Snoring and Sleep Apnea in San Ramon

For patients in San Ramon, sleep apnea is a more advanced form of snoring. It is a potentially serious sleep disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops when the muscles in the back of your throat relax. When this happens, your airway narrows or collapses as you breathe in, and breathing stops for a few seconds to as much as a minute or more. This lowers the oxygen level in your blood. Your brain senses this inability to breathe, and briefly arouses you from sleep so that you can reopen your airway. Breathing resumes, often with a loud snort or gasping sound. This may occur all night long from 5 to 30+ times per hour, and prevents you from ever reaching the deep, restful stages of sleep. Usually this results in excessive daytime sleepiness, even when you think you have had a full nights rest. Other symptoms include awakening with a dry mouth, sore throat, or headache. Most people in San Ramon with sleep apnea do not know they have it, until notified by a family member who hears repeated silences in the breathing pattern, followed by a loud gasping for air.

Untreated sleep apnea is a serious health concern. It increases your risk for high blood pressure, heart attack (often during sleep), stroke, and diabetes. Risk factors include enlarged tonsils or adenoids, allergies, being overweight (which enlarges the tongue and/or increases neck size, thus narrowing the windpipe), smoking, and the use of alcohol, sedatives, or sleeping pills in the hours leading up to sleep. Sleep apnea in San Ramon patients is diagnosed by asking questions of you and your family about your sleep patterns, how you function during the day, a physical exam, and by overnight sleep studies. Simple snoring or mild sleep apnea may be controlled by losing weight, quitting smoking, avoiding sleeping on your back, keeping your nasal passages open with nose sprays and/or allergy medicines, and avoiding alcohol or sedative medications. If you have an unbalanced jaw joint or TMJ sleep therapy or TMJ treatment may help you with both issues. 

Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machines are commonly used to treat more serious apnea. A mask is fitted over your nose, and air is gently blown into your throat to prevent the airway from collapsing. Many patients find these machines cumbersome and uncomfortable and in these cases your doctor may prescribe a dental appliance, which is often much easier for patients to tolerate. There are many different designs, and you may have to try more than one to find what works best for you. Since apnea generally gets worse with age, treatments may lose their effectiveness over time. CPAP machines and dental appliances are usually adjustable to accommodate this situation. In the most serious cases, various types of surgery may become necessary. The good news is that with proper treatment, your quality of sleep can be improved, along with your overall health, happiness, and family life.

For additional information, consult the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/about/ncsdr/index.htm.

Providing services for sleep apnea in San Ramon to Danville, CA and beyond.