Albertville, AL
The average person needs at least 6.5 hours of sleep a night. If you can’t maintain 5-7 hours a night, your body begins to lose its ability to function. Sleep deprivation can be a byproduct of a chaotic lifestyle, but it can also be caused by a medical condition, such as a sleep-breathing disorder. There are dozen of sleep disorders that can affect your sleep in numerous ways. An extremely common sleep disorder that affects your ability to get proper rest (even if you are sleeping 5-7 hours) is sleep apnea. Doctors Jonathan Renfroe and Josh Conley of Wall Street Dentistry want to inform you about the effects of sleep deprivation caused by sleep apnea.
Sleep apnea is a condition in which your airway becomes blocked while you’re sleeping. This deprives your brain of oxygen. In order to resume normal breathing, your brain signals your body to wake up so that it begins breathing again. You may never wake up consciously, but for someone with an advanced case of sleep apnea, this can happen hundreds of times an hour without their knowledge. Sleep apnea disrupts your sleep cycle repeatedly, while also physically denying your body the oxygen you need to thrive and remain healthy. Jeopardizing your long-term physical health is just part of what sleep deprivation can do.
Sleep deprivation can consume your life quickly
It can carry short-term, long-term, physical, and psychological consequences. Sleep-deprived bodies get tired faster. They also can’t metabolize things or heal at the rate they should; you’ll become sick more often, gain weight easier, and suffer an overall decline in health. Sleep loss can directly affect your libido, your ability to enjoy once-loved activities, and even cause depression. It can also create other phenomena such as memory loss, cognitive decline, difficulty concentrating, irritability, and poor judgment. Sleep deprivation is scary enough when you see the list of daily issues you can be dealing with, but it can also kill. Sleep deprivation and living with sleep apnea that goes untreated can greatly increase your risk of suffering from a heart attack, stroke, hypertension, diabetes, and obesity.
Sleep loss doesn’t just affect you
Mood and behavior changes directly fall upon the shoulders of the people we love. You can be short-tempered with your family and not realize it because of bad judgment. You may become depressed, gain weight and no longer be able to enjoy activities you once did with your family, not to mention your sleep apnea may also be keeping your partner awake at night and depriving them of their sleep because loud snoring is a telltale sign of this sleep-breathing disorder. That’s two members of a household now suffering from sleep loss.
Sleep apnea is treatable
There is no reason to let it go untreated and hurt you or the people you love. Contact Dr. Jonathan Renfroe and Dr. Josh Conley today at Wall Street Dentistry for a solution for your sleep apnea. If you live in the areas of Albertville, Boaz, or Guntersville, Alabama, just contact us at (256) 878-0525 for an appointment to regain a good night’s rest and your peace of mind.
