past studies like poor cognitive abilities (Mitler, 1993), psychomotor impairment - a state where a person's muscular coordination weakens (Kim et al. 1997) and increased risk of accidents on roads (American Thoracic Society, 1994).

Central sleep apnea is another form of sleep apnea where a brain does not properly send messages to breathing muscles, resulting in person ...