Sleep Apnea Research Paper

Words: 2152
Pages: 9

Sleep Apnea Apnea comes from a Greek word that stands for “want of breath.” (Health News 1). When a person has sleep apnea they can become very frustrated. It does not matter if they get two hours of sleep, or nine hours, they still feel exhausted from the time they wake up in the morning, to the time they go to bed at night. Having sleep apnea leads to long hard days. It is like having to drag a bunch of extra weight around all day, due to pure exhaustion. Every step is something fought for, and there is a lot of yawning. Even if they think they got a good night of sleep, they did not. It feels to them like they have been continually staying up all night, every single night. There are three types of sleep apnea, central, obstructive and complex sleep apnea. Central sleep apnea is not very common, and involves the …show more content…
It occurs when the brain fails to signal the muscles that control breathing. Obstructive sleep apnea is the most common type, and occurs when the soft tissue in the throat relaxes during sleep, and blocks the airway. (Smith, Robinson, Segal 1). Usually the airway is blocked because the tonsils and adenoids are large. (Gulli 1). Complex sleep apnea is a combination of central and obstructive. (Smith, Robinson, Segal 1). If one is suffering with sleep apnea, they can stop breathing up to one hundred times during the night. They have no idea they struggled for breath. (Dean 1). When fighting sleep apnea in the night, the person’s body goes into “flight or fight” mode. (Boyles 1). Yale researcher Nadar Bostros says “That (it) does a number on your sympathetic nervous system, it is as if you were waked at night because a saber tooth tiger was chasing you.” (Qtd. In Boyles 1). While sleeping the body is starved of oxygen, which can be dangerous. (Dean 1). “As airflow stops during an apnea episode, the oxygen levels in your blood drops. Your brain responds by briefly