How do I know if I have sleep apnea? If you have trouble staying asleep or if you feel excessively tired during the daytime, you may suffer from sleep apnea. This common condition causes disruptions in your breathing pattern during sleep, leading to poor quality rest. Left untreated, sleep apnea can leave you feeling exhausted and affect your overall health. If you get concerned that you may have sleep apnea, there are a few things you need to know about sleep apnea.
Article Overview
1. What Is Sleep Apnea?
2. What Are the Warning Signs of Sleep Apnea?
3. Who’s at Risk for Sleep Apnea?
4. 4 Ways to Diagnose Sleep Apnea Without a Sleep Study
5. How Wellue Helps Treat Apnea？
What Is Sleep Apnea?
Sleep apnea is a chronic condition that causes you to stop breathing during sleep. This can lead to snoring, disrupted sleep, and daytime fatigue. The good news is that sleep apnea can get treated with lifestyle changes, devices, or surgery. If you think you might have sleep apnea, talk to your doctor about getting tested.
Did you know that sleep apnea is a condition that affects over 18 million Americans? If you have sleep apnea, you may not be getting the restful night’s sleep you need. This condition can cause daytime fatigue, headaches, and even heart problems. Make sure you seek the best treatment if you’re affected by this condition!
What Are the Warning Signs of Sleep Apnea?
While there are no definite rules for detecting and diagnosing sleep apnea, there are some common warning signs. A person may become at increased risk of sleep apnea if they are overweight, particularly if it gets concentrated in the neck. This accumulation of weight predisposes an individual to obstruction of the upper airways, a significant characteristic of sleep apnea.
Other warning signs include:
- Habitual snoring in an individual’s family or friends
- Frequently waking up with a dry mouth or sore throat
- Frequently waking up tired
- Excessive daytime dizziness
- Loud snoring
- Morning headaches
- Difficulty concentrating during the day
If an individual is experiencing any of these symptoms, they should consult their physician, who can help diagnose sleep apnea, or carefully monitor the causes of these symptoms.
Who’s at Risk for Sleep Apnea?
People who are at risk for sleep apnea include those who:
- Are overweight. Being obese increases a person’s chance of developing obstructive sleep apnea.
- Are over the age of 40. As people age, they lose muscle tone in their throat and air passages, making sleep apnea more likely.
- Have a large neck size. People with larger necks often have narrower airways and are at risk for sleep apnea.
- Have a family history of sleep apnea. If a person’s parents or siblings have obstructive sleep apnea, they are at a higher risk of developing it as well.
People who spend time sitting or lying down during the day and those who use sedatives, such as alcohol and tranquilizers, are more likely to develop sleep apnea. It may also relate the condition to fatigue at work or motor vehicle accidents.
Most common cause:
Obesity
The most common cause of sleep apnea is obesity, but the sleeping position of the patient may also exacerbate sleep apnea. The more a person weighs, the less muscle tone they have in their throat, and the more likely that the soft tissue in their airways will obstruct their air passage. If they are lying on their back, it will be easier for the tissue to collapse and block their airway.
Lying on One’s Back
Lying on one’s back contributes to sleep apnea for several reasons. When a person is lying on their back, the tongue and soft palate fall toward the back of the throat. This makes it harder for a person to breathe, especially when the muscles in their throat relax while they sleep. However, if someone has sleep apnea and lies on their back, they are more likely to be aware of the condition.
The best position for people who suffer from sleep apnea is on their side. This will help keep the airways open and allow the person to continue breathing freely throughout his or her sleep.
4 Ways to Diagnose Sleep Apnea Without a Sleep Study
How do I know if I have sleep apnea?
Can I Test Myself for Sleep Apnea? How can I do a self-test?
Sure, there are several ways to perform a test on yourself for sleep apnea, and can even get done without your doctor’s knowledge. These test ways are especially effective for those patients who do not feel sleepy during the day or have difficulty sleeping.
We will cover four common techniques below:
- Judging Symptoms: There are many symptoms that can help determine whether you have sleep apnea. They include waking up tired in the morning, difficulty concentrating during the day, feeling sleepy during the day, loud night breathing, morning headaches, and even high blood pressure.
- Snoring testing with a mirror: The first step is to listen to your own snoring with a mirror. Listen for a raspy, loud snore. If you can actually see your jaw moving during the night while you are snoring, then you are at high risk of having sleep apnea.
- Sleep Apnea testing with a recording: This technique involves wearing a small recording device on your belt to measure how much you snore, if at all. To get an accurate reading of how much you snore, it is best to have someone else sleeping in the room with you, since snoring can vary depending on your position in bed.
- Home testing for sleeping positions: There are home tests that measure your blood oxygen levels. This is very easy to do, but you will need access to a computer to download the software and print out your results. These tests require you to wear a small clip on your finger as you sleep.
In fact, the biggest obstacle to accurate diagnosis is often not a serious medical problem but an inaccurate self-diagnosis.
How Wellue Helps Treat Apnea?
Wellue O2ring monitor is used to treat patients with breathing problems. This is a common, effective and inexpensive way to diagnose sleep apnea.
Wellue O2ring is very useful for individuals who suffer from sleep apnea.
It involves wearing a special ring on your finger at night. The ring gets hooked up to a recording device that will track your pulse and blood oxygen levels. Every night, it measures the patient’s blood oxygen saturation level and pulse wave. When the level of oxygen in the blood falls below a certain point, the device sounds an alarm to wake up the patient. With this device, patients can avoid the effects of sleep apnea.
The monitor measures the user’s pulse wave using this red light. When blood clots, it blocks the flow of oxygen and causes a slight change in the pulse wave.
When the user lies down at bedtime, Wellue O2Ring automatically starts measuring his or her oxygen saturation and pulse rate. The device takes a reading in 4-second intervals. If the monitor detects that the patient has stopped breathing, it emits an alarm and illuminates light to wake the patient up.
You will not need to go through a sleep study or have any in-depth medical knowledge to use this device effectively.
We are dedicated to developing products with medical-grade accuracy but consumer friendly, finding an easier and more modern way to track your wellness, we believe you can get peace of mind to live a healthier and longer life.
