Central Sleep Apnea
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Central Sleep Apnea
Central Sleep Apnea is the less common type of Sleep Apnea.
"Apnea" is a Greek word meaning "without breath." An apnea is clinically defined as a cessation of breath that lasts at least ten seconds.
Central Sleep Apnea is a sleep disorder characterised by brief interruptions of breathing during sleep when the area of your brain that controls your breathing doesn't send the correct signals to your breathing muscles and you have one or more pauses in breathing or shallow breaths while you sleep.
Diagnosis
In reality these breathing pauses can last from a few seconds to minutes. They often occur 5 to 30 times or more an hour. Typically, normal breathing then starts again, sometimes with a loud snort or choking sound and a body jerk.
When diagnosed, Central Sleep Apnea is usually a chronic (ongoing) condition that disrupts your sleep 3 or more nights each week. You often move out of deep sleep and into a light sleep for brief moments of wakefulness when your breathing pauses during or restarts after a Central Sleep Apnea event. This results in poor sleep quality that makes you tired during the day.
Significant risk factors include being male, overweight and over the age of forty, but sleep apnea can strike anyone at any age, even children.
Millions of people worldwide have been diagnosed with Central Sleep Apnea with just as many, if not more still unaware of their condition.
Central Sleep Apnea happens when the area of your brain that controls your breathing doesn't send the correct signals to your breathing muscles and you make no effort to breathe for brief periods. This usually continues until the oxygen level in your blood stream depletes to a critical level triggering a strong enough stimuli to the brain to restart your breathing.
Central Sleep Apnea can also be associated with weakness of the breathing muscles but is usually found to be associated with obstructive sleep apnea and when this happens, this is the third category of sleep apnea called "mixed" apnea. Central Sleep Apnea is normally not associated with snoring.
Central Sleep Apnea is usually diagnosed following a sleep study that is normally completed at a sleep center under a controlled and monitored environment. During the sleep study recordings of brain activity, eye movement and other muscle activity, breathing and heart rate, as well as the amount of oxygen in your blood are measured throughout the night and study.
Central Sleep Apnea Treatment
Due to the lack of awareness by the public and healthcare professionals, the vast majority of apnea cases remain undiagnosed and therefore untreated.
Untreated, Central Sleep Apnea can lead to high blood pressure and other cardiovascular disease, memory problems, weight gain, impotency, and headaches. Moreover, untreated Central Sleep Apnea may be responsible for job impairment and motor vehicle accidents due to fatigue and moments of random sleep events.
Fortunately, Central Sleep Apnea can be diagnosed and treated. A range of treatment options exist for both Obstructive and Central Sleep Apnea with research into additional options continuing.