Recently there was news of a high school alumnus, Danny that passed away in his sleep at the young age of 59. Shocked and saddened by the news, I found out that he died of congestive heart failure. Knowing that congestive heart failure has many symptoms and causes no one knew at the time of the funeral why this young, easy-going man had CHF without knowing he had it. Just yesterday I was told it was due to SLEEP APNEA! He had symptoms of sleep apnea for years and did nothing about it, because he didn’t know the signs or how life threatening sleep apnea can be. Sleep apnea is a major health issue that affects millions of people and they don’t even know they have it. Studies have discovered an association between sleep apnea and congestive heart failure. People with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may damage the right side of their heart because it has to pump harder to maintain the lungs attempt to overcome the airway obstruction. Nearly one half of the people in the study had not been diagnosed. Read more »
Causes of Insomnia Part 6 Obstructive Sleep Apnea OSA
Keeping up with today’s schedules, workloads and family life there seems to be little time to relax and take care of the most important person in your life…YOU. We tend to stay up too late at night to get all of our to-dos done before the next day. We lay in bed tossing and turning each night wondering if we haven’t forgotten anything we have to do. As time ticks by we get less and less sleep and many of us resort to some kind of sleep aid in an effort to avoid insomnia. Causes of insomnia can vary from the mild to the extreme, but there is one cause that gets overlooked and that is obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Why, because we tend to ignore the symptoms of OSA such as snoring and excessive daytime sleepiness because we don’t realize the connection between the two and/or the impact OSA has on one’s health. Also, OSA has joined type 2 diabetes as a condition largely associated with the national epidemic of obesity. Read more »
Sleep Facts
The world record of no sleep is 18 days, 21 hours, 40 minutes during a rocking chair marathon. The record holder reported hallucinations, paranoia, blurred vision, slurred speech and memory lapses. People can take cat naps with their eyes open (I have personally witnessed this and it is creepy), so without medical supervision it is really impossible to tell if someone is really awake or not. More Sleep Facts ..... Read more »
Sleep Apnea vs Depression
For many years I had felt exhausted, suffering from poor sleep and was told I was a loud snorer. See: Why do I snore for more information. As I got older I began to gain weight because I was always too busy to exercise. Putting on 50 lbs in 10 years I no longer had any energy for an active life. Caffeine became my friend as I drank coffee and tea constantly to stay awake, but eventually that stopped working. In addition to my declining health I developed hyperhidrosis a condition where you constantly sweat. My family life began to suffer because all I wanted to do was sleep which is a symptom of depression. I had a hard time falling asleep easy, but once I did I wanted sleep nine or more hours. Read more »
Why do I Snore
Are you asking yourself “Why do I snore”? If you have sleep apnea, your airways can be blocked or narrowed during sleep because your throat muscles and tongue relax more than usual, your tongue and tonsils are large compared to the opening into your windpipe, you’re overweight due to the extra soft fat tissue can thicken the wall of the windpipe causing the inside opening to narrow and make it harder to keep open, the shape of your head and neck may cause a smaller airway size in the mouth and throat area or the aging process limits the brain’s ability to keep your throat muscles stiff during sleep causing your inability to fall asleep easy and stay asleep during the night. Read more »
18 Tips and Techniques How to Wake Up a Sleepy Head
One of the main reasons someone over sleeps is that they didn’t sleep very well during the night. The cause could be they are experiencing sleep apnea and don’t know it, but snore or they do have this sleep disorder and are using a CPAP machine or sleep aid that doesn’t allow them to sleep easy. If someone has a soft palate in the back of their throat it will block the airway passage and cause the person to stop breathing for periods throughout the night. Using a CPCP machine or mouth guard can allow this individual to get more air and sleep without disruption. Sometimes it just a matter of getting used to the sleep aid, sometimes it’s another reason altogether. Here are 18 tips and techniques how to wake up a sleepy head. Read more »
I Can’t Sleep
My sister Rose suffers from insomnia and can’t sleep. She has tried many sleep remedies such as counting sheep, reading, warm milk, sleep music, self-hypnosis tapes and even over-the-counter sleep medication, but to no avail she lies in bed tossing and turning as her husband is snoring logs. She’ll call me late at night crying “I can’t sleep and I don’t know what to do.” Read more »