3 surprising effects of sleep apnea
If you find yourself going to bed earlier and earlier, sleeping in later, and yet you still can’t get rid of a crushing sense of fatigue, you could be dealing with a sleep disorder.
Sleep disorder symptoms include:
- Never feeling well-rested
- Difficulty concentrating
- Mood swings
- Gasping for breath in the night
- Snoring
- Feeling like you are choking in your sleep
If these symptoms sound familiar, your sleep problems could be due to sleep apnea, a serious sleep disorder that causes you to stop breathing during the night. You could be going through hundreds of episodes on a nightly basis for periods that last up to a minute.
Sleep apnea can take a major toll on your health as your heart becomes strained from a lack of sufficient oxygen to the body, making this vital organ work harder. Sleep apnea can have three other surprising affects you never knew about.
1. The connection between weight gain and sleep apnea
Sleep apnea can do more than affect your quality of sleep. It could be the reason you are gaining weight and can’t take it off. Even if your eating habits haven’t changed and you exercise regularly, sleep apnea can slow down your metabolism and make weight loss near impossible.
2. Depression and sleep disorders go hand in hand
When you don’t get a solid period of rest every night, depression can be an unfortunate result. Sleep is your body’s natural way to recharge and rejuvenate itself at the end of a long day.
When your body doesn’t get the vital repairs that it should during sleep, you can find yourself dragging when you wake up to the point of feeling down. It’s hard to pick up your spirits when you can’t get enough rest.
3. Sleep apnea and job performance: Making it harder to get the job done
When sleep apnea steals your sleep, even your job can become a struggle. You’ll find that it is hard to stay focused and concentrate on all of the important tasks that are a part of your responsibilities. You could be putting yourself and others at risk when fatigue gets in the way.
Don’t let sleep apnea ruin your life
Sleep apnea can be a major problem, but there are solutions. A consultation with a sleep disorder dental specialist will help you learn how you can put an end to your problems by managing your condition. When you have sweet dreams, everything else will fall into place.
