The sleep disorder that is getting more and more attention is sleep apnea where an individual pauses in breathing for 10-30 seconds at a time, and multiple times each night or nap (up to 400 times a night).

The Greek word, “apnea” means “want of breath” and more than 5 million adults suffer from sleep apnea in Canada alone. It is a chronic health problem and is also a progressive condition which means it can potentially worsen over time, heightening its effects on the body in a number of ways.

Respirologist Dr. Charles Penner is a specialist in the field of sleep apnea and sees patients throughout Westman and Winnipeg out of the RANA aleep apnea Clinics in Brandon and Winnipeg. He says many people who snore are often not aware that they have the condition until a family member encourages them to get their snoring checked out.

Bed partners are often the first to recognize a problem, either through the constant lapse in breathing, or noticing the body’s reaction to a lack of oxygen and the constant waking, moving, thrashing or gasping from their bed mates multiple times in a night. Oftentimes, bed partners sleep in separate beds or rooms just so the non-snorer can get a decent night’s sleep.

Typically, the sleeper is not aware that he has awakened numerous times in the night, and doesn’t understand why he is tired in the morning. Due to the constant interruptions, the sleeper is unable to maintain or in some cases even reach that REM level of sleep that we all require.

Research is showing that sleep apnea causes serious health risks that can be life threatening if left undiagnosed and untreated. This sleep disorder is not age-specific and it affects individuals of every age, including children.

Dr. Penner says the first and most significant health risk to one suffering from sleep apnea is feeling tired throughout the day. This causes a host of problems including poor brain function, greater difficulty attending to tasks with concentration, and randomly falling asleep, all of which can result in difficulty in trying to get through a typical day – as well as increase your risk of traffic accidents.

“It has a negative effect on how your brain functions. People are not as sharp in doing daily tasks when having sleep apnea and there is some relationship in the development of dementia as well if you have untreated sleep apnea.”

Doctor Penner also speaks to the significant increase in blood pressure for those who struggle with this condition.

“But there are other issues,” says Penner. “The risk of having a heart attack or stroke as you get older is about 2 to 3 times higher depending on how severe your sleep apnea is. If it’s mild, the effect is minimal. But once you get into moderate and severe sleep apnea then certainly your risks starts to escalate. When you’re young the risks are low, but as you get older your risks definitely start to become significant.”

Penner says people who have been diagnosed with Depression may actually be suffering from sleep apnea. “Sleep apnea can have similar symptoms to Depression and sometimes people are misdiagnosed with having Depression, or they look like they have Depression, but when we treat their sleep apnea, a lot of that (the symptoms) go away.

So, the question must be asked, “When does snoring become a problem?” Many snorers have gotten used to their mates sleeping in a different room, or catching themselves waking up gasping for air, or struggling through restless nights and they just can’t settle down and relax, or that they’re just plain tired each and every morning. At what point should someone who snores seek medical help?

Dr. Penner says help begins with a referral from your family doctor to get an assessment at either the RANA sleep apnea Clinic in Brandon or Winnipeg, or through the Sleep Disorder Centre in Winnipeg.

Technology has advanced in treatment for the sleep disorder, from the masks to the machines, to other forms of treatment.

The CPAP machine is widely used and works well for many people in keeping airways open throughout the night, by forcing air with gentle pressure through an air mask. “There are two things that are better now,” says Penner. “One is that the mask is designed a lot better. It’s preferable to use a nasal mask where you can breathe through your nose well enough to get enough air in, and it’s a lot more comfortable than wearing a mask that covers your nose and mouth and requires a lot of straps.”

“The second thing that has gotten a lot better is that the machines are quite a bit quieter and smaller. They’re about a large as a box of tissue and they are also “auto-adjusting” so that they adjust the amount of pressure to open the airways depending on the condition of the airway.

The sleep monitor can be “hooked up” to the computer of the sleep clinic provider through the phone system and thus the clinician can see the data directly themselves, through the permission of the client. At first, a client may not recognize if they are tired or just very relaxed in the morning, and they can contact their clinician to check the data to confirm whether there were episodes of restricted breathing or in fact, a night of deep sleep. As well, the clinician can detect if there was a leak from the nose cushions not fitting properly in the wearer’s nostrils, thus causing insufficient air pressure in keeping airways open.

Doctor Penner says other treatments include having an object attached to your back to prevent one from rolling onto their back and prompting them to sleep on their side. Also a mouth guard, much like those worn by hockey players, can help keep the airways open by gently pulling the bottom jaw forward. This device can be acquired through dentists who specialize in this area.

The mystery of sleep apnea is continuing to attract more researchers to study the disorder and is gaining more attention from the public as we learn more about it.

“It’s interesting about health trends,” says Penner. “In the 1970’s you might remember the ‘Participaction’ commercials, where people were heavily pushing exercise and your need to get moving. And in the last decade or so nutrition has become a huge emphasis in the popular media. And now people are gaining an increasing awareness that if you don’t sleep properly, you’re not going to function as well as you might if you had an excellent night sleep. So, it’s one of the three major things we can do to help make sure that our health and daytime functioning is optimal.”