Sleep Apnea Treatment - The Controversy Surrounding CPAP Side Effects

Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is the most commonly prescribed obstructive sleep apnea treatment, but CPAP side effects make it a poor choice for many people. Even after months of trying, many patients simply can't get used to wearing a mask and being tethered to a CPAP machine while they sleep. Yet, many patients are given no other treatment options by their doctors.

If you're currently suffering from sleep apnea, chances are you're feeling the effects of daytime fatigue and anxiety over long term health effects and the negative impacts the condition can have on your work and relationships. Continuous positive airway pressure treatment has helped thousands of people, but it also has many drawbacks that make it a less than ideal sleep apnea cure.

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You want a solution, but is CPAP the answer you're looking for?

Sleep Apnea Treatment - The Controversy Surrounding CPAP Side Effects

First, there is the drawback of having to wear a mask over your nose or both your mouth and nose while you sleep. This is both unnatural and uncomfortable. If interruptions and pauses in your breathing don't keep you from getting a good night's sleep, then the CPAP mask probably will. For some people, a mask isn't even an option because it invokes anxiety and feelings of claustrophobia.

Second, some people who think they may suffer from breathing interruptions while they sleep never get a true diagnosis because the thought of wearing a CPAP mask is enough to keep them from seeking help. For these people, symptoms may worsen as they grow older, and apnea events can become more severe.

A third side effect of CPAP masks and machines is they are not generally form fitted to an individual's face. Although they do come in a range of different sizes, problems exist that can prevent a proper fit. This can lead to a poor seal which lets air escape and makes the device ineffective and may also cause rashes and facial or nasal irritation.

A fourth side effect many people complain about is being tethered to the CPAP machine via the hose that carries air from the pump to the mask and into your airway. The hose is a necessary evil that makes it difficult to find a comfortable sleeping position. Also, since the pump requires electricity, airflow can be cut off if power fails.

Lastly, some people experience additional health issues when using continuous positive airway pressure as a treatment for sleep apnea. The most commonly reported symptoms include headaches, dry mouth, throat irritation, and sometimes even stomach bloating.

Sleep Apnea Treatment - The Controversy Surrounding CPAP Side Effects

Next, here's how to avoid CPAP side effects and treat sleep apnea via alternative methods: Sleep Apnea Treatment

If you really want to cure your condition and end your daytime fatigue so you can get your life back, then discover how sleep apnea sufferers are finding relief without CPAP by visiting: Sleep Apnea Treatment Options

Sleep Apnea Devices and Their Side Effects

Unlike many disorders, for those afflicted with sleep apnea, the sufferers are often the people with whom they sleep. Bed partners have to lie awake listening to their irregular breathing patterns and worry that they may not take their next breath. Of course, those who are afflicted also contend with symptoms that make life difficult, particularly in their waking hours when they are dealing with tiredness and lack of concentration as a result. Sleep apnea devices are designed to assist the patient to breathe properly and thus, hopefully ensure a good night's sleep. Unfortunately, not all sleep apnea devices work for all sufferers so it can be a case of trial and error until the most appropriate device is determined.

CPAP devices

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Some cases of the disorder are remedied with surgical solutions whereas others are more readily treated with sleep apnea devices designed to help the airways remain open during sleep. These can include, CPAP - Continuous Positive Airway Pressure - devices, dental appliances, jaw adjustment devices and even the administration of oxygen during sleep.

Sleep Apnea Devices and Their Side Effects

CPAP sleep apnea devices provide safe and effective, immediate relief. CPAP stands for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure. CPAP machines are portable air generators that operate to deliver oxygen at low pressure to the patient via nasal tubing or a full face mask. The job of the air pressure is to push the patient's tongue forward and open the throat so that air can flow more easily into the lungs.

Side effects

Unfortunately, CPAP sleep apnea devices are not without their own side effects. Some patients report dry eyes, headaches, soreness on the bridge of the nose, skin breakouts around the perimeter of the mask, skin dryness, dry mouth, dry nose and stomach wind. Still, for some patients, not using one of these machines presents more health issues than the associated side effects and could even make the difference between life and death.

Types of machines

CPAP machines are not all the same. There are those that are self-adjusting, some that are adjusted manually and some that are bi-pressure. Some include heated dehumidifiers. Understandably these kinds of sleep apnea devices require a prescription so that the correct machine can be purchased for the patient's particular requirements. It is important to develop a relationship with your machine retailer because they will stock all the necessary masks, hoses and other accessories that will need to be replaced periodically. Your retailer will be specially trained in the functioning of the machines and will be able to advise on maintenance as well as be able to answer all of your questions.

APAP machines

The APAP sleep apnea device is a machine that operates automatically to adjust the pressure required on a breath by breath basis, to keep patients' airways open as they sleep. APAP machines are more advanced, and therefore more expensive, than CPAPs but for severe apnea sufferers, the extra expense means enhanced peace of mind.

