Obstructive Sleep Apnoea Signs and Symptoms

The main symptom of Obstructive Sleep Apnoea, is a pause in your breathing when you are asleep. This is caused by a blockage of the soft tissue around your airways. Episodes of interrupted breathing are often easily observed by others when an individual is sleeping. The sleeper, however, might not know these breathing pauses are happening. Another common symptom of Obstructive Sleep Apnoea or OSA that you may experience is tiredness resulting from a lack of deep sleep.

 

Most people with OSA snore loudly. Their breathing may be loud and long, and it is often interrupted by gasping, snorting or choking in their sleep with each Apnoea event.

If you have OSA, you may have no memory of your interrupted breathing during the night. However, when you wake up, you are likely to feel as though you have not slept poorly and struggle to focus throughout the day.

Symptoms of Sleep Apnoea symptoms can be confused with other health issues or sleep disorders. It’s crucial to know the signs so you can identify if you have Sleep Apnoea.

 

 

Signs and Symptoms of Obstructive Sleep Apnoea:

 

icon cross Gasping and choking during sleep

You can gasp for air because you are choking during sleep. During an Apnoea episode, if your airway is blocked, your brain will wake you up. This is to help you breathe again and can cause gasping or choking noises.

icon cross Snoring

As you sleep, the soft tissue in your airways can relax and vibrate as air passes over it, causing the snoring noise. Snoring can be caused by soft tissue in your nose, mouth, tongue, tonsils, or uvula.

icon cross Feeling excessively tired during the day

When you experience a pause in breathing, your brain reacts to the lack of oxygen by momentarily waking you up. Anyone who experiences this can stop breathing for as much as 10 seconds with each event. Sleep Apnoea can occur up to one hundred times every hour in severe cases.

The whole process then repeats regularly as the person drifts off into a deeper sleep, only to be roused again soon after having another Apnoea event. The individual is usually completely unaware of all this, and rarely do they wake entirely but merely return to a lighter level of sleep. They then wake up still tired and may struggle with daytime fatigue throughout the day.

icon cross Anxiety and depression

Not getting enough sleep due to Sleep Apnoea can show signs similar to those in certain mental health disorders. However, it’s not yet clear how much this lack of sleep might contribute to the development of psychiatric symptoms in people.

icon cross High blood pressure

Sudden drops in blood oxygen levels that occur during Sleep Apnoea increase blood pressure and strain the cardiovascular system. Having Obstructive Sleep Apnoea increases your risk of high blood pressure (Hypertension).

icon cross Lack of interest in sex

Lack of good sleep can make you feel tired during the day and night, and when paired with depression, it might impact your sexual desire. While the exact reasons are unclear, research suggests there is a connection The sufferer’s partner can also be affected by the snoring, which leads to them suffering sleep loss.

icon cross Irritability and a short temper

Not getting enough sleep due to Sleep Apnoea can affect your mood and how alert you feel.

In our brains, there are two chemicals, glutamate and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), that play a big role in our emotions and awareness. These chemicals are in a brain area called the insula, which helps manage our emotions by combining signals from different brain parts. It also affects our thinking skills and controls things like blood pressure and sweating.

People with Sleep Apnoea often have lower levels of GABA and too much glutamate. GABA helps us stay calm, while glutamate does the opposite. High levels of glutamate can increase stress and make it hard for the brain to work properly.

icon cross Poor Memory and Concentration

Sleep loss can affect the prefrontal cortex activity, a part of your brain that helps with concentration. It’s thought that people who don’t get good sleep struggle to turn short-term memories into long-term ones. Storing memories, which means keeping experiences in a way that you can remember them later, is an important part of how our memory works and this usually happens when we sleep.

icon cross Frequent toilet visits during the night

If you experience the need for frequent toilet visits during the night, this could be the result of a condition called Nocturia. Nocturia is very common in Sleep Apnoea patients. But how does Sleep Apnoea cause Nocturia? During episodes of Sleep Apnoea, the soft structures in the throat relax and close off the airway, setting a chain of physical events into motion.

 

  1. Firstly, your oxygen decreases.
  2. Then, Carbon dioxide increases.
  3. Your blood becomes more acidic.
  4. The heart rate drops.
  5. Then, your blood vessels in the lungs start to constrict.

 

The body is alerted that something is wrong. The sleeper must wake enough to reopen the airway. By this time, the heart is racing and experiences a false signal of fluid overload. The heart releases a hormone-like protein that tells the body to get rid of sodium and water, resulting in Nocturia.

icon cross Headaches

Morning headaches can happen when you have Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA). This condition causes you to stop breathing briefly while you sleep, which lowers the oxygen in your blood.

Because of this, your lungs end up holding onto air that’s mostly carbon dioxide, a waste gas. This carbon dioxide-rich air gets into your bloodstream. Having less oxygen and more carbon dioxide in your blood can affect your brain, and that’s why you might get headaches when you have Sleep Apnoea.

icon cross Impotence (erectile dysfunction) and OSA

Scientists don’t know exactly why men can have erectile dysfunction, but sleep deprivation can cause testosterone levels to drop. This testosterone dip, plus the lack of oxygen, could be the cause. Both are important for a healthy erection. Stress (anxiety) and fatigue can also be contributing fact.

Sleep Apnoea Causes & Risk Factors

OSA is caused by the throat muscles relaxing during sleep causing the airway to narrow or close, reducing the airflow.

Risk factors vary from person to person, common factors include:

  • Body mass index (DMI): There is an increased risk of developing the condition in those with a higher body weight. This is because excess fatty tissue can accumulate around the throat, making an airway obstruction more likely.
  • Age: As we age the throat muscles deteriorate, which can increase the risk of OSA.
  • Physical features: Different anatomical features can increase the risk. These include large tonsils, a wider neck and a small and lower jaw.
  • Family history: If Sleep Apnoea runs in your family you are more likely to develop it.
  • Nasal congestion: If you suffer from frequent nasal congestion due to allergies, colds or a deviated septum you are at a higher risk.
  • Smoking: Smoking increases the risk by as much as three times compared to those who do not smoke.

 

 

at home sleep apnoea test on arm | CPAP.co.uk

Diagnosing Sleep Apnoea

If you have any of the symptoms of Sleep Apnoea you should get tested for the condition. You can do this by visiting your GP, although waiting times can be long. Alternatively, you can take a private Sleep Apnoea test from the comfort of your own home.

Our Home Sleep Test is a quick way to determine if your have OSA. The simple test records your sleep for one night and once complete your results are returned within two working days.

All sleep studies are analysed by our NHS trained sleep clinicians and any treatment recommendations can be purchased from us.