The Causes of Sleep Apnea

Basically, sleep apnea is a breathing disorder. When we are sleeping, the muscles in the respiratory tract keep the air passage open and enable us to continue breathing. Sometimes, these muscles can relax a bit, and droop down, causing the air passage to narrow down. This results in snoring. Sometimes, it so happens that the muscles may relax more than they are supposed to. In such instances, they completely block the air passage, thereby making breathing difficult.

The sleeper, of course, is not physically aware of this problem, as he is in the sleep state. His body tries to make up for these periods of breathing stoppage by snoring loudly, breathing deeply, and all this usually results in strange kinds of snoring sounds. Snoring, which happens during inhalation usually, happens during exhalation too for patients with sleep apnea.

Disturbed breathing leads to disturbed sleep

How does the human body deal with this problem, when it hasn't been diagnosed and treated? The human body is like a sophisticated machine, with a very intricate network of nerves, muscles, and blood vessels connecting the different organs in it. It is like a well-rehearsed symphony, and the brain is like the conductor - keeping all the organs in shape through the feedback it receives from the millions of nerves.

When the relaxed muscles constrict the air passage and cause difficulty or stoppage of breathing, during an apnea episode, a chemical imbalance occurs within the body. The oxygen that is supposed to come in during breathing is in short supply, while the levels of the carbon dioxide that is supposed to go out increases. The brain quickly recognizes the fact that there is not enough air coming in, and that the carbon dioxide levels are rising, and remedies this situation by making the sleeper gasp for air which can often wake the sleeper to wake up briefly. Once the person is back in the waking state, the muscles contract to their normal positions and the breathing process becomes normal again, so the person then goes back to sleep again.

However, once the sleeper is asleep again, the same process is repeated, and the person is again woken up for the breathing to become normal. This is one of the characteristics of sleep apnea. A person with sleep apnea will have a number of sleeping-breathing stoppage-awakening cycles. This causes a person with sleep apnea to wake up feeling sleepy and tired, feel sleepy during the day, have headaches, and generally feel low. We will discuss the symptoms of sleep apnea later.

Other causes of sleep apnea

There are other ways sleep apnea can occur, too. It could happen because of the brain sending wrong signals to the respiratory tract, which could cause breathing to stop. In fact sleep apnea is categorized into different types based on the way it occurs in a person.

Another factor causing sleep apnea is excessive body weight. Studies show that overweight people, due to fat deposition in the tissues around the neck and throat areas, have a strong chance of contracting obstructive sleep apnea. We will take a look at the different kinds of sleep apnea next.

Sleep apnea can also happen as a result of hypothyroidism, a condition where the thyroid gland functions below par.

Sleep Apnea Types >>