Can Sleeping Problem Be Harmful For Your Heart?

People often make fun of those who snore, but sometimes this snoring can be a symptom of sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a serious sleeping disorder, in which breathing is not continuous and may start and stop many times while sleeping. This affects the quality of your sleep and in turn can affect many aspects of your overall physical well-being, including your cardiovascular health.

Let’s now talk about how sleep apnea can harm your heart’s health:

High Blood Pressure

If a person is suffering from sleep apnea, and his breathing stops, the oxygen levels in the blood also fall suddenly. This can spike your blood pressure. High blood pressure means that the heart muscles need to work harder to pump blood through the body.

Cardiomyopathy

Due to high blood pressure, the heart walls may become thicker and the heart muscles may get stiffer. This is known as cardiomyopathy. As this condition worsens, the heart becomes weaker and is unable to maintain a regular rhythm. And this can eventually result in heart failure.

Arrhythmia

It is defined as irregular heartbeat. This may also be related to the changes in the heart's structure that follow the drop in blood oxygen levels. In many cases, arrhythmia has no visible symptoms and can often go undiagnosed. This can result in the formation of blood clots in the atria which can cause a stroke to occur.

In maximum number of cases, sleep apnea is easy to diagnose. If the doctor feels that you have symptoms of sleep apnea, you may be asked to stay in the hospital overnight and undergo a sleep evaluation test. This helps in finding out about a variety of body functions including brain activity, eye movements, heart rate, breathing patterns and blood oxygen levels.

The treatment for sleep apnea will depend on the causes that have led to the condition. If you are obese, regular exercise and a change in your daily dietary intake can help in losing the excess weight and cure sleep apnea. Likewise, if your sleep apnea is triggered by an allergy, then treating the allergy can help you get rid of this condition.

There are also a few other forms of treatment for sleep apnea which are:

Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP)

It is a device which pumps air into the body through a nasal mask. By keeping the pressure in the machine higher than normal air pressure, the upper airway passages are kept open and that is how the quality of your sleep is improved. An auto CPAP machine can modulate the air pressure such that it is higher when you inhale and lower when you exhale.

Oral devices

You may also be suggested for some oral devices that allow you to keep your mouth open while sleeping. It is easier to use than CPAP machine. However, CPAP machine is considered to be more effective.

In case, your condition is getting extremely serious and all these treatments have failed in bringing relief, then surgery is the last resort for sleep apnea.