To Sleep, Perchance

OUR subject today may rob you of your night8217;s sleep. Even if it doesn8217;t happen to you, but to a partner, it can cause sleepless ni...

OUR subject today may rob you of your night8217;s sleep. Even if it doesn8217;t happen to you, but to a partner, it can cause sleepless nights. I8217;m talking about snoring. Healthcare workers nowadays are aware that snoring can cause several dangerous problems, and may even lead to death. Of course, not all snoring is dangerous. It is the excessively loud and disruptive variety, accompanied by disproportionate daytime sleepiness, that one has to watch out for.

If you8217;re a middle-aged man reading this, and have identified with the symptoms, then you are a likely candidate for Obstructive Sleep Apnea OSA. But even women and children can suffer from it.

To gain more light on the subject, I talked to Dr Zarir F Udwadia, who runs a sleep clinic at the Hinduja Hospital, Mumbai.

What is OSA?
Of course, we all know that snoring occurs during sleep, when the neck muscles relax and the soft palate vibrates and produces the sound. What we may not know is that when the tongue relaxes and falls back into the throat or when the airway at the back of the throat is sucked closed, it can obstruct breathing. The patient may wake up suddenly, so briefly that he may not even be aware of it, but it is this disruption of sleep that accounts for the daytime sleepiness, and this halt in breathing that causes all problems.

SLEEP APNEA SYMPTOMS
8226; Excessively loud snoring
8226; Disproportionate and inexplicable daytime sleepiness
8226; Unrefreshing, restless sleep
8226; Morning headaches
8226; Nocturnal choking
8226; Reduced libido
8226; Ankle swelling

What are the dangers of OSA?
If left undiagnosed and therefore untreated, OSA can lead to heart failure, respiratory failure, hypertension, strokes, heart attacks. The clues to OSA are always provided by the bed partner. The primary warning symptom is a choking sound at the peak of a snore.

At the sleep clinic, the doctor will check the size of the neck 8212; an enlarged thick neck is another clue 8212; admit the patient for the night and conduct a polysomnography by attaching several devices onto the patient.

How is OSA tackled?
Surgery is an option, but the simplest way out is the use of the Continuous Positive Airway Pressure mask. It is portable, simple to use, blows in fresh air continuously and is 100 per cent successful.