Can You Die In Your Sleep From Sleep Apnea
There are people who die from sleep apnea, but it is often due to the complications resulting from the disorder itself rather than sleep apnea itself. The reason you may not die in your sleep from sleep apnea is that once the brain detects low oxygen blood levels from disrupted or paused breathing, it triggers the body to wake up. This opens the airways, and the person resumes breathing.
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Can Sleep Apnea Kill You A Look At What The Science Says
If youre reading this, you probably suspect that you or someone you love may have obstructive sleep apnea . You know sleep apnea symptoms can affect quality of life, but is it really all that serious?
The shocking truth is that research has shown untreated sleep apnea is linked to an increased risk of death from all causes. You may hear different answers about this because the question Can you die from sleep apnea? is not the same question as Can sleep apnea kill you?
Today well take a look at what science says about both questions, as well as what to look out for and when to talk to your doctor.
Can Sleep Apnea Kill You Is There A Risk
Sleeping is vital for good health. While we sleep, our body starts its healing process, and it helps us get ready for the next day. It is essential to have a full nights sleep however, few conditions like sleep apnea cause interruption in our sleeping cycles. Its a health disorder in which your breathing stops suddenly, and you wake up. Moreover, the condition repeats several times, interrupting your sleep. Can sleep apnea kill you? To know, read the following article that describes this disorder, its types, severity, and treatments. Remember that sleep apnea is a severe condition, and dont ignore it to face the consequences.
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The Health Risk Of Sleep Apnea:
As we already established, Sleep Apnea can and will cause several major health issues. They include:
High Blood Pressure:
Sleep Apnea has shown the capability of worsening high blood pressure due to the stress that it puts the body through as oxygen levels fluctuate and sleep is constantly disturbed.
The increased stress causes the body to release stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline into the bloodstream to increase concentration, reaction and strength.
This causes the body to retain sodium and lose potassium, causing a spike in blood pressure. The body constantly repeating this process time and time again throughout the night causes an inexorable increase in blood pressure.
Heart Disease and Chronic Risks:
Sleep Apnea increases the risk of recurrent heart attack, stroke and abnormal heartbeats, as it disrupts the bodys ability to take in oxygen and in turn hinders the brains effectiveness in controlling blood flow.
It is also associated with depression and memory issues like Alzheimers disease.
Diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome:
Diabetes is often connected to Sleep Apnea, with 80% of diabetic people having sleep apnea.
This can be explained due to how the lack of sleep that is caused by sleep apnea negatively affects the bodys rate of producing insulin, leading to Diabetes.
Metabolic Syndrome has consistently been linked to Sleep Apnea. You have metabolic syndrome if you have any 3 of the following conditions:
Memory Loss:
Daytime Sleepiness:
Increased Risk Of High Blood Pressure And Type 2 Diabetes
Studies show that the association between sleep apnea and high blood pressure or hypertension is very clear. The association between these two contribute to the changes in the body that are a risk factor for mortality.
However, these studies also show that high blood pressure is a so-called modifiable risk factor for high blood pressure in sleep apnea. The reason for that lies in the fact that it can be prevented through proper treatment.
The treatment options usually include CPAP therapy and significant weight loss. However, if left untreated, sleep apnea will not only progress into high blood pressure, but it will be the direct cause of cardiovascular complications and death due to heart failure or attack.
Other studies show that type 2 diabetes is prevalent in sleep apnea patients. The results of these studies imply that sleep apnea is directly associated with excessive weight and higher Body Mass Index, both of which are known to be associated with type 2 diabetes. If left untreated, the effect of sleep apnea on weight gain, physical weakness, and poor diet can directly result in type 2 diabetes, which has a rather high mortality rate.
The risk of death in type 2 diabetics younger than 55 is up to 40% higher than in older ones. Moreover, in the US alone this percentage amounts to 40,000 deaths among patients with type 2 diabetes.
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Symptoms Unnoticed By The Patient
There are numerous symptoms that may signal the presence of this sleep disorder. The majority of people affected by sleep apnea tends to snore chronically and loudly, but there may be short pauses in their snoring. Should a pause occur, the affected person may make a gasping or a choking sound before they start to snore again.
This makes it difficult for a person to identify the possible presence of sleep apnea in themselves. For this reason, it is advised that people become aware of the symptoms associated with sleep apnea and recognize these signs in their partners or family members while they are sleeping.
D Mechanical Determinants Of Upper Airway Patency
Mechanical determinants of airway caliber of the human pharynx in sleep are similar to those regulating caliber of any collapsible tube . Other well-known biological examples in respiratory physiology include intrathoracic airway collapse upon forced exhalation , collapse of pulmonary capillaries in the lung apex , and collapse of alae nase at high inspiratory flow rates . A Starling resistor model developed by Schwartz and colleagues consists of a collapsible tube with a sealed box interposed between two rigid segments . The critical closing pressure of the passive airway is defined as the pressure inside the airway at which the airway collapses. The pressure gradient during airflow through the system is defined by Pupstream Pcrit and remains independent of Pdownstream. Therefore, with increasing Pcrit, as the differential between Pupstream and Pcrit decreases, inspiratory airflow limitation will eventually develop, and when the Pus falls below Pcrit, complete airway occlusion occurs. Effective therapy for sleep apnea requires that the Pus to Pcrit pressure differential be widened, and this can be accomplished by either 1) an increase in Pus with appropriate amounts of CPAP applied at the airway opening, or 2) by decreasing Pcrit via either reducing the collapsing pressures on the airway or by augmenting active neuromuscular control of airway tone .
