Do your loved ones complain about your loud snoring? Do you wake up feeling tired no matter what time you went to bed? If you can answer yes to either question, you could suffer from a serious sleep breathing disorder called obstructive sleep apnea and should be screened by Grand Rapids sleep apnea dentists Dr. Jerry Mulder and Dr. Allyson Mulder at TMJ & Sleep Disorders of Michigan.
A patient with sleep apnea experiences blockages in the airway while asleep. These blockages may be partial, making breathing more difficult, or completely interrupt breathing altogether. These pauses in breathing may last as long as 20 seconds, and leads the brain to send signals to the body that it needs to breathe. In many instances, a sleep apnea patient never fully wakes; instead, the brain wakes just enough to send these signals, disrupting the sleep cycle and depriving a person of the restoration to mind and body that occur during the deepest stage of sleep.
A patient with severe sleep apnea may experience these breathing disruptions hundreds of times per night, which leads to constant daytime fatigue, among many other undesirable symptoms.
Snoring is the most common symptom of sleep apnea. However, fatigue is also a frequent sign of the disorder because an individual with sleep apnea simply is not able to get the required amount of quality sleep. A sleep apnea patient may feel fatigued throughout the day on a regular basis, affecting performance at work or school.
Other symptoms of sleep apnea include the following:
Patients of any age can develop sleep apnea. In fact, for children with the sleep breathing disorder, symptoms often mirror those of a behavioral disorder such as ADD or ADHD. If your child has been diagnosed with one of these disorders but is not responding well to the medication, then sleep apnea could be the cause of his or her behavioral issues. If that is the case, these behavior problems will not resolve until the sleep breathing disorder is treated.
Left untreated, sleep apnea can threaten your life. Living with the disorder for a prolonged period of time increases the risk factor for several chronic or systemic disorders. Several recent studies found that sleep apnea patients were 68 percent more likely to develop cancer — and that patients with sleep apnea experienced an increased morbidity rate from cancer, making them nearly five times more likely to perish from the disorder.
Other illnesses that have been linked to sleep apnea include:
Click here to learn more about the long-term consequences of sleep loss.
Sleep apnea is a serious condition that will not go away on its own. You must be diagnosed and treated by an expert medical professional. Dr. Allyson and Dr. Jerry hold memberships in two professional organizations for sleep medicine, both doctors hold fellowship degrees in dental sleep disorders at the academy for cranial facial pain in Dallas. Both of these Grand Rapids Sleep Apnea Doctors can resolve sleep apnea and help patients get the rest they deserve through specialized treatment. Click here to learn more about how we treat sleep apnea at Disorders of Michigan.
If you have sleep apnea or think you may have this sleep breathing disorder, contact our office today at (616) 929-0892 to schedule a consultation with one of our doctors.
TMJ & Sleep Disorders of Michigan is here to serve Sleep Apnea patients in the areas of Grand Rapids, Holland, and Big Rapids, Michigan.
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