Albertville, AL
Even if you eat right, exercise and avoid negative behaviors like smoking and drinking alcohol, you will never be in optimum health if you do not get proper sleep. Poor quality of sleep or chronic sleep loss impacts your physical and mental well-being but it also can have a negative effect on your relationship. Today on the blog, your sleep apnea dentists in Albertville explore this topic.
What leads to sleep loss?
Lifestyle choices can impact your ability to fall asleep or remain asleep. You may be over caffeinated or consume caffeine too late in the day. Unhealthy food choices can create indigestion that keeps you awake. Stress also might impact the duration and quality of your sleep. Another frequent culprit that leads to sleep loss is a sleep breathing disorder called obstructive sleep apnea.
What happens when you have sleep apnea?
Someone living with obstructive sleep apnea experiences blockages of the airway. Each of these blockages, which is known as an apneic event, may impede breathing but often the flow of air is disrupted completely. If you experience an apneic event, oxygen levels in the body decrease until the brain, believing that you are choking to death, sends signals to the body to come out of sleep and resume normal breathing. You may never consciously wake up but you come out of the sleep cycle to begin breathing properly again. If this sounds harrowing, now consider that someone with a severe, untreated case of sleep apnea experiences hundreds of these apneic events every night.
How does sleep apnea affect your relationship?
The major warning sign of sleep apnea is loud snoring. In most cases, obstructive sleep apnea is caused when your throat muscles are too weak, leading to a collapse of soft tissue into the airway to impede breathing. As you attempt to push air around that obstruction, it creates a vibration, which generates the sound you hear when someone snores. The frequent disruptions to sleep and the substandard quality of sleep eventually catch up to the sleep apnea patient as well. Living with sleep loss turns into sleep deprivation, which can make you more irritable and lead to sudden bouts of anger or irritability that also can put a strain on your relationship.
Sleep apnea treatment in Albertville, Boaz and Guntersville in Alabama
If you are showing signs of sleep apnea, contact the office of Wall Street Dentistry today. We practice sleep apnea dentistry, which is a specialization of dental science that focuses on airway management. One of our sleep apnea dentists in Guntersville can conduct an airway evaluation and then, if signs of sleep apnea are detected, refer you to a qualified sleep specialist for an official diagnosis. From there, you can return to our office for treatment. This usually entails a course of oral appliance therapy, in which we prescribe the patient with a custom-made mandibular advancement device to be worn during sleep. This brings the lower jaw forward and helps maintain an open airway all night long, therefore preventing the airway blockages that cause apneic events.
If your partner is snoring loudly or exhibiting other signs of sleep apnea, schedule a consultation at Wall Street Dentistry. Just call (256) 878-0525 and a member of our front office staff in Albertville will be there to help.
