Has that ever happened to you? While sleeping you suddenly feel that you are not able to breathe and your sleep gets disturbed. This happens due to sleep apnea. It is a sleeping disorder. Due to this, sufficient oxygen does not reach our lungs and brain. Starts suffocating. In such a situation, the brain tries to wake us up somehow, due to which sleep is disrupted.
Mild sleep apnea involves waking up 50 to 100 times a night. As this problem increases, the frequency of sleep disturbances at night also increases. When the problem is severe, one may wake up more than 250 times in a night. Due to this, sleep is not complete and fatigue remains throughout the day.
Due to repeated stopping of breathing at night, there is lack of oxygen in the blood. Due to this, all the important organs of the body are affected. Due to lack of oxygen in the brain, brain functioning, memory and focus become weak. Sexual dysfunction starts occurring. Sometimes even fatal conditions like heart attack and stroke can occur.
According to a study by AIIMS published in the well-known journal 'Science Direct', 10.4 crore youth of India are facing sleep apnea. This means that approximately 13% of Indian youth have sleep apnea.
so today 'medical certificate'I will talk about sleep apnea. You will also learn that-
Before reading the article in detail, understand from an incident how costly ignoring sleep apnea can be.
The world suffered a big blow due to sleep apnea.
It was the spring of 1986, when a terrible explosion occurred at the Chernobyl Power Plant. In this accident, more than 50 lakh people in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus became victims of radiation. For the next several years, people affected by its radiation continued to die of cancer. Due to this, the Soviet Union suffered a loss of lakhs of crores of rupees. It affected the entire world.
When this accident was investigated, it was found that the technician who was handling the on-off switch was a sleep apnea patient and had not slept for 13 hours. He fell into a deep sleep shortly before switching off and remained asleep. As a result a terrible accident occurred. Lack of sleep and sleep apnea were considered to be the major reasons for this accident. However, the Soviet Union is accused of making such excuses to hide the accident.
What are the symptoms of sleep apnea?
Dr. Animesh Arya, Director of the Department of Pulmonology and Sleep Medicine at Shri Balaji Action Medical Institute, Delhi, says that ignoring sleep apnea can be costly. Most people do not recognize its symptoms. Therefore they do not get the necessary treatment. What are its symptoms, see in the graphic.
How many types of sleep apnea are there?
According to the American National Sleep Foundation, there are three types of sleep apnea. The most common of these is obstructive sleep apnea. Apart from this, central and complex sleep apnea occurs. See details in graphic-
Sleep apnea can lead to a fatal condition
Dr. Animesh Arya says that sleep apnea seems to be a very common health condition in the initial days. Most people do not consider snoring to be a big problem, but due to this there is a lack of oxygen in our blood every night.
Blood supplies oxygen to all the parts of our body. Due to lack of oxygen, the functioning of all the body parts starts getting affected.
Since our brain is completely dependent on oxygen to survive, it is most affected by sleep apnea. Due to this, conditions like memory loss, depression and mental confusion start forming.
Sleep apnea can cause problems like high blood pressure, high blood sugar and high cholesterol. Due to this, life-threatening conditions like heart attack and stroke can also arise. See the graphic to see what other conditions can occur due to sleep apnea.
Sleep apnea patients should not drive
Dr. Animesh Arya says that sleep apnea patients should not drive because they can fall asleep anytime and anywhere. Even a nap of a few seconds while driving can put your life at risk.
Apart from this, doctors advise its patients not to operate heavy machinery. The blast in Chernobyl power plant is the biggest example of this.
Sleep apnea patients should also avoid cooking as falling asleep suddenly in the kitchen can put them at risk of getting burned by hot oil or hot water.
Apart from this, see in the graphic what tasks they should avoid.
Dr. Animesh Arya says that if symptoms of sleep apnea appear, it is important to seek treatment after consulting an expert. However, we can reduce the problems caused by this condition by taking some measures at home. Look at the graphic.
What things are important to keep in mind when you have sleep apnea?
Dr. Animesh Arya says that in this condition, first of all we should pay attention to the quality of sleep. For this, set the right time for sleeping and waking up.
The sleeping room should be completely dark and try to keep the bed in such a position that the side of our head is slightly raised compared to the feet.
To avoid any fatal situation at night, it is important to have dinner at least two hours before sleeping because in sleep apnea, there is a lack of oxygen in our blood while sleeping. If we have eaten food just before sleeping, then most of the blood flow for digestion will be around the stomach. Due to this, there will be less blood flow to the rest of the body and there will be lack of oxygen. This can create a fatal situation.
Apart from this, we should also take special care of our eating habits. See the graphic about what sleep apnea patients should and should not eat.
2. Health – The body repairs itself internally during sleep: The growing family of good bacteria in the stomach.
Graphics Source: NavJivanIndia | VaskarAssets
