Sleep Apnea – A Sleeping Epidemic

I had sleep apnea when I was younger due to very large tonsils and adenoids. They were taken out when I was four years old. I am now 18 and have been having difficulties falling and staying asleep for around four or five years now. I was wondering if there is any connection.

Some patients have problems even if they had surgery. For example, if you had big adenoids, then surgery can be an important step to do, avoiding complications with a CPAP machine for the rest of your life. However, did you know that some sleep apnea patients had the same difficulties in sleep even they’ve had removed the tonsils and adenoids?

One of the reasons is that they have another cause for their sleep disorder, like fat around their neck, a big tongue that can obstruct the airways in sleep, or central sleep apnea.

Went to a sleep apnea test. What else can Physicians tell about such a test. I was hocked up to about 36 different electro cables.
Thanks. I looked very funny after being hocked up to all these electrodes.
Thanks. I looked very funny after being hocked up to all these electrodes.

A polysonogram or sleep study can identify about 80 plus different sleep disoders. Sleep apnea is by far the most common. It can tell if you have any siezures or brain wave abnormalities from the EEG They can tell if you have any heart rythm abnormalities from the EKG. The leg wires are EMG and they can tell if you have restless leg syndrome. The wire on your finger can tell what your oxygen level is all night. Other wires include the snore microphone, flow sensor (in the nose), the face electrodes are generally EMG wires. They can tell when you are in REM. The belts around the chest are to show respiratory and abdominal effort. It helps to determine if you have central sleep apnea vs. obstructive sleep apnea.

Hope this helps

Recently, I’ve noticed that I cannot breathe at night. I was just wondering if someone would be able to distinguish if it was central or obstructive. First off, I do regularly experience sleep paralysis, however this newer sensation of not breathing is unlike that of having slight difficulty breathing with sleep paralysis. There is usually some sort of a weird sensation in my stomach area and my guess is that my diaphragm stops functioning normally. The first time I noticed this, I may have been in the midst of a sleep paralysis episode so there was a tingly sensation traveling up my spine and then pain at the base of my neck. Normally I do not experience pain with my sleep paralysis episodes, so I found this a bit odd. Also, this may seem ridiculous, but I would like to mention that my sleep paralysis is usually accompanied by hallucinations, sometimes of limbs flailing around (kind of like having a seizure) so this "not breathing" may also just be my imagination.

I am 19 years old and weigh ~120lbs (I am 5’4”), but I’ve been steadily gaining weight for the past 5 years, so weight may or may not be a problem. I try not to sleep on my back to minimize the frequency of sleep paralysis episodes (the last two times I experienced what I suspect is sleep apnea, I was on my side, so I am led to believe that sleep paralysis is irrelevant). The softness/hardness of mattresses do not seem to affect whether or not I stop breathing (as a college student, I regularly switch between sleeping at home and on campus). Also, I am very out of touch with myself so I cannot say whether I am stressed or not and therefore how stress may be affecting me (some people find this odd, but this is how I’ve been all my life). My dad has been diagnosed with sleep apnea, but we do not talk very much so I do not know a lot about it.

Lastly, I may consider discussing this with a doctor, but spontaneous death while sleeping due to sleep apnea is somewhat infrequent. I am already becoming accustomed to this so I doubt that I will mention it to anyone who will recommend that I use a CAPA machine or take medication for my sleep paralysis.

You will not be able to find out if you have CSA or OSA without either a sleep Sudy or have someone actually watch your breathing. If you do not have a neurological disorder, I doubt you have Central Sleep Apnea.

You can start a journal to get back in touch withyourselfl and personal observations. Include the following 1.snoringg, 2. apnea events that awaken you, 3. morning headaches, 4. frequent nighttime urination, 4. excessive daytime sleepiness, 6. falling sleep at inappropriate places (cars, class, social setting), and 5. if you have family history of sleep disorders.

At some time this may be valuable to take to your doctor forassessmentt.

they’re saying my just-turned 14-year-old has this, and that it’s very rare for children to have this type. they did an mri of her brain and brain stem! any idea why? i was talking in front of her, so i didn’t ask the doctor, as i didn’t want to scare her.
just some little ‘adds’, if they could help: she’s adopted. i know her bmom smoked, but plenty do, and their kids don’t have that problem (right?). it’s also possible she did some partying before she kne she was pregnant, but again, i can’t find a correlation in any research online.
thanks for any help you can offer.

