What are Common Sleep Apnea Symptoms?

Recognizing sleep apnea symptoms isn’t always easy. Wouldn’t life be better if we all came with warning tags and instruction books we could just take to our doctors? “May be subject to sleep apnea” is one tag that would raise a lot of eyebrows because most primary care physicians just aren’t primed to look for sleep disorders. Most people aren’t all that familiar with sleep apnea symptoms of either, and figuring out that you have a problem can be especially difficult when symptoms appear gradually. (Sleep apnea symptoms usually appear gradually, but can appear suddenly when they result from a traumatic injury.)  Although no one symptom is a surefire sign you have sleep apnea (with the exception of witnessed episodes of stopped breathing), your chances of being diagnosed with sleep apnea shoot up when you have two or three of the following symptoms:

Very loud snoring: Sleep apnea produces distinctive snoring. As sleepers repeatedly struggle to reopen their collapsed airways and suck in great gulps of air, they produce an amazing assortment of gasps, gurgles, wheezes, alarming choking noises, grunts, and of course, snores. But these aren’t just any old snores; these are loud snores — snores that other people can hear and feel all over the house, snores that even your neighbors can hear with the windows closed.

Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS): If you wake up feeling like you haven’t slept, or have a tendency to nod off whenever you get still and quiet for a few minutes (say, at your desk at work especially after a large lunch, in business meetings, and even at the movies), not only is it embarrassing (and potentially detrimental to your career), but also another good clue that you may have sleep apnea. If EDS becomes severe enough, a person may inadvertently fall asleep without warning, which can be extremely dangerous, especially if the individual is operating heavy equipment (like an automobile).

Interrupted breathing: If your bedmate tells you that you woke him or her up with your snoring, and then you really woke him or her up when you stopped breathing altogether, you can bet you probably have sleep apnea.

Nighttime heartburn: If you experience heartburn during the night or upon waking, you may have sleep apnea. The attempt to breathe against a closed airway increases pressure in your chest, which forces the contents of the stomach upward. If this happens continuously, the soft tissue valves that prevent gastric juices from flowing backwards may fail, and you’ll have acid reflux in your throat and mouth. The result isn’t just a bad taste, but a fit of coughing and possibly spasms of your larynx.

Decreased daytime alertness: If you’re normally a pretty sharp tack, but realize you’re no longer as alert as you used to be, you may be suffering from sleep apnea, especially if you have one or more other symptoms. Decreased alertness makes you more prone to accidents and more frequent mistakes, memory loss, and instances of impaired judgment.

Irregular heartbeat: The repeated oxygen deprivation and negative chest pressure produced when you attempt to breathe against a closed airway caused by sleep apnea can damage your heart and trigger an irregular heartbeat. Continued oxygen deprivation may stimulate the body to overproduce red blood cells, resulting in a condition called polycythemia, which also contributes to right heart failure.

These are just a few examples of sleep apnea symptoms. If you feel you may have sleep apnea, you should visit your Doctor right away.

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