Classification of major sleep disorders includes the so-called sleep apnea syndrome. What it is is not clear to everyone. When it appears in a dream, a person has long periods of respiratory arrest. This phenomenon is quite dangerous, as in some cases it can be fatal.
In other words, apnea is a complete cessation of recorded nasal and oral breath flows, which lasts at least ten seconds and is caused by a decrease in the paths in the pharynx. At the same time, respiratory efforts can be either preserved or absent.
Main types of sleep apnea
Today, there are three main types of this concept. It is central, obstructive and mixed.
Central apnea is defined as an insufficiency of airflow due to the temporary absence of the central nervous system impulse that activates the respiratory effort. As a rule, this type occurs in people who have impaired mechanisms in the process of regulating breathing, and it is also associated with deep and anatomical damage to the CNS pathways.
SyndromeObstructive sleep apnea is a serious, often life-threatening condition. It is usually characterized by the development of respiratory arrests for more than ten seconds and at intervals of fifteen times an hour. Obstructive or peripheral sleep apnea is characterized by blockage of the air flow in the upper respiratory tract. Because of this, all the exhaled air cannot reach the lungs, which is why there is insufficient airflow.
Mixed apnea
Mixed sleep apnea consists of signs of both of the above types. Obstructive sleep apnea is the most common, according to most laboratories that study sleep, but mixed sleep apnea is also very common. Most obstructive sleep apnea situations are caused by improper coordination of CNS impulses in relation to the respiratory muscles. In such cases, muscular dystonia of the central pharynx occurs.
In men, sleep apnea (what it was described above) happens about twenty times more often, as a rule, it occurs from forty to sixty years. Most of these people are obese.
Clinical forms of apnea
According to the classification of sleep apnea, in addition to the division into the above types that relate to the pathogenesis of this syndrome, there are also clinical varieties, consisting in the following forms:
- snoring with elements of sleep apnea;
- Pickwickian syndromes;
- sudden apnea in children (sudden death syndrome);
- central hypoventilation;
- Ondine's curse.
Night snoring is manifested by the sound that occurs when you inhale during the passage of air into the narrowed oral and nasal region of the pharynx.
The so-called Pickwickian syndrome is characterized by the presence of obesity, nocturnal snoring, polycythemia, and hyperemia.
Apnea in infants
Sudden sleep apnea in children occupies a significant place in the number of deaths under one year of age. This phenomenon occurs due to not quite perfect regulation of breathing. As a rule, often it happens in premature babies. And it is aggravated if there is catarrhal inflammation and hematomas of the respiratory tract.
The reason for the appearance of VAGD in infants with an underdeveloped central nervous system can also be overheating, due to which the normal thermal regime was disturbed. At the same time, mixed apnea syndrome develops in newborns, and both the central and obstructive mechanisms take part in its appearance.
Ondine's curse is also a type of sleep apnea. That this is not known to many. This phenomenon is quite rare. In this form, automatic control over the regulation of ventilation is lost, so breathing can be controlled in an arbitrary way, which is not possible during sleep. When a person sleeps, regulation is not carried out, and apnea occurs. This often happens in the presence of tumors, inflammations or dystrophic lesions of the brain spinal cord, in addition, during surgical intervention of conductiveways.
Central obstructive sleep apnea
This variant in the supine position usually occurs in people with mild symptoms of the disease. Apnea obstructive is characterized by the presence of complaints of constant snoring and daytime sleepiness, however, when polysomnography is available, there is a syndrome without respiratory efforts of chest abduction, which is characteristic of the central variety of the disease. The treatment of this type of apnea is easy to implement, since this form can be easily recognized by recording a dream on video, i.e., by the specific noise when the airways open in each episode of apnea.
The main mechanisms of this phenomenon can be associated with the fact that there is a suppression of respiratory efforts through the decline of the pharynx in the supine position. At the same time, local anesthesia leads to the usual manifestations of sleep apnea.
Laryngeal sleep apnea
This variant is much less common than obstructive sleep apnea. This form mainly occurs when upper airway obstruction during sleep develops after disturbances in the innervation of the larynx, which lead to the fact that it overlaps. Surrounding such patients, people, as a rule, note the presence of unusual snoring, as well as other symptoms, including drowsiness, headaches in the morning and foggy consciousness. The causes may be central and peripheral disorders.
Night spasms of the larynx appear quite often due to exposure to hydrochloric acid on the vocal cords. Man can't breathein a normal way, and breathing becomes intermittent, after which he wakes up abruptly. These symptoms usually last two or three minutes.
