I ignored my husband's comments about snoring for the past few years. He kept telling me that I snored loudly and sometimes stopped breathing in my sleep. But I didn't think it was anything to worry about. Well, I finally had to admit there was something wrong when I got into a minor car accident. You see, I was stopped at a red light and somehow ended up bumping the car in front of me. I must have fallen asleep at the wheel. But what really scared me the most is that I'm a medical student and I would never forgive myself if I fell asleep at work and could potentially put a patient's life at risk. That's when I knew I had to find out what was wrong with my sleep. This patient has obstructive sleep apnea. This woman had a polysomnogram in a sleep laboratory. A polysomnogram monitors many different physiologic channels including brain wave activity, EEG, electromyography, EMG, eye movement, heart rhythm, heart rate, oxygen saturation, airflow, abdominal and thoracic respiratory effort, and leg movement. This study physiologically shows what happens to each person with obstructive sleep apnea. In the example, we can see that there is no flow in this pressure channel, but we can still see movement in the abdominal and thoracic channels. This shows that the patient is attempting to breathe but cannot overcome a blocked airway. This is an obstructive apnea. We can see changes in the brain wave activity or EEG, increase in heart rate, and decrease in oxygen saturation. Immediately, the patient falls back asleep and he may not even realize that he had a brief arousal. This can happen many times throughout the night. Over time, repeated episodes can lead to a higher risk of heart attack and stroke. Hypertension, diabetes, and other chronic conditions can worsen an untreated obstructive sleep apnea. As we saw in this patient, untreated obstructive sleep apnea can lead to a higher risk of a motor vehicle accident because having numerous arousals through the night can leave a patient feeling unrefreshed and sleepy during the day. I started using a CPAP breathing machine when I sleep about six weeks ago. I had to go back to my sleep doctor a few times to make changes to the mask and pressure, but now I'm comfortable using CPAP. I actually feel good when I wake up in the morning now. While I'm driving, I'm so much more alert and it's so much easier to do my job. I even feel like I have the energy to exercise again. And yeah, I do plan to lose some weight, but as it turns out, if I hadn't gotten my sleep apnea treated, I could have endangered other people's lives. I wish I hadn't waited so long to get this treated. There are many different treatment options available. A common myth is that the only way to treat sleep apnea is through a breathing machine or CPAP. Another option would be an oral appliance, positional belts or pillows, or even surgeries can help improve sleep apnea or snoring.

untreated obstructive sleep apnea

loud snoring

pauses in breathing

polysomnogram

CPAP breathing machine