Sleep Apnea and Snoring: Is there Help?
Sleep apnea and snoring all happens when somebody's body does not take a breath it was supposed to during sleep. It can be either obstructive or central. First is central apnea, which is not as common, this occurs when the brain simply forgets to tell the body to breath. Second is obstructive sleep apnea and this happens to take place when the soft tissue or muscles in the throat prevent the normal movement of air. The clinical signs of obstructive sleep apnea can include extremely loud snoring, breath holding or not taking a required breath, tiredness even after 8 or 9 hours sleep, and those ugly morning headaches we all hate.
Diagnosing sleep apnea and snoring is something that really needs to be done while being involved in a medical sleep study. A medical sleep study measures you heart rate, breathing patterns to find any inconsistencies, and monitoring your brain waves while you sleep. It is absolutely essential that this study be done on anyone suspected of having sleep apnea.
Some of the current treatments for sleep apnea and snoring include weight loss, avoidance of sleep sedatives (alcohol, sleeping pills, etc), CPAP ( a mask used at night to keep the airway open), dental repositioning devices, and surgery.
When your body goes through its natural breathing cycle, air passes through the mouth and down the throat on its way to being absorbed by the lungs. During the normal wake process of breathing, the muscles towards the back of the throat tighten to hold these structures (soft palate, uvula, tonsils, and tongue) in place helping to keep them from collapsing into the air way. When your body is sleeping, these structures can drop into the air passage causing very loud and chronic snoring along with what's called obstructive sleep apnea.
There happens to be a surgical procedure called uvulopalatoplasty (LAUP). This is a surgical laser procedure designed to cut and shorten the palate preventing or reducing chronic loud snoring. You have choices with the Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty procedure as it can be done with or without having a tonsillectomy. Don't forget these are for the most part designed to circumvent the problem (go around) not fix the problem. Its result on sleep apnea and snoring have as of yet been unproven.