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What Should I do if I Suspect a Problem?

Identifying whether you snore occasionally or exhibit consistent loud snoring patterns that could be indicative of a sleep disorder like obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is crucial for your overall health. Let's explore in more detail the methods and considerations in assessing snoring patterns and potential sleep issues:What Should I do if I Suspect a Problem?

Methods to Identify Snoring and Sleep Problems: 

 

  1. Bed Partner Assessment: Engaging in an open conversation with your bed partner about your suspected snoring can offer immediate insight. Since they witness your sleep patterns, their observations can provide valuable information regarding your snoring frequency and intensity. 
  1. Recording Devices: Utilising audio or video recording devices during sleep can help assess snoring habits, especially for individuals who sleep alone. Reviewing the recordings afterward can provide evidence of snoring and its severity. 
  1. Sleep Tracking Apps: Mobile apps available for Android or iPhone platforms come equipped with recording features that track and analyse snoring patterns. These apps often quantify the severity of snoring, providing more detailed insights. 

Further Steps to Determine Sleep Issues:

 

Home Sleep Tests: Conducting home sleep tests, such as those offered by companies like ResMed, can be beneficial. These tests provide a non-invasive way to assess sleep quality and detect potential sleep disorders like sleep apnea in the comfort of your bed. 

Personal Sleep Log: Maintaining a personal sleep log detailing sleep and wake times, mood after sleep, and other pertinent factors can provide a comprehensive overview of your sleep routine. Over time, this log can aid in identifying patterns and potential sleep-related issues. 

Understanding Indications and Seeking Help:

Recognizing how snoring impacts your daytime functioning is crucial. Indicators such as morning headaches, daytime dizziness, lethargy, and irritability often stem from disrupted sleep due to snoring or sleep disorders like sleep apnea. Frequent occurrences of these symptoms should raise concerns and prompt further evaluation. 

Seeking Professional Assistance:

While self-assessment methods are valuable, seeking guidance from a healthcare professional remains integral. Doctors can provide a comprehensive evaluation and guide you through appropriate diagnostic tests to identify underlying sleep disorders accurately.

Treatment Options for Sleep Apnea:

Once diagnosed, sleep apnea and other sleep-related disorders can often be managed with various treatments. Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machines, oral appliances, lifestyle changes, and surgical options are among the interventions that healthcare professionals may recommend based on individual needs.

Remember, identifying sleep problems is only the initial step toward addressing potential issues. Seeking professional guidance is crucial for proper diagnosis and the development of an effective treatment plan tailored to your specific sleep concerns. Prioritising quality sleep is integral to overall health and well-being.

 

Keep exploring: Click on Healthy Sleep, Thing to do after suspecting sleep problems , and Factors affecting Sleep to read more articles. 

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Sleep Revitalizes your Mind, Body, & Heart

The body goes under many transformations, while it is in the state of rest during sleep. There are many essential functions that take place in the body such as tissue repair, memory and energy restoration, release of essential hormones, muscle relaxation, and others. While you are asleep, the brain releases indispensable hormones that promote tissue growth. This process helps your body rejuvenate from the daily hustle bustle. Moreover, tissue growth aids in the recovery from wounds or cuts. Sunita Kumar, Co-Director, Centre for Sleep Disorders, Loyola University Medical Centre, aptly remarks that during sleep the body produces more white blood cells, to fight countless bacteria and viruses1. The heart rate also registers a dip during sleep, which according to Ms. Kumar, strengthens the heart as it is at rest with lowered activity. Moreover, a good night’s sleep also reduces the chances of getting afflicted with heart diseases.

Good Sleep = Sharp Memory

Sleep is a time, when becomes sharp and strong. Sleep quantity and quality play a fundamental role in determining what one remembers and what one doesnt. Therefore, development of long-term memory (LTM) from short-term memory (STM) happens during sleep.  Scientific researches state that the brain follows a different mechanism for storing memories through the hippocampus and neo-cortex areas. Hippocampus helps you to remember your life experiences (childhood memories), while the neo-cortex is responsible for remembering the concepts you learn (name of a color). Communications and sync between the two, helps in learning new data and updating old ones.

Sleep Steers Hormonal Hunger

Sleep not only affects your energy levels and mental functions, but also regulates your body weight. Improper sleep is related to the increasing cases of obesity, worldwide2. Many hormones which regulate the feeling of hunger (ghrelin) and signal the feeling of being full (leptin), are all influenced by the quality of your sleep.  Leptin: This is also known as satiety hormone, which is produced by the fat cells of the body. It prevents overeating by sending signals to the brain that the body does not require more food, as there is enough to fuel the body.  Ghrelin: This hunger hormone is produced in the gastrointestinal tract, which signifies the body that there is need for food. This hormone rises in the body, when you feel hungry and decreases when you have consumed some food.  Studies show that people who have disrupted patterns of sleep - have larger appetite, because of higher ghrelin secretion and lowered secretion of leptin. This imbalance in the secretion of these hormones is a result of improper sleep patterns3.

Now that we have talked about why sleep is essential, in the next section - we will be discussing in detail some of the significant parameters, that define good or bad sleep.

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Reference

1

https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/discomfort-15/better-sleep/healing-power-sleep?page=2

2

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3619301/

3

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3619301/

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