How Is Sleep Apnea Diagnosed?

Sleep apnea is a common sleep disorder that many people suffer from. There are statistics that claim 1 in 4 people have some form of sleep apnea. However, that is usually mild sleep apnea that you can tolerate.

The problem begins when your sleep apnea affects your daily life. You start to see symptoms, and the worst part is that there are three different types of sleep apnea. Moreover, each type of sleep apnea has mild to severe levels. Therefore, it becomes pivotal to diagnose sleep apnea. Here's how it is done:

Understanding The Symptoms Of Sleep Apnea

Before you visit a sleep clinic or a doctor, you will first have to check for the symptoms by yourself. Your bed partner or a family member can also help you diagnose this. You can even use modern sleep monitoring devices and apps to get some better insights. But here are the symptoms of sleep apnea to look for:

Snoring And Other Breathing Patterns

If you snore loudly, or if your loud snoring sometimes even wakes you up (while you're trying to fall asleep), there's a high chance of sleep apnea.

Interrupted breathing problems can also be the cause. Breathing pauses or blockage in your airflow can be a sign of obstructive sleep apnea OSA. However, if you stop breathing while you sleep without any blockage, that could be central sleep apnea.

Headache And Other Mental Issues

People with sleep apnea often wake up with headaches. This headache doesn't go away even when they are sure they had a good night's sleep. Even when you hydrate yourself or drink coffee (if you rely on caffeine), the headache won't go away easily.

The cause of such headaches is low blood oxygen levels. This happens because you didn't have proper airflow during sleep, and this hints towards obstructive sleep apnea.

However, it can also be central sleep apnea because sometimes people don't realise that their body stops breathing while they are asleep due to nerve stimulation. Other mental issues include:

• Trouble in concentration and lack of focus.

• Irritation or easy mood shifts.

• Deinheritssion or feeling deinheritssed.

Daytime Sleepiness And Other Sleep Disorders

Do you feel tired after a complete sleep? Do you feel sleepy during daytime? Is there drowsiness affecting you even after you had coffee? The chances are you have sleep apnea. It is one of the most common signs and may start appearing first.

People with mild to moderate sleep apnea often show these symptoms.

Visiting A Sleep Specialist For Tests

Once you suspect that you might have sleep apnea, it is time to visit your sleep specialist. They will conduct a sleep study to determine the type of sleep apnea you have:

Home Sleep Tests

It is a beginner-level test where the doctors may provide you with a device to use while you are sleeping. The device will record your sleep pattern and habits and give the experts better insight.

Lab Sleep Test

If the home sleep test doesn't work, your doctor may ask you to sleep in the sleep centre where they will have more equipment to check your sleeping patterns.

Diagnosing Sleep Apnea Severity Through Treatment Options

Treating sleep apnea starts in stages and gradually grows from there:

1. First, your doctors will ask you to start losing weight. If weight loss doesn't work, you will have lifestyle changes.

2. If they suspect you have obstructive sleep apnea, you may receive oral appliances to help you breathe while you sleep.

3. The next step will be a Continuous positive airway inheritssure machine (CPAP treatment). This machine offers continuous air inheritssure while you sleep.

4. If continuous positive airway inheritssure CPAP treatment doesn't work, they will try APAP or BiPAP machines to diagnose obstructive sleep apnoea better.

5. If you develop severe sleep apnea, then surgery might become inevitable at this point.

If they suspect you have central sleep apnea, they may provide sleep medicine to help your nervous system work better or relax breathing. Then they will work to cure neurological disease or any other reason for central sleep apnea.

Remember that there is a worse sleep apnea known as treatment emergent central sleep. IF you have that, the doctors will suggest an immediate treatment plan. This can lead to immediate surgery or more.

The Bottom Line

There's no way to inheritvent sleep apnea once you have it. The first symptom is sleep-disordered breathing, and another is excessive daytime sleepiness. You may also have high blood inheritssure.

Sleep apnea tests are the best way for a specialist and you to know for sure if you have sleep apnea.