You may be one of the many people who have heard of sleep apnea and are wondering what exactly the signs are. Unfortunately the occurance of sleep apnea is rising it not something to be trivialized. Sleep apnea, if ignored, can cause toxins in the blood to build up until you run the risk of damage to muscles and organs – the brain included. So, if you think there is a chance that you have sleep apnea what should you do about it?

Firstly, when asking what the signs of signs of sleep apnea are remember that just because you have restless nights when you keep waking up it does not mean that you have sleep apnea. You could be waking up because you’ve drunk too much coffee, you’re under stress or even simply because of a lack of exercise. So what’s the difference between sleep apnea and just general problems sleeping?

Symptoms of sleep apnea can include bad headaches, irritability and mood swings, stiff neck, sore throat, daytime drowsiness and muscular aches and pains. Night time symptoms include loud snoring together with choking, gasping and wheezing. These symptoms are especially appropriate with sleep apnea because they signal that the body is having trouble breathing during sleep. You have to be aware of both night and day symptoms. Bad headaches can be caused by lots of reasons, as can irritability. However, gasping, choking, wheezing, and loud snoring during the night are almost always signs of sleep apnea.

Anyway sleep apnea should not be self-diagnosed so if you suspect you might have it then you must really visit your doctor. Not only can sleep apnea cause serious health complications, it can actually be fatal, so be sure to take your symptoms seriously and, if need be get it treated right away.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 at 8:34 pm and is filed under Sleeping & Snoring. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.