What causes Central sleep apnea?
January 30th, 2011
I have been diagnosed with both central and obstructive sleep apnea.
My sleep studies both showed that I do got 0.00% delta sleep, which I understand is the deepest sleep, and allows the brain to do its regulation and restoration of necessary functions, such as sending growth hormone into the body.
Is there any way to know why I am not making the effort to breathe at certain times in the night?
I am about to go on C-PAP, but am not convinced that I will get delta sleep.
Thank you for any helpful responses-
Hello Flam!
Here is what I learned about central sleep apnea:
A person with central apnea has issues with the respiratory center from the brain. The respiratory center controls the chest muscles to make breathing movements.
When the respiratory center stops working during sleep, then your breathing stops, too. The brain does not respond to the changes of the respiratory gas levels from the blood (oxygen and carbon dioxide).
In central apnea, you stop breathing in sleep for a period of time (at least 10 seconds), but there is no effort to breathe at all like in obstructive sleep apnea. Therefore snoring is not present in central apnea.
But I understand you have a mixed sleep apnea, so you have obstructive apnea symptoms, too. Snoring is one of the symptoms.
The cause of central apnea is unknown, but there are risk factors that can influence the development, such as:
* age
* gender
* sleep state
* thyroid disease
* neurological or cardiological abnormalities
I hope it helps!
January 30th, 2011 at 3:09 pm
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January 30th, 2011 at 3:55 pm
The cause of central sleep apnea is generally unknown. For some reason, nerve impulses fail to stimulate the muscles that control breathing. It is most likely a problem originating in the lower brain stem. If you control the apnea, you will probably solve the delta sleep problem, but you won’t know until you test it out. You don’t really have any other options besides C-PAP or similar devices for central sleep apnea unless its caused by congestive heart failure or a tumor – these are the only causes that can be treated.
References :