When a person is diagnosed with sleep apnea, there is a typical candidate that comes to mind -- someone that is overweight. Why is that? What is the underlying correlation between sleep apnea and obesity?

Lisa Shives, M.D., and founder of Northshore Sleep Medicine in Illinois, recently wrote on CNN Health, “Sleep deprivation due to poor sleep or too little sleep can cause hormonal havoc that leads to weight gain. For example, when research subjects were allowed to sleep for only four hours per night, the hormones that control appetite got all out of whack. Letpin, which acts on the brain to make people feel full, was abnormally decreased and ghrelin, which makes people hungry, was unusually high.”

Leptin, a Greek word for thin, is a hormone that plays a key role in regulating energy intake and energy expenditure, including appetite and metabolism. When the body does not produce enough Leptin, the body will never feel satisfied after a meal. On the other hand, ghrelin is a hormone that stimulates your appetite, and tells your body that you are hungry.

The vicious cycle of untreated sleep apnea and weight gain is a never ending, dangerous spiral. Even with logging in the proper number of sleep hours at night, sleep apnea suffers wake up numerous times throughout the evening.  Unfortunately, they never engage in the deeper levels of sleep, like REM and Delta stages, where proper rest is attained.

When people with sleep apnea go through their day feeling fatigued and drained, they are less inclined to exercise and/or make healthy nutritional choices because they feel limited by their lack of energy. Unfortunately, in this exhausted state, additional weight is gained, which can increase the severity of the sleep apnea and result in even more stressful, restless nights. People wake up feeling more exhausted than before and the weight gain continues.

Unless sleep apnea is treated and controlled, this cycle will continue throughout the lives of sleep apnea patients. If you or a loved one is struggling with this vicious cycle, please visit www.sleeptest.com for a free sleep evaluation.  From there, your information will be passed directly to us. 

Do you or someone you know snore?  According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), nearly 50% of all Americans snore. Snoring is created by the vibration of the pharyngeal soft tissues as air passes through an airway that is too small to allow for smooth unimpeded flow.  Did you know that snoring is the number one symptom of a lethal disease called sleep apnea?  To give you a better understanding of the term, “apnea” comes from the Greek word meaning “without breath.”

Sleep apnea is a serious condition that should not be ignored.  This disease actually causes you to wake up numerous times an hour while you sleep. More specifically, obstructed sleep apnea, (OSA) is a situation in which the entire upper airway is blocked, causing airflow to stop.  Ask someone to observe you while you sleep.  They will notice shallow breathing and possibly even pauses while you sleep.  This may look disturbing.  The breathing interruptions can last anywhere from a few seconds to a couple of minutes, per breathing episode.  This causes the individual to get restless sleep and feel extremely fatigued during the day.  

What makes sleep apnea so dangerous?  Many individuals have sleep apnea and have no clue that they suffer from it.  Untreated sleep apnea increases the chances of heart attack, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and even sudden death by 46%!  According to the Center for Disease Control, (CDC), 20% of the U.S. population will have sleep apnea by 2012.  Even more staggering, 90% of the population will go undiagnosed.  If you or your sleep partner suspects that you may have sleep apnea, please contact our office immediately. 

Snoring is no longer a laughing matter. Since snoring may be a symptom of sleep apnea, it should be taken very seriously and therefore consider treatment without hesitation.