SLEEP APNEA & MENTAL HEALTH TEST

The Mayo Clinic defines sleep apnea as a potentially serious sleep disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts. These episodes last 10 seconds or more and can occur hundreds of times per night.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is the most common type of sleep apnea. Obstructive sleep apnea is a condition in which the flow of air pauses or decreases during breathing while a person is asleep because the airway has become narrowed, blocked, or floppy.

Central Sleep Apnea occurs when the brain fails to signal the muscles that control breathing.

According to the A.D.A.M. Encyclopedia of Medicine, problems that may occur with sleep apnea include:

• Depression that becomes worse
• -tHyperactive behavior, especially in children

Symptoms of sleep apnea include:

• Memory or learning problems
• Feeling irritable
• Daytime sleepiness even though many hours were spent in bed

Everyone who has sleep apnea snores. In order to be diagnosed with sleep apnea, the patient MUST have a history of snoring.

Children with sleep apnea may adopt strange sleeping positions and suffer from bedwetting, excessive perspiration at night, or night terrors.

Sleep apnea in children can lead to behavior problems, learning problems, developmental problems, personality changes, problems in school and in interpersonal relationships.

Problems in the following areas can result from untreated sleep apnea in children:

• Social
• Behavior and learning
• Enuresis
• Growth
• Obesity
• Cardiovascular

According to AAO-HNSF, a child who exhibits hyperactivity and experiences bed-wetting could be suffering from many diagnoses; however sleep apnea definitely does not contribute to these conditions.

Sleep apnea is seen more frequently among men than among women, particularly African-American and Hispanic men.

According to the American Sleep Apnea Association, sleep apnea is very common, as common as type 2 diabetes.

According to the American Sleep Apnea Association, sleep apnea is very common, as common as type 2 diabetes.

In 2005 there was a study of psychiatric disorders and sleep apnea with Veterans Health Administration beneficiaries. Study data showed a significantly greater prevalence for mood disorders, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, psychosis, and dementia in patients with sleep apnea than patients who did not have sleep apnea.

In March 2012, the CDC reported a link between sleep apnea and depression.

Numerous studies of treatment of obstructive sleep apnea using a CPAP machine have shown improvement in mood disorders, insomnia, anxiety, PTSD symptoms and nightmares.

A Stanford University Medical Center study found that a gene associated with obstructive sleep apnea is also associated with a higher risk of Alzheimers Disease.

Although some studies failed to show a significant correlation between psychiatric disorders and sleep apnea, most revealed a significant association between the psychiatric disorders (specifically depression) and sleep apnea.

Growing evidence indicates that patients with obstructive sleep apnea have an impaired quality of life and impaired neurocognitive functioning.

Studies show that sleep deficiency alters activity in some parts of the brain.

Studies show that sleep plays a role in fertility.

A CPAP machine is a ventilator.

Sleep apnea can be diagnosed and confirmed during a routine physical exam.

In the elderly, sleep deficiency might be linked to an increased risk of falls and broken bones.

A common myth is that people can learn to get by on little sleep with no negative effects.