Dental devices

For those who are fortunate enough not to require comprehensive machinery, there are dental sleep apnea devices that are quite effective. They are portable so ideal for travel and in some instances, they are actually more successful and effective than surgery for some kinds of airway obstructions.

A dental sleep apnea device prevents the patient's tongue from falling back into the throat and causing the patient to stop breathing, however temporarily. The device simply holds the patient's lower jaw forward using two full arch acrylic devices that cover the teeth and that are attached to each other. Different models offer different degrees of advancement but medical professionals recommend at least 50% movement for success.

Side effects

Side effects of dental sleep apnea devices include soreness, build-up of saliva, possible damage to the jaw, teeth and mouth and even a permanent alteration to the position of the teeth or jaw. Again, the side effects must be weighed against the benefits achieved to determine the best solution.

Considering the degrees of severity of sleep apnea and the results achieved by some of the sleep apnea devices available to patients, sufferers should invest time in being diagnosed properly. Therapy for the condition is not a one-size-fits-all situation and solutions must be tailor-made for the individual.

Sleep Apnea Devices and Their Side Effects

Visit medopedia.com for more on the sleep apnea mask and sleep apnea tests

Sleep Apnea Side Effects - True Stories

Here are some true stories about sleep apnea side effects. In 1959, a disc jockey named Peter Tripp went without sleep for 200 hours to raise money for the March of Dimes. After about five days without sleep, he began to experience hallucinations-believing that somebody's tweed suit was made of worms and that flames were coming out of a drawer. He managed to do his daytime broadcast, but felt that he was in danger at night. After 200 hours of sleeplessness, he slept for 13 hours and felt much better. After a few nights of extended sleep, he was essentially back to normal, except that he reported slight feelings of depression for several months.

In 1964, Randy Gardner, a 17-year-old high-school senior, tried to establish a new record of 260 sleepless hours as a project in his local science fair. He became irritable after about the fourth day, but he retained many skills-after 230 hours of sleep loss, he still was able to hold his own on a pinball machine with sleep researcher Dr. William Dement, director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Stanford University.

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Several laboratory experiments have involved sleep deprivation for long periods and the sleep apnea side effects. It was found that a person's mood deteriorates first-joy disappears-and the person becomes very sleepy and grim. After about two or three days, most people start having minisleeps, little lapses of attention when the brain goes to sleep for only five or ten seconds and wakes right up again. By about five days, these minisleeps become longer and more numerous. By ten or eleven days, the minisleeps are so numerous and so mixed with wakefulness that you can't tell whether you are awake or asleep. You can talk, and in the middle of talking have two or three slow waves of sleep. You can walk, and from one 5tep to the next you might catch a second of sleep.

Sleep Apnea Side Effects - True Stories

If you are given a task to do yourself, such as adding a column of numbers, the minisleeps may occur without your being aware of them.

However, if you are given a paced task-for example, if someone calls out numbers to you that you have to add-you may make many mistakes, because for the few seconds of minisleep, you don't hear the numbers.

Many adults obtain less than optimal sleep, and some have a sizable sleep debt. Like gamblers playing with borrowed money, many sleep-deprived persons live in the red of lost sleep, often compromising their responsibilities at their jobs, sometimes using drugs for temporary energy. Most employees, even in crucial jobs, are forced to keep going all day no matter how fatigued they are. What if such sleep-deprived persons are dealing with the safety of an airplane? What if they are driving a semi-trailer down a crowded highway? What if they are making a military decision pivotal to war or peace?

If you are suffering from sleep apnea side effects there is help. What you need is an overall program that will cover all aspects of your day-to-day life so that you can gain a handle on it and regain your full, natural, sleep filled nights again.

Sleep Apnea Side Effects - True Stories

Click Here to learn how to cure your sleep problems quickly and easily.

Whiskey, Wine and a Good Night's Sleep - Prevent Alcohol's Ill Effects on Your Slumber

The nightcap has quite a following: Up to 15% of people use alcohol to seduce the sandman, large-scale surveys show. Alcohol's sleep-inducing effects occur partly because it's a muscle relaxant (relaxed muscles help you fall asleep more quickly), and partly because it's a psychological (or emotional) relaxant, says clinical psychologist Michael J. Breus, Ph.D., author of Beauty Sleep: Look Younger, Lose Weight, and Feel Great Through Better Sleep, which helps knock you out faster, especially if you're feeling stressed.

Once your body starts relaxing, it continues to relax as you fall asleep. But watch out! This is when the alcohol causes your body to veer from its normal, healthy course, Breus says. Alcohol's powerful knock-out-fast effects pilfer part of the other sleep stages you need. It forces you to stay in the lighter stages of sleep and makes it hard for you to enter both deep and REM sleep, important stages for waking up refreshed and ready to handle the day. This happens later in the night, when your body has mostly metabolized the sugar in the alcohol. Your sleep becomes light and fragmented, and you're prone to frequent awakenings (often to hit the bathroom).

