Sleep Apnea or Snoring – Causes and Symptoms

Before I explain about causes and symptoms of sleep apnea or snoring, let me first explain what is Sleep Apnea or Snoring?

When I was searching for the data I found these simple definitions;

Sleep Apnea: Sleep apnea (AP-ne-ah) is a common disorder in which you have one or more pauses in breathing or shallow breaths while you sleep. Each pause in breathing, called an apnea, can last from a few seconds to minutes, and may occur 5 to 30 times or more an hour. (Reference Wikipedia)

Snoring: Many children snore on occasion and about 10 percent or more snore on most nights. Snoring is a noise that occurs during sleep when the child is breathing in and there is some blockage of air passing through the back of the mouth. The opening and closing of the air passage causes a vibration of the tissues in the throat. The loudness is affected by how much air is passing through and how fast the throat tissue is vibrating. Children who are three years or older tend to snore during the deeper stages of sleep. (Reference NSF)

Let’s discuss further;

Occasional snoring may be normal to children. Recent studies show that 3 to 12 percent of children between the age of 1 and 9 snores. But frequency doesn’t mean normality. Habitual snoring can be a cause of a more serious medical condition called obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) or simply, sleep apnea.

Sleep apnea is a condition characterized by loud snoring with periods of breathing interruptions. Interruptions may be short or prolonged, usually between 5 to 30 seconds. During this period, the child’s could not get straight sleep. He rouses and moves to another sleeping position, then resumes sleep. After a while he will once again begin snoring. This activity often happens several times during the night, each night. Although this condition rarely appears on children, it is very important that parents should watch out for symptoms that come along with it.

Symptoms of sleep apnea include

Poor speech habits – talking that sounds like words over a mouthful of hot potato.     

Reduced growth rate. Children suffering from sleep apnea use more energy in breathing during the night. During meals, they tend to eat slowly since it is hard for them to breathe and chew at the same time. The result is, they have insufficient nutrients to support their growth.      

Hyperactivity. Lack of sleep can cause drowsiness on children during the day. To stay awake, children act frantically.      

Poor performance in school. Since children do not get the right sleep during the night, they tend to appear tired and lack the concentration to focus at school, thus, having a poor performance.

When these symptoms are visible, it is imperative for parents to bring their child to a pediatrician and have him examined. A child can be happy and smiling when he is brought to the doctor and therefore, it is difficult to diagnose if he really has sleep apnea. Parents are advised to record their child’s snoring so that the doctor can analyze the situation in actually.

Meanwhile, sleep apnea is not the sole reason why children snore. Other reasons include allergy attack, obesity, asthma, and enlargement of adenoids and /or tonsils caused by cold or tonsillitis.

Some allergy attacks can cause swelling on the linings of the nose that can direct to the enlargement of adenoids. This keeps the child from breathing normally. This causes the child to snore. After the allergy attack, the snoring stops.

Obesity can also lead to snoring. In fact, 20% and 40% of the obese children snore. This is because fats can form around the throat that can cause constriction and makes the limited airways. Also, fats in the stomach can cause the diaphragm to function irregularly Under development of the jaw inside the womb can cause snoring as well. There is also the possibility that the nerves and the muscles cannot control the airway properly and cause that child to snore.

Enlargement of adenoids and/or tonsils caused by cold or tonsillitis also results to snoring.  

While cold or tonsillitis can be cured by decongestant and antibiotics, adenoid enlargement is treated by surgical procedure to remove adenoids and tonsils.

Asthma is said to be another cause why children snore. A study revealed that 40% of the children diagnosed with asthma snore.

I hope the above article helped you to understand what is sleep apnea or snoring and what are the causes and symptoms.

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Maintain Your Fitness – Save Your Life

How fitness can save your life? Well it’s simple. Before I explain, do not confuse fitness with muscle building. If you are physically fit and active in your life that means you are saving yourself. Your physical fitness could reflect on your mental and emotional health. Fitness relates to physical activity.  Many people consider as trimming or muscle building or a daily marathon.  If you do a regular exercise (say 30 minutes) or a daily walk can help you keep fit.

Probably you have noticed, when you go to a gym or a fitness center, the trainers are frustrated with trainees who want to be fit but do not want to do as he/she is instructing. There is a wrong misconception that just buying a tread mill or Sauna belt or even taking supplements will do a magic and they will become fit.

I know many of my friends hiding their exercise equipment under the bed and use their treadmill for other purposes i.e. as a clothes hanger etc. Important is not just to buy an expensive automatic state-of-the-art treadmill, important is their use. You do not expect to be fit next day. It is not a magic.

Just watching TV, looking beautiful models who are selling gadgets on TV will not help you to be fit. People say “it’s not easy to be fit” but I say “it’s not that hard too”.  You have to be motivated and consistent to see the results of being fit, feeling benefits and seeing benefits.

So when I say “fitness can save our life” means you see many healthy benefits in your daily life. For example;

When you do an exercise, it has a direct effect on the heart. When you do physical exercise it increases oxygen supply to the heart, decreases oxygen demands and improves the strength of the heart muscle contractions.Physical exercises reduce the blood pressure.

If you have type 2 diabetics or you have family history of diabetics it is important to improve blood sugar levels and you can do it by doing regular exercise.The New England Medical Journal states in a study of over 84,000 middle-aged women, who exercised moderately or vigorously for 30 minutes a day, slashed their risk of heart disease by 80% (these women did not smoke cigarettes, were not overweight and maintained a healthful diet). 

When compared active people with in-active ones, sedentary people have almost double the risk of developing or dying from coronary heart disease.So the question is how to get started? Some tips to get you started;Make a checklist or get an exam before starting any fitness program.

Note down all activities you enjoy doing each day.Don’t expect fitness results to happen overnight. Start Slowly.A personal trainer will solve your problem of having in-consistency, lack of progressive program, lack of coaching and or self motivation.It is always recommended to start your program as a team. Invite a friend, spouse or family member to join you.

Program should have objectives or set goals. Setting goals will help you to see the trend or progress of your workouts.As I mentioned above, consistency is the key to your success. If you don’t your expected results don’t be frustrated. Do not stop your exercises. If you stop, you will never get the results. 

Results aren’t just how you look, its how you feel and your level of health.Do not take exercise as a burden. Just enjoy getting full benefits of it. Take it as a quality time of your life.

So instead of spending time reading this article or exploring more on the web, just make a plan, write down and follow. Make things simple at the beginning to get the real benefits.

If I, a lazy person can do then you surely can do as well. After all it’s your own life and your own fitness.

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