Sleep apnea is highly destructive and can almost always lead to serious medical problems, hence it is important to identify the symptoms of sleep apnea as it is fairly hard to diagnose and thereby treat it as soon as you begin to experience it. Put simply, sleep apnea is a sleeping disorder, whereby a person experiences periods of partial and complete obstruction of breathing and hence no air in taken in, depleting your oxygen levels and thereby forcing you to wake up with a start, feeling breathless.
Obstructive sleep apnea is the mostly commonly experienced, as millions of people suffer from it, yet even today it is fairly hard to diagnose it, until one begins to actively see and feel the symptoms of it. Symptoms of sleep apnea is the primary way of discovering the condition in you and hence it is of vital importance to be aware of the symptoms of sleep apnea. Though it is important to keep in mind that not all symptoms of sleep apnea are noticed and felt by the person themselves, some of them are experienced by a partner.
Symptoms of Sleep Apnea
Common symptoms of sleep apnea experienced by the individual include
- Excessive daytime sleepiness, due to the lack of sleep one gets at night, as their air passage is constantly blocked and hence there is a constant need to wake up and breathe. However, one doesn’t realise that they didn’t get enough sleep, which would be quite perplexing.
- Waking up in the morning feeling slightly tired, not being able to concentrate wholly and experiencing mood swings are very common symptoms of sleep apnea, but seeing their common nature, people don’t end up linking them with sleep apnea.
- One might also experience headaches and notice considerable swelling up of their legs. The cause of this exactly is unknown, but this is unusual and hence a good singal of sleep apnea.
- Feeling heartburns or sour tastes in the mouth come about as secondary results of sleep apnea and can hence be a symptom of sleep apnea, along with frequent chest pains.
- Having to go to the bathroom multiple times during the night is another symptoms of sleep apnea, though it could be due to other reasons as well.
- Waking up with an extremely dry mouth and a painfully sore throat is a symptom
- And lastly experiencing bouts of insomnia, this is a strong symptom of sleep apnea and one should get checked if experiencing this.
Symptoms of sleep apnea that the individual might not notice themselves, but are visible to others include
- Numerous periods of not breathing and hence waking up with a start, gasping for air. Though it seems obvious for the person themselves to notice this, they do not, the next morning the person has no memory recollection of these episodes.
- Snoring loudly throughout the night is a definitely symptom of sleep apnea. Every one who suffers from sleep apnea snores, though remember not every person who snores has sleep apnea.
- Constant tossing and turning through the night, disturbed sleep is experiences frequently by those suffering from sleep apnea, often followed with periods of gasping, which is a side symptom of sleep apnea.