Central Sleep Apnea happens when breathing stops with no obstruction. So, no effort was made to breath.

In many ways this breathing pause is a distraction from the real problem and actually corrective of that problem. The real problem is excessive breathing. This washes out necessary CO2 and in doing so causes the blood vesicles to close down as well as frustrating oxygen transport, especially in the brain. The effort becomes so great that an arousal (partial awakening) occurs, the brain sees that breathing has gotten out of hand and so stops the process allowing the CO2 levels to catch up and circulation, along with oxygenation, to resume.

They are looking at your child’s brain stem because many of the controlling centers for their chemoreflexes are believed to be there (chemoreflexes are breathing reflexes driving breathing to respond to blood gas levels).

Here are some things I have found helpful to maintain good breathing control at night:

Anything you can do to make them feel loved and reduce the stress they deal with.
Reduction and/or elimination of violent media
Less carbs and especially sugars near bed time.
Good exercise during the day – long walks (with some running if practical).
Eating well.
A set bed time with a quiet time preceeding.

May we all find good health!

Lately I been having problems falling asleep right before infall asleep its like I forget to breath and it keeps happening to the point I pull an all nighter cause im too scared to fall asleep and get anxiety really bad. It happens every once and a while in a couple of nights in a row so I don’t get much sleep I feel like crap the next day. I really want sleep so bad. I did see the doctor the other day for my high blood pressure they checked my heart they said its healthy they checked my lungs its also healthy I took a blood and urine test and liver kidneys electrolytes are normal idk what’s causing it. I do have anxiety about my health and I do have post nasal drip at the moment but idk if that’s the cause. Im 19 and I am probably I little over weight and I do need to change my diet could that be the cause?

These are called sleep onset centrals; and are very normal. These occur when the brain is switching from conscious breathing to unconscious breathing. Think of it as a switching process. I see these all the time during the sleep studies I perform.

gn sleep well relax practice "sleep hygiene"

They spoke of how horrible it will be — congested nose, pain in throat and ears — all for a 60% chance of it helping. So, she goes through terrible pain for 2 straight weeks, just to find it didn’t help.. Then I forced my child to go thru painful, ineffective SURGERY.
Her numbers were high, and she was listed as SEVERE. They did an MRI of her brain and found nothing. So no idea how it got to be CENTRAL, not so much obstructive. I really need advice.

My daughter (age 9) just had a tonsils and adenoid taken out because of apnea. It was not two weeks of severe pain, she was playing soccer a week later. Yes, she said it hurt but said it wasn’t that bad, as long as she kept with the pain meds. She actually said that she wishes they would grow back so she could get them out again for the benefit of gifts, endless popsicle, and special treatments (ok, maybe she is a ‘bit’ weird). The ear pain is what got her the most, she said the throat wasn’t that bad…but after she took the meds she was fine 15 minutes later.

As for why they would take them out for central sleep apnea when obstruction is not causing it, I have no idea. Do more research on that. But, if taking them out will help even a little then fear not about the horror stories, its not as bad with modern technology.

This is for an overweight (30 bmi) teenager, who one year before weighed less than 80 pounds. (One last question: couldn’t losing weight fix the problem?)
Here’s a synopsis of the report:
Respiratory:
Total central apneas: 89
Total hypopneas: 98
Mean duration of apneas: 8.1 seconds
Longest apnea: 14.6 seconds

Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI): 27.5 events/hour
AHI during stage REM sleep: 33.5 events/hour
AHI in the supine position: 66.5 events/hour

Oxygenation: (I *think* all this part is good … right? wrong?)
Mean SpO2: 95%
Time spent with saturations less than 88%: 0.6% of total sleep time.
End tidal CO2 showed no significant hypoventilation.

Conclusions:
1) Patient had evidence of severe central sleep apnea, with an AHI of 27.5 events/hour an an SpO2 nadir of 80%
2) The patient’s sleep-disordered breathing was slightly wore in stage REM sleep and significanty worse in the supine positition.
3) The patient had abnormal sleep architecture.
RECOMMENDATIONS
1) Consider adenotonsillectomy to treat the obstructive component
2) Follow-up 6-8 weeks post surgery to assess clinical response
3) Consider MRI of brain and brain stem if central apneas persist
(*I DON’T GET WHY THEY WOULDN’T AUTOMATICALLY STILL GET MRI DONE. ANY IDEA?)

