Effects of Sleep Apnoea

Like other sleep disorders, sleep apnoea (also spelled 'sleep apnea') can have a massive impact on your life if it is not treated effectively. The most dangerous aspect of this sleep disorder is the fact that it can go unnoticed. Thus, you may not be aware of the risks you are putting yourself at when driving, operating heavy machinery and so on. You may feel fatigued and drowsy, but you will not know the root cause for this and will nevertheless continue with your daily activities. Showing similar reaction speeds to people who have illegal amounts of alcohol in their system, it shows the dire consequences of what unnoticed sleep apnoea could do. You would not drive with excessive amounts of alcohol in your system, so you should not drive should you suffer from sleep apnoea. However, evidently the danger lies in the fact that this disorder can go unnoticed. Equally, due to this unawareness of the sleep disorder, the symptoms that you experience during the day are often likened to those of depression.

Sleep apnoea can lead to damaging health problems such as easy weight gain, heart problems and strokes. Whilst, there are outside risks with sleep apnoea, when you are behind the wheel and so on, even if you do not expose yourself to any of these risks, untreated sleep apnoea is still a major health problem for your body and has been noticed to increase mortality rates.

Heart Problems with Sleep Apnoea

Heart problems are caused because of the pauses in breathing during the night. If you imagine your body is being starved of its much needed oxygen, the heart is going to have to work even harder to pump blood around your body faster, to keep your oxygen levels at the required level. Equally, your blood will begin to contain higher levels of carbon dioxide, as less oxygen is present, which can make your blood more acidic and consequently cause irregular heart beats.

Children & Sleep Apnoea

Sleep apnoea is also a dangerous aspect for children who suffer from the disorder; they can suffer from stunted growth and are also at risk from obesity. Equally, it can affect their daily routines with lack of concentration at school and disorders such as ADHD have been linked to sleep apnoeic children.

Men & Sleep Apnoea

There is also more unfortunate news for men who suffer from sleep apnoea as the disorder can cause impotence. Man suffering from sleep Apnoea have been shown to be more susceptible to being unable to produce and maintain erections.