Symptoms of sleep apnea include fatigue and falling asleep during the day, breathing interruptions, snoring and drooling at night

People suffering from sleep apnea can be helped by a CPAP device that makes breathing easier at night. Picture: Hanna Laasanen

Sleep apnea is a troublesome disease that ruins the night’s sleep and makes it difficult to stay awake.

It made headlines when the Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (kok) told a newspaper about his sleep apnea In the Future of the Countryside.

After receiving the diagnosis, Orpo received a device to help him breathe, which he says he used regularly. That’s according to the paper helped.

With sleep apnea refers to breathing interruptions during sleep. They are caused by the fact that the air does not flow properly in the upper airways.

Suffered from sleep apnea in Finland a couple of years ago research including nearly 170,000 people. In addition to them, there are probably those who have mild sleep apnea and who suffer from it without knowing it.

Whence know you might suffer from sleep apnea? Symptoms there are several. One is fatigue, sleepiness or even falling asleep in the middle of the day. Sleep apnea is characterized by breathing interruptions, restless sleep and snoring.

Not all sleep apnea patients snore. On the other hand, those who sleep alone may not be aware of their snoring.

“Your own mood may give you a clue,” says the research professor Timo Partonen From the Institute of Health and Welfare. Signs related to the trouble are profuse night sweats and drooling, and waking up in the bathroom more than twice during the night.

A person may also repeatedly wake up with a feeling of suffocation and gasp for breath, says Partonen.

However, you may not remember these symptoms in the morning.

“That also tells you that you are tired in the morning. The pharynx and throat are rough and the voice is lost. The head hurts because of the carbon dioxide accumulated during the night,” says Partonen.

By day about sleep apneat memory disorders, concentration difficulties and mood changes following fatigue.

“The mood is irritable, the attention span is narrowed and there are more mistakes in everything we do. We are more prone to quarrels with others than usual,” says Partonen.

One the way to find out your own possible sleep apnea is to record your own sleep. Also available are sensors that can be installed around the chest and monitor chest movements.

Finding out about sleep apnea is worthwhile. The patient’s breathing can be interrupted up to hundreds of times a night. It can lead to a decrease in the oxygen content of the blood. Lack of oxygen, for example, strains the heart and can increase the risk of arrhythmias.

Three out of four sleep apnea sufferers are overweight or obese. Even mild waist obesity is associated with sleep apnea, but significant obesity increases the risk. However, a quarter of the patients are of normal weight.

Sleep apnea can be caused by the structure of the pharynx. In tight upper airways, the relaxation of the muscles during sleep can result in the flow of breathing air being blocked.

Breathlessness usually ends with a startle and recovery of muscle tone.

In men have sleep apnea more often than women. Women are protected by estrogen and luteinizing hormone. In men, the upper airways are longer and therefore get blocked more easily.

Sleep apnea usually occurs between the ages of 40 and 65. After menopause, women’s snoring and shortness of breath also increase.

Of the technical means, the CPAP device used by Orponki is the most effective and best aid for sleep apnea, according to a sleep doctor, professor Markku Partinen at HS last fall.