I would love to hear other people’s thoughts here on this. This is very new to me Funny thing is, I didn’t think the study was going to reveal much, so to hear all this is very confusing. Please feel free to give me your thoughts and suggestions. Thank you!

An adenotonsilectomy will do nothing for central sleep apnea. Central sleep apnea is when you repeatedly stop breathing during sleep because the brain temporarily stops sending signals to the muscles that control breathing. So there is nothing blocking or obstructing the airway.

Some types of central sleep apnea are treated with drugs that stimulate breathing. Patients should avoid the use of any sedative medications. If central sleep apnea is due to heart failure, the goal is to treat the heart failure itself.

MRI: The doctor reading the study would not "order" you to get an MRI because an MRI can be really expensive. If he ordered you to do it and it came up negative or inconclusive, you could file a lawsuit to have him (the ordering doctor) to pay for it because he told you to get an unnecessary test. So doctors use language like "consider" or "recommend".

•Describe the pathology that differentiates primary and secondary central sleep apnea and hypoventilation syndromes

Read this article that puts more light on the causes and treatment of sleep apnea: http://isleepbetter.com/sleeping-disorders/sleep-apnea-causes-and-treatment

I have been recently diagnosed with both obstructive and central sleep apnea (mostly central) and I would really like to know if anyone out there can give me some of the causes. I am 19 years old, did cross country and track intensely in high school (so I think I am healthy?), and probably may have had sleep apnea for about 4 years now. My dad snores a lot and I am definitely not overweight. I just want to know if anyone has heard of a similar case because I would really like answers since I just want to sleep already 🙁 By the way, I am not getting my CPAP until next week because my sleep doctor is looking the results from my second sleep study in regards to the central sleep apnea. Answers will be greatly appreciated!!

Central sleep apnea is when you repeatedly stop breathing during sleep because the brain temporarily stops sending signals to the muscles that control breathing.
Obstructive sleep apnea is a condition in which the flow of air pauses or decreases during breathing while you are asleep because the airway has become narrowed, blocked, or floppy.
A pause in breathing is called an apnea episode. A decrease in airflow during breathing is called a hypopnea episode. Almost everyone has brief apnea episodes while they sleep.

I already had a sleep study, and the doctors said I had apnea, but it was "central apnea." They said I would stop breathing 20+ times during the night. My follow-up MRI was normal. No brain injury, damage or tumor–glad to hear THAT! I am not overweight, and they told me a PPAP or other sleep machine would NOT help me. I would like to know more about "central sleep apnea."

In pure central sleep apnea , the brain’s respiratory control centers are imbalanced during sleep. Blood levels of carbon dioxide, and the neurological feedback mechanism that monitors it do not react quickly enough to maintain an even respiratory rate, with the entire system cycling between apnea and hyperpnea(faster breathing). The sleeper stops breathing, and then starts again. There is no effort made to breathe during the pause in breathing: there are no chest movements and no struggling. After the episode of apnea, breathing may be faster for a period of time, a compensatory mechanism to blow off retained waste gases and absorb more oxygen.In central sleep apnea, the basic neurological controls for breathing rate malfunctions and fails to give the signal to inhale, causing the individual to miss one or more cycles of breathing. Possible causes of central sleep apnea include heart or neuromuscular disorders, and treating those conditions may help.
Here are a couple of treatments you could ask your physician about:
Bilevel positive airway pressure (bi-PAP). Unlike CPAP, which supplies steady, constant pressure to your upper airway as you breathe in and out, bi-PAP builds to a higher pressure when you inhale and decreases to a lower pressure when you exhale. The goal of this treatment is to boost the weak breathing pattern of central sleep apnea. Some bilevel PAP devices can be set to automatically deliver a breath if the device detects you haven’t taken a breath after so many seconds.
Adaptive servo-ventilation (ASV). This more recently approved airflow device is designed to treat central sleep apnea and complex sleep apnea. The device learns your normal breathing pattern and stores the information into a built-in computer. After you fall asleep, the machine uses pressure to normalize your breathing pattern and prevent pauses in your breathing.
Courtesy Mayo Clinic