Sleep apnea is a disorder in which patients start and stop breathing throughout the night. This is usually the result of relaxation in the muscles at the back of your throat. When these muscles relax too much, surrounding tissues such as the soft palate, tongue, and nasal passages also relax, which can cause the airway to narrow.
A common sign of sleep apnea is waking up abruptly multiple times throughout the night. When the brain senses that the oxygen level in the blood is low, it wakes you up so that your air passages reopen. In most cases,the interruption to sleep is so short that you won’t remember waking up at all, but your sleep partner may.
Sleep apnea can interrupt normal sleep phases and prevent you from achieving deep sleep through out the night,which is why many people with the condition find themselves feeling sleepy throughout the day. Sleep apneais often linked to a variety of other illnesses and conditions, including diabetes and obesity. It can also have severe effects on the cardiovascular system, putting patients at risk of hypertension, strokes,and heartattacks.
If you believe you have sleep apnea, your dentist can perform a variety of tests and examinations to check the tissues in your air passages. After that, a sleep study (at home or in a sleep clinic) may be necessary to confirm the diagnosis