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When Does Sleep Apnea Become Serious
The severity of sleep apnea varies. It’s thought to be normal for pauses in breathing to occur up to five times per hour in adults and once per hour in children. These events may even occur as part of normal sleep-stage transitions.
If breathing disruptions occur more frequently, a sleep study may diagnose OSA. The following categories are used to classify sleep apnea based on the apnea-hypopnea index :
- Mild: 5-14 events per hour
- Moderate: 15-30 events per hour
- Severe: More than 30 events per hour
It is also important to recognize the degree of oxygen deprivation that occurs with these events. When oxygen levels fall below 90%, this is called hypoxemia.
In the setting of heart or lung disease, the oxygen levels may drop drastically with each apnea event. As a result, there can be greater stress placed on the body overnight. Chronic oxygen deprivation may lead to both short-term and long-term effects.
What Are The Health Risks Of Sleep Apnea
Can sleep apnea kill you? Yes, but rarely. However, it makes a person susceptible to a lot of health issues. Some of these health risks are what heightens the chances of death. We will discuss some common health risks associated with sleep apnea:
- Heart Issues
Heart failure and high blood pressure are likely to occur in individuals with sleep apnea because the cessation of breathing multiple times at night results in frequent sudden drops of oxygen levels in the blood. This raises blood pressure, stresses the cardiovascular system, and increases the risk of abnormal heartbeats, stroke, or a heart attack.
- Daytime Fatigue
Disrupted sleep will limit your bodys restorative ability from a rejuvenating sleep and make you feel tired, be irritable or have trouble focusing during the day.
- Type 2 Diabetes
Obesity and advanced age are the most common factors that can affect the metabolism of glucose when your body develops insulin resistance. Sleep apnea is also a risk factor for type 2 diabetes.
- Liver Problems
Sleep apnea puts you at a higher risk of abnormal liver tests such as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, which causes scarring.
- Metabolic Syndrome
Some experts suggest that individuals with MS may also have sleep apnea because of cardiovascular and metabolic complications such as high blood sugar and hypertension.
- Complications from Medication and Surgery
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Health Issues Caused By Sleep Apnea
Lack of quality sleep can seriously put your health at risk. Having untreated sleep apnea prevents you from getting a full nights sleep by waking you up hundreds of times a night even though you dont realize it.
Sleep apnea can lead to a slew of different health issues, such as: heart disease, diabetes, depression, high blood pressure, obesity, anxiety, and many others. Not to put too fine a point on it, but uncontrolled sleep apnea, over time, can lead to your death. Whether its a heart attack, stroke, or falling asleep at the wheel because youre not getting enough sleep, one way or another it will kill you.
A perfect example of this is former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who was 79 years old when he died in a hotel room in 2016. Scalia had numerous serious health problems, including heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and sleep apnea. When police searched his hotel room, they found his breathing apparatus which manages sleep apnea, but it was unplugged and not turned on.
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The most effective type of treatment for sleep apnea is use of a continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP, machine. These deliver air directly through the airway, ensuring that it remains open. Other treatment options include oral appliances or, in very severe cases, tissue removal or jaw surgery.
Rosen, Schwab and Surkin all emphasized that diagnosis and treatment of sleep apnea is crucial to ensuring heart health.
Patients with sleep apnea may have this disease for many, many years, and no one event, or no one night, puts them at risk, Rosen said. It is the accumulation of sleep disorder breathing, and the consequences that go with it, night after night, after a long period of time, that puts people at risk. Thats why treatment is so important.
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E Effects Of Hypoxia/reoxygenation Exposures On Wake Function
Activation of caspase-3 in motoneurons following exposure to intermittent hypoxia. Top left: DAB stained hypoglossal motoneurons with minimal cleaved caspase-3 . In contrast, even after 3 days of IH exposure, caspase is evident in the nucleus . Cleaved caspase-3 is persistently elevated across intermittent hypoxia at 4 wk and 6 mo , but little enters the nucleus, suggesting that the observed loss of neurons occurs largely through nonapoptotic means.
In summary, intermittent hypoxia, modeling oxygenation patterns of moderate-severe sleep apnea, injures select populations of neurons, including hippocampal, catecholaminergic wake-active, and hypoglossal and facial upper airway motoneurons. It is time to translate these findings to human studies, examining brain tissue from individuals with and without OSA who have died suddenly without a specific neurological diagnosis. As an initial exploration, a focus on the above groups is justified. In light of the mechanisms uncovered in wake and motor neurons, activation of these pathways should also be examined in humans to begin to identify promising therapeutic avenues for the prevention and possibly partial reversal of these injuries.
