Sleep Apnea is a condition that causes you to stop breathing several times while you sleep. To protect you when this happens, your brain wakes you up, just about enough so you can resume breathing again. As a result you don’t get the restful, healthy sleep your body needs.
If it goes untreated, Sleep Apnea can cause serious health complications. But if it’s diagnosed and managed with adherence to your prescribed treatment, it can be mitigated, and even avert the risk of more serious complications.
The most common symptoms of Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Central Sleep Apnea often overlap and can include:
Although Sleep Apnea can affect anyone, even children, some factors can increase risk:
As you sleep, your brain continually monitors your body’s functioning and adjusts your breathing, heart rate, blood pressure and more. With Sleep Apnea, low breathing (hypopnea) or the interruption of normal breathing (apnea) can cause your blood oxygen levels to drop. This triggers your brain to reflexively wake you up just enough to start breathing again and resume your sleep cycle.
When Sleep Apnea is severe, these interruptions occur more often. The severity of Sleep Apnea is gauged by an Apnea/Hypopnea Index (AHI) that measures the average number of hourly apnea or hypopnea events. Sleep Apnea is diagnosed through a Sleep Study and can be categorized as mild, moderate or severe.
Mild Sleep Apnea is characterized by an AHI of between 5 and 15 events per hour. Moderate Sleep Apnea indicates AHI of 15 to 29 events per hour. Severe Sleep Apnea is diagnosed by an AHI of over 30 events an hour.
The best way to diagnose Sleep Apnea and other sleep disorders is through a Sleep Study. Also known as Polysomnography, it is a comprehensive test that records your brain waves, the oxygen level in your blood, heart rate and breathing pattern, as well as eye and limb movements during sleep.
At Total Health, doctor may recommend you a sleep study if you have:
Total Health offers the sleep study at the convenience of your home. With a home Sleep Study you get to sleep in the comfort of your home and avoid traveling to an unfamiliar setting.
Once you are recommended for a sleep study, our technologist would visit your home in the evening to connect sleep device on your body. The device is worn overnight to monitor breathing, oxygen level, brain activity, cardiac activity and your body movement using simple sensors applied to the skin’s surface.
At the end of your study, you can return the equipment to our facility and results will be ready within 24-48 hours.
Book your sleep study today
