According to new Swedish research, fifty percent of females suffer from sleep apnea.
Sleep apnea is a serious sleep disorder that is characterized by stop-starts in breathing during the night, as well as loud, intermittent snoring.
This disorder causes a range of unpleasant and dangerous side effects, such as daytime fatigue, loss of mental acuity, headaches, and a predisposition to certain diseases and health conditions, such as heart disease, stroke and diabetes.
If you suspect that you may have sleep apnea, it’s really important to find out for sure. Sometimes, snoring at night is a signal that something is wrong. If you snore, and you often feel weary during the day, chances are good that you do have some degree of sleep apnea.
Even the mildest cases of obstructive sleep apnea need treatment, so seeing a doctor and discussing your concerns is very important.
However, most women don’t realize that they suffer from the disease. By treating sleep apnea (whether mild, moderate or severe) with the right therapy, women may free themselves from even the worst symptoms of this sleep disorder, and thereby avoid the detrimental, long-term health consequences that sleep apnea is known to bring.
Risk Factors for Sleep Apnea
Risk factors for sleep apnea include being an overweight woman and/or suffering from high blood pressure. Women with these risk factors have an eight in ten chance of developing obstructive sleep apnea (the most common form of apnea sleep disorder). Also known as OSA, sleep apnea degrades quality of life, and often triggers emotional outbursts, mood swings, and depression.
Since the body is starved of the vital rest and deep sleep that it needs, women who live with sleep apnea may wonder why they always feel tired and irritable, despite sleeping through the night.
Another negative symptom of sleep apnea is that is may trigger memory problems, or accelerate the slide into dementia. If you’re a female with these health issues in your family medical history, getting treatment for your obstructive sleep apnea (ask your physician for a sleep study test) should be priority one.
This sleep disorder affects females of all ages, although it’s more common in the fifty-five and up group. A physician will be able to analyze sleep study results and decide if a patient has mild, moderate or severe sleep apnea.
CPAP Therapy is the Answer to Sleep Apnea Health Problems
While losing weight and changing your lifestyle may lead to a lower body weight and improvements to blood pressure health problems, making lifestyle changes may not be enough to eradicate obstructive sleep apnea.
For women, using CPAP machines that keep the airway open and unobstructed during the nighttime hours is the key to deeper sleep and fewer health problems.
Women who use this form of continuous positive airway pressure enjoy truly refreshing rest, better cognitive functioning, stable moods, and better overall health. CPAP machines are hooked up to soft, supple CPAP nasal masks, and the cost of these machines and CPAP accessories may be covered by your medical insurance.
Get the restful, healthy sleep that you deserve…choose CPAP therapy today.
