Snoring: Is it a joke?
Well, if you do think snoring is funny, its time to start worrying. Snoring is a symptom of a disorder named Obstructive Sleep Apnea.
Whats that you say? Never heard of this in your life? Well its time we start being aware. Here's a tip on how popular is sleep apnea. Try Google and you'll get 7,250,000 results for the search "sleep apnea", and the number is growing.
"Apnea" means "without breath" in Greek. Obstructive Sleep Apnea (also known as OSA) is a sleeping disorder where one stop breathing for more than 10 seconds during their sleep. Sometimes the apnea might last as long as a minute and could happen more than a hundred times throughout a night. It is caused by either partial or complete obstruction of the airway.
Sleep apnea affects about 20% of the US adult population and that would be about 18 million Americans. Although sleep apnea is as prevalent as diabetes or asthma in Malaysia the shocking truth is that only a few thousand people are aware that they have this problem. Many didn't even know what sleep apnea is!
Sleep apnea could eventually lead to various cardiovascular and heart diseases, stroke, hypertension, and much more. As you can see these are diseases that you should be worried about.
If you (or your family) have any of the following symptoms, please read on for further information or visit your doctor for advice.
- Always sleepy during daytime
- Did not feel refreshed even after a long night sleep
- Loud snoring
- Poor short term memory
- Wake up with headache or a dry throat
- Frequent wake up in the night
Well, as a health-conscious youth, I believe it is time for you to read on and test your "Risk index" for sleep apnea.