The concept of hypopnea
This event is a respiratory event characterized by a partial decrease in nasal and oral airflow, as well as a decrease in amplitude by at least half, in combination with a decrease in blood oxygen saturation by three percent, while the duration is at least ten seconds. The hypopnea syndrome can be either obstructive or central.
Similar concepts are collectively called general respiratory disorders. These phenomena serve as the basis for the definitions of pathology about the syndrome of obstructive hypopnea sleep.
To date, there is no clear definition of sleep apnea syndrome. Initially, his interpretation was based only on the number of respiratory events in one hour of sleep. At the same time, snoring is one of the most characteristic and indispensable symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea, as well as a major risk factor. However, not all snorers have obstructive sleep apnea, and their risk of developing it is significantly higher than that of non-snorers.
Severities of apnea
In addition, today there is another classification of apnea based on severity. Its criteria are the number and duration of seizures per hour of sleep at night.
As a rule, there are three main degrees of severity of apnea:
- lightform (from five to twenty attacks per night);
- medium severity (from twenty to forty attacks);
- severe form (more than forty attacks).
Depending on the variety, there are different treatments for sleep apnea. In addition, the severity, as well as the duration of the process of oxygen saturation of the blood and the attacks themselves, are of great importance here. The severity of sleep apnea syndrome is assessed by respiratory distress indices, which are calculated using a special formula.
Also, additional conditions for assessing the severity of apnea can be indicators of oxygen saturation based on seizures, the degree of sleep at night, and also cardiovascular disorders that are associated with respiratory abnormalities.
Definition of obstructive sleep apnea
Today we can distinguish the most complete definition of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. This is a condition in which a person has many recurring stops in breathing due to complete or partial apnea. The reasons may be the cessation of pulmonary ventilation, and despite the fact that respiratory efforts are maintained, which are characterized by the presence of snoring, and also by a decrease in oxygen in the blood and fragmentation of sleep.
Frequent awakenings and excessive daytime sleepiness may occur here. In order to identify apnea, in which breathing is significantly different from the normal state, it is necessary to determine whether its episodes really lasted at least ten seconds and appeared fifteen times per hour.
Features of obstructive sleep apnea
With morein severe cases, up to five hundred respiratory arrests can occur at night, with a total duration of three or four hours. Apnea treatment is urgently needed here. The presence of such a pathology can lead to acute and chronic hypoxemia, which significantly increases the possible risk of developing hypertension, and also leads to heart rhythm disturbances, myocardial infarction, stroke, and even sudden death during sleep.
During the daytime, people suffering from this disease experience bouts of increased drowsiness, increased irritability, reduced attention, deterioration in potency and prolonged headache. In addition, attacks of drowsiness are quite dangerous while driving, as there is a certain risk of traffic accidents.
Apnea history
The very first manifestation of sleep apnea was described in detail back in 1919. As an example, young people who were overweight and complained of present daytime drowsiness were taken. Already in 1956, a condition was described that has such recognizable signs as obesity, snoring at night, hypertension.
Ondine's curse syndrome is a rare form of central sleep apnea. What it is, not many people know. This condition is usually accompanied by marked hypoxia and changes in brain activity leading to fairly frequent awakenings at night. In addition, there are cases of sleep apnea in people with optimal body weight and lack of sleepiness.afternoon.
Consequences of sleep apnea
Insomnia and various sleep disorders that obstructive sleep apnea causes in people greatly affect their daily lives. Immediately, productivity drops, medical expenses rise, sick leave increases, and so on.
Furthermore, sleep apnea (what it is, was stated earlier) leads to a decrease in oxygen supply, coupled with a decrease in the quality of sleep, as a result, provoking the release of stress hormones, which can increase blood pressure, increase heart rate and lead to stagnation in the heart. Sleep apnea also leads to disruption of energy metabolism, which causes the risk of overweight and diabetes.
As a rule, a sharp decrease in the level of oxygen in the body can lead to a headache in the morning, a decrease in the ability to concentrate, think logically, learn and remember anything. In addition, insomnia leads to changes in the mood and behavior of the patient, as well as to a depressive state. Therefore, sleepless nights increase the possibility of accidents both at work and on the road.
Sleep apnea attacks (what it is and how to deal with them, we examined in our review) are perfectly explained by modern medicine. Today, they are quite easily treatable, the principles of which depend on a combination of various causes and the level of severity of the disease. If there is simple snoring and mild forms of apnea, then special laser and radio frequency methods are very effective.treatment of the soft palate and uvula. Also, a rather important point in the treatment process is surgical intervention in case of difficulty breathing.