Risk Factors Of Sleep Apnea
Some people are more likely to develop sleep apnea than others. One risk factor of developing sleep apnea is being overweight. When you are overweight, the fatty tissues that exist around your respiratory system restricts air flow through your body as you sleep.
Next, if you frequently use intoxicants or smoke, muscle relaxation and throat irritation can block the airway and make it more difficult to breathe. Additionally, if you are of older age, muscle tone in the throat begins to weaken and lessen, thus making sleep apnea more possible due to potential airway collapse.
Lastly, if you have a family history of sleep apnea, you may be more likely to develop it. If you fall under one or more of these categories and are experiencing some of the signs or symptoms listed above, its essential you visit an orthodontist in Buffalo or physician who can help you with your possible condition, as it is potentially fatal.
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What Are The Signs Of Sleep Apnea
There are two kinds of sleep apnea: obstructive sleep apnea and central sleep apnea. Obstructive sleep apnea happens when air cant flow into or out of the nose or mouth, although youre trying to breathe. Central sleep apnea happens when the brain fails to send the right signals to your muscles to make you start breathing.
Sleep apnea may be noticed more by the bed partner than by the sleeper, says Jun. Your bed partner might notice that your breathing pauses, or they may complain of your loud snoring.
That said, snoring itselfthough annoyingisnt the same as sleep apnea. Snoring is just the vibration sound created by airway resistance. You can snore loudly and not have sleep apnea, and you may even have sleep apnea without much snoring.
People with sleep apnea might also suffer from unexplained fatigue and mood swings, because their breathing interruptions continually wake them and prevent them from settling into a deep, nourishing sleep.
The consequences can be significant, Jun says. We’re talking about car accidents in the daytime, lost productivity at work, mood swings, waking up feeling groggy and falling asleep in class.
Other sufferers might wake up with a dry mouth, since sleep apnea tends to make you breathe with an open mouth, drying out your saliva. Some awaken with a headache, which may be caused by low oxygen or high carbon dioxide levels during sleep.
How is Weight Control Linked to Sleep Apnea?
What Is Sleep Apnea
Sleep Apnea is a sleep condition where breathing is repeatedly obstructed, repeatedly stopping and starting during sleep due to snoring and airway obstruction.
There are two kinds of Sleep Apnea: Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Central Sleep Apnea , both of which are detrimental to health and if left untreated, can be fatal.
If you want more on Sleep Apnea, click here for an in-depth description about the sleep condition.
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Sleep Apnea Wreaks Havoc On Your Metabolism
Finding supports use of CPAP therapy for condition, so blood pressure and blood sugar levels don’t jump
HealthDay Reporter
THURSDAY, Sept. 7, 2017 — People who leave their sleep apnea untreated for just a short time may face a higher risk of spikes in blood sugar levels, stress hormones and blood pressure, a new study finds.
Even a few days of failing to treat sleep apnea can cause these levels to go up, researchers found. They say the findings support the ongoing use of continuous positive airway pressure devices to protect sleepers from airway closure due to sleep apnea.
“This is one of the first studies to show real-time effects of sleep apnea on metabolism during the night,” said study senior author Dr. Jonathan Jun, an assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.
An estimated 20 to 30 percent of adults have obstructive sleep apnea, which causes a person’s airway to close multiple times per hour during sleep.
Sleep apnea causes daytime sleepiness and can kill people with the condition. Researchers haven’t determined whether it’s directly responsible for diabetes and heart disease, which — along with obesity — are more common in those with the condition.
For the new study, Jun and his colleagues monitored 31 obese patients with an average age of 51 as they slept. Two-thirds were male, and most were white .
The study was published recently in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
What Are The Different Types Of Central Sleep Apnea
Central sleep apnea is divided into two categories, and each of the categories has its subtypes.
The first category we will walk you through is the hypoventilation type. In this type of central sleep apnea, the brain fails to effectively send signals to the respiratory muscle to initiate breathing. Often, carbon dioxide builds up in these cases. Hypoventilation-type of central sleep apnea includes the following subtypes:
- Narcotic-Induced Central Sleep Apnea: In this type of central sleep apnea, the use of narcotics, such as opioids, diminishes the brains ability to properly initiate and regulate breathing.
- Central Sleep Apnea Related to a Medical Condition: This type of central sleep apnea often occurs as a result of a stroke, tumor, or trauma affecting the brain. Typically, the brain stem, a part of the brain that helps control breathing, is affected.
Related Reading
- Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome : CCHS is a very rare genetic condition that most often affects newborns or very young children. There is a lack of signal to breathe during wakefulness and sleep
- Central Sleep Apnea Due to Neuromuscular Disease: Typically seen in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or multiple sclerosis, central sleep apnea emerges due to extreme weakness in the respiratory muscles.
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