One of the biggest challenges we face at The Sleep Therapy Clinics is the fact that our patients don’t know they’re suffering from sleep apnoea … because they’re asleep. Far too often, patients joke “It doesn’t worry me – I’m asleep when it happens, ha ha.”
Little do they know…
As part of our ‘best practice’ treatment pathway, all our patients undergo a diagnostic sleep study (polysomnogram) to determine exactly what is happening while they’re asleep. The study monitors and records information such as the patient’s cardiac activity, brain activity, breathing patterns, blood oxygen levels, sleeping position, limb movement … and much more.
In many cases, people who thought they were simply suffering from an embarassing snoring condition find they are actually suffering from sleep apnoea. In severe cases, sleep apnoea sufferers stop breathing 30 or more times per HOUR, for AT LEAST 10 seconds each time. As you’ll see from the linked footage, below, the breathing stoppages often last much, much longer.
Each apnoeic event is concluded by a ‘micro arousal’, where the patient wakes momentarily as their body stirs them and makes them commence breathing again. The patient does not normally have recollection of these micro arousals the next morning. This explains why sufferers often say “I can’t understand why I’m so tired when I wake and during the day. I get 8 hours sleep each night.”
What they don’t realise is they’re NOT getting 8 full, un-interrupted hours of sleep. Instead, they’re getting 30 short sleeps per hour, or 240 short sleeps throughout their 8 hour night. No wonder they’re tired when they wake and throughout the day.
The following link is to footage which clearly demonstrates what sleep apnoea is all about. This footage is certainly an extreme case … but even milder cases are serious. You can find the footage at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8F3zPjh6QA
Bottom line: If you snore, wake feeling tired, feel drowsy during the day, or suffer from any of the conditions commonly linked with sleep disordered breathing (high blood pressure, acid reflux, type 2 diabetes, depression, low libido or AD/HD) then you really must get a sleep study done.
If you’re only suffering from snoring — that’s great! Snoring is only a mild form of SDB (sleep disordered breathing) and we can normally fix this easily and discreetly with oral appliance therapy (involving the custom fitting of a specialised dental device which sits comfortably inside the mouth and holds the lower jaw and connected tissue clear of the airway while the patient sleeps). If your condition is more serious, we are well equipped to help you with this, too, with a variety of excellent and professional treatments.
For more information, call us on 1800 00 9343 or visit our website at www.SleepTherapyClinic.com