Slumber

You may also struggle with snoring, nightmares, insomnia and night sweats. (Because alcohol is a diuretic, as it flushes out of your system, it can affect your body's ability to maintain a normal temperature.) And if you suffer from obstructive sleep apnea, be extra careful when mixing sleep with alcohol. As a muscle relaxant, it causes the muscles at the back of your throat to relax even more than usual, worsening sleep apnea's symptoms. In fact, research from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, shows that men, especially, have longer episodes of sleep-disordered breathing after drinking alcohol.

The Morning After

Half of the hangover that hits you the morning after a few extra glasses of wine is caused by sleep deprivation and the other half by dehydration. Will just one glass of booze have a negative effect? No, Breus says. It's when you get to two, three or four glasses that the problems start. And whether you drink wine, beer or hard liquor (brandy, whiskey, etc.,) doesn't make a difference--it's the drink's ethanol content (a generic name for alcohol)--that matters. Here's how the drinks break down: A standard "drink" of ethanol equals 10 ounces of regular beer (5% alcohol content); between 3 and 4 ounces of wine (12% alcohol content); or 1 ounce of hard liquor (40% alcohol content).

Plus, if you're a regular imbiber-say a glass of wine with dinner daily-you'll build up a tolerance to the effects of alcohol, which means you won't be as sedated as if you go out drinking on Friday and Saturday nights alone. Basically, you're better off drinking a small amount of alcohol each day than overdoing it on the weekend. Before too long, you'll be accustomed to its effects and be drifting off into an all-night restful slumber.

5 Smart Sleep Tips

If you do drink here's how to make sure it won't hamper your shuteye:

1) Finish drinking at least 3 hours before bedtime.
2) Don't overdo your imbibing-stick with one or two drinks per day.
3) Try not to stay up too much past your usual bedtime-this only increases alcohol's sleep-depriving effects.
4) Know exactly what one drink means: 1 beer = 1 glass of wine = 1 shot of hard liquor.
5) Follow Breus' one for one rule: Drink one glass of water for every glass of alcohol. This will slow down your drinking, and help prevent dehydration. And downing a few extra glasses of water the next morning to help get your fluid levels back to normal again.

Whiskey, Wine and a Good Night's Sleep - Prevent Alcohol's Ill Effects on Your Slumber

Jenny Stamos Kovacs is a freelance writer and editor for magazines such as Self, Glamour, Shape, WebMD, Redbook and Woman's Day.

To learn more about how your sleep habits affect your energy, mood, food cravings, and even your weight, visit http://www.SleepDietSecrets.com for a free quiz: "Are Your Sleep Habits Making You Fat?"

Connect with Jenny on the web at sleep_gal@jennystamos.com

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Over The Counter Insomnia Sleeping Pills And Their Long Term Side Effects

Various over the counter insomnia sleeping pills are available in pharmacies. These are the not the ideal remedy for insomnia. They can come with various side effects, specially long term effects on your body and mind. Here are various reasons why you should try to avoid taking them:

> Your body develops tolerance to these pills , thereby you need more and more to have the same effect as before.

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> When you stop taking insomnia sleeping pills, your body may experience unpleasant withdrawal symptoms.

> They may not produce a restful sleep.

> Sleeping pills may have a lingering effect and may even cause daytime-drowsiness.

> When medicine is discontinued, there may be possibility for the insomnia to return.

> Sleeping pills can cause or worsen other health conditions.

> You should be careful while taking them if you are taking allergy medicines, muscle relaxants, anesthetics, heart medications etc.

> Sleeping pills should also be avoided during initial stages pregnancy.

> Sleeping pills are not suitable to be given to anyone under the age of 18. Hence they cannot be used to treat

> These over the counter sleeping pills are addictive. You can observe that a lot of people get addicted to them.

> They may do very little or absolutely nothing in cases of chronic insomnia.

> Overdosing on sleeping pill can be dangerous. If you doubt whether someone has an overdose of sleeping pill, read about its symptoms here: Symptoms of overdosing on sleeping pill.

> They do not improve day-time functioning, that indicates that the quality of sleep by taking sleeping pills can be very bad.

> Insomnia pills may interfere with other drugs you are taking and change their reaction.

> Sleeping pills may be less effective if a person has been suffering from insomnia from a long time.

> It is not effective as a long-term cure for insomnia.

> They should not be taken without consulting a qualified doctor first. Even the doctors should prescribe pills as a last resort.

>The prescriptions for insomnia can mask the real causes of poor sleep .

>Some other side effects of sleeping pills include possibility of high blood pressure, bizarre behaviour etc.

Natural sleep is best. A natural good night's sleep is physically restorative and can help in improving our memory and moods. Instead of taking sleeping pills, a better option would be to find out about the cause of your insomnia (like stress, tension etc.) and try to remove it.

However if you do have to take some kind of medicine necessarily then its better to opt for natural and herbal medicines or homemade sleeping pills which are not addictive and may not have serious side-effects when compared to over the counter insomnia sleeping pills available in the market.

Over The Counter Insomnia Sleeping Pills And Their Long Term Side Effects

Do you want to find out what are the natural methods of curing insomnia? Check out: Natural Insomnia Cure

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