How sleep apnea affects everyday life

• Posted on 18 June 2018
• By Oxigo
• 0

In this article you can read how this mainly happens.

Insomnia

Sleep apnea mainly causes insomnia. People suffering from sleep apnea can wake up in the middle of the night because they are unable to breathe. You might have a hard time falling back to sleep, or it might prevent you from getting into the deep stages of sleep. During the night, you need to be able to reach the REM stage of sleep and remain there for enough time to get a good night’s rest. It might be, when you are suffering from sleep apnea, that you have trouble reaching the REM stage, which can result in insomnia.

Mental health

A side effect of being tired all the time is its effect on your moods and your mental health. It is even said that sleep apnea has a direct link with depression. A study, which included almost 1900 men, has shown that men suffering from sleep apnea are five times more likely to have depression than men who are not suffering from sleep apnea. Researchers believe this is because when sleep is disrupted over and over, it can alter brain activity and neurochemicals that affect a person's mood and thinking.

Aside from depression, you can be prone to extreme mood swings and get irritated over small issues that you otherwise could have easily handled.

Daytime fatigue

In addition, a lack of sleep can make you feel very tired during the day. But also a lack of oxygen in the brain or insufficient rest are causes of a tired feeling during the day. Finally, all of this can cause your personal life to suffer, because you simply do not have enough energy to be active during the day. For example, you will fall asleep on the couch, or in worse cases even in the car or during a meeting.

Loss of brain functions

A lack of oxygen in your brain and not reaching the REM sleep in the night disrupt the brain’s normal functioning. It may be that you experience problems during your daily activities. This way you can become forgetful or have difficulty concentrating, which can make daily activities much harder. If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, we recommend you to contact your doctor.

Do I have sleep apnea?

If you suffer from insomnia or you have the idea you wake up regularly at night (typical sleep apnea symptonms), you may suffer from sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a surprisingly common issue that isn’t that well-known but has quite a large impact. Different sleep apnea tests are available online.

Sleeping with a CPAP machine

If you have been diagnosed with apnea, CPAP therapy is a possible sleep apnea treatment. With a CPAP machine, air is blown into the upper airways under a certain pressure, via a CPAP mask. This allows you to breathe unobstructed and you will not wake up easily during the night anymore. When you have apnea and you have slept with a CPAP machine once, you can not live without it anymore. Even when traveling or being on holiday, it would be useful for you to take your CPAP machine with you. Unfortunately that is not possible with most devices: they are large and therefore difficult to carry on a weekend trip and even impossible to take with you if you want to go camping without electricity. Luckily, there is a solution: Transcend miniCPAP. These CPAP devices are specially designed for traveling and can also be used on a battery, so that you could sleep anywhere.

Have a look at our Transcend miniCPAP machines:

Transcend miniCPAP	Transcend AUTO miniCPAP

Need help?

Do you still have questions after having read this article or are some things not yet completely clear? Do not hesitate to contact u. You can contact us through the chat at the bottom left of your screen. You can also call us during office hours on +31 85 0190 291(International) or on +44 20 3290 0209 (UK). Contacting us by email is also possible, just send your message to [email protected] and we will contact you as soon as possible. We are happy to help you!

¹⁾This study is presented at the ‘2015 American Thoracie Society International Conference’ in Denver, USA.