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Oct. 13th, 2008 04:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coyotegothPSA, from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
laurel:
People with untreated sleep apnea are 2 to 4 times more likely to have a stroke than those who don't have sleep apnea or who are successfully treating their sleep apnea. It's double the risk of other known risk factors for stroke (like hypertension, diabetes, everything else).
Folks with untreated sleep apnea also have a much greater risk of coronary heart disease, heart failure, irregular heartbeat, heart attack, and high blood pressure.
Symptoms of sleep apnea may include excessive daytime sleepiness, restless sleep, loud snoring, falling asleep during the day, morning headaches, trouble concentrating, irritability, forgetfulness, mood or behavior changes, weight gain, anxiety, and depression.
If you think you might have sleep apnea, please talk to your doctor about it. Talking about it doesn't automatically mean you need a sleep study; there are some questions they'll likely want you to answer. There are also some simpler tests than a sleep study that can be done for the initial screening. And if you need a sleep study, they really aren't that bad-- I am darn near phobic about being watched by anyone while I sleep and was scared to death of having a sleep study, but in the end it was really easy and I'm so glad I did it (and hate that it took me so long).
If you have sleep apnea, please treat it. Stick with the treatment. It can be difficult to find the right sleep mask or other treatment, but the technology is constantly improving. There's some amazing stuff out there now. Most sleep apnea is treated with a CPAP and a sleep mask, but some cases are treated with surgery or other things.
If you use a CPAP (or BiPAP), even once you find a mask you like, it's important to make sure your gear is working properly and replaced as often as it should be. It's also good to follow-up with doctors if you think maybe the treatment isn't working as well as it could. Your pressure settings or mask may need to be adjusted, you may even need a new sleep study. These days there are CPAP machines that can tell you how well they're working for you-- it's good to see those stats and know the machine and mask are doing their job and you're having as few apneas as possible during the night.
laurel:People with untreated sleep apnea are 2 to 4 times more likely to have a stroke than those who don't have sleep apnea or who are successfully treating their sleep apnea. It's double the risk of other known risk factors for stroke (like hypertension, diabetes, everything else).
Folks with untreated sleep apnea also have a much greater risk of coronary heart disease, heart failure, irregular heartbeat, heart attack, and high blood pressure.
Symptoms of sleep apnea may include excessive daytime sleepiness, restless sleep, loud snoring, falling asleep during the day, morning headaches, trouble concentrating, irritability, forgetfulness, mood or behavior changes, weight gain, anxiety, and depression.
If you think you might have sleep apnea, please talk to your doctor about it. Talking about it doesn't automatically mean you need a sleep study; there are some questions they'll likely want you to answer. There are also some simpler tests than a sleep study that can be done for the initial screening. And if you need a sleep study, they really aren't that bad-- I am darn near phobic about being watched by anyone while I sleep and was scared to death of having a sleep study, but in the end it was really easy and I'm so glad I did it (and hate that it took me so long).
If you have sleep apnea, please treat it. Stick with the treatment. It can be difficult to find the right sleep mask or other treatment, but the technology is constantly improving. There's some amazing stuff out there now. Most sleep apnea is treated with a CPAP and a sleep mask, but some cases are treated with surgery or other things.
If you use a CPAP (or BiPAP), even once you find a mask you like, it's important to make sure your gear is working properly and replaced as often as it should be. It's also good to follow-up with doctors if you think maybe the treatment isn't working as well as it could. Your pressure settings or mask may need to be adjusted, you may even need a new sleep study. These days there are CPAP machines that can tell you how well they're working for you-- it's good to see those stats and know the machine and mask are doing their job and you're having as few apneas as possible during the night.
