Obstructive sleep apnea affects quality of rest, but treatment is simple, effective

If you sleep all night but constantly feel sleepy or fatigued, it's possible that you're not getting the quality sleep you think you are.

"Sleep apnea is a condition where the soft tissues of the airway get closed off and cause oxygen level drops, and that causes you to have pauses in your breathing. Your sleep then is poor because you're not getting a good quality of sleep," says Lloyd Diamond, a respiratory therapist and registered sleep technician at Sleep Analysts in Cape Girardeau.

If you've been told that you stop breathing or gasp for air during sleep, Diamond says it's time to talk with your primary care doctor and possibly a sleep specialist.

Other short-term effects of sleep apnea include morning headaches, hypertension, and hyperactivity in children; long-term effects may include heart attack, stroke, loss of concentration, crankiness, falls in older adults and erectile dysfunction, says Cindy Neely, clinical specialist and registered sleep technologist at the Sleep Disorders Center of Saint Francis Medical Center, and Sandra Sneathen, also a registered sleep technologist there.

Snoring can also be a sign of sleep apnea, but not always.

"Snoring can be indicator, but a lot of people just snore, and they don't have the related oxygen level drops," says Diamond. "It's more of a nuisance affecting sleep."

He says one of the most common causes of sleep apnea is being overweight. When you're carrying extra weight, including in the neck area, it puts strain on the airway, he explains. This can affect your health for the worse, especially if you have other underlying conditions.

"It's very hard on the heart because as the oxygen level is dropping, it causes the brain to make the heart beat harder and beat faster," says Diamond. "If you have anything going on like high blood pressure or diabetes, it can make those conditions harder to treat and control if you have untreated sleep apnea."

Men and post-menopausal women are also at risk for sleep apnea, though really, anyone could have sleep apnea because of anatomical features, Neely and Sneathen say.

Sleep apnea is easy to treat with a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine, which has a mask attachment to wear while sleeping.

"The machine blows a continuous pressure of air to keep the airway open during the night and keep it from collapsing. That way you're able breathe normally and have deeper, more restorative sleep," says Diamond.

While the CPAP machine is the gold standard for sleep apnea treatment, some patients can't tolerate the machine or its accompanying mask. The machine does make noise as it runs, and the mask can be uncomfortable, especially for people who are claustrophobic. It may also be cumbersome when traveling.

That's where oral appliance therapy comes in. This option, offered by several local dentists, involves custom-made oral appliances that fit over the teeth and shift the lower jaw to allow maximum air flow while patients sleep, says Dr. Cody Bell of Jackson Dental.

"Obstructive sleep apnea is directly related to the upper airway, back of the throat and tongue," Bell explains. "Every time a patient comes into our office, we're looking at that area, and physicians may or may not be looking at that area as frequently."

Bell notes that many people go undiagnosed or untreated for sleep apnea, especially if they're not seeing a primary care provider on a regular basis. Since dentists are looking at the related areas anyway during dental work, the American Dental Association is encouraging dentists to screen patients for sleep apnea.

"We ask questions related to sleep quality in hopes of finding patients who are at high risk for sleep apnea, and we work with local sleep labs to get referrals for them to be evaluated if they do in fact have sleep apnea," says Bell.

Surgery is another option for people who have not had success with either a CPAP machine or oral appliance therapy, say Bell and Diamond. They add that most insurance plans will help cover or reimburse patients for a sleep study and treatment -- something that many people don't realize.