![]() Today, there also are many different options for CPAP masks-face masks, nasal masks, special pillows, “you name it,” says Collop Almost all have humidification systems and you can adjust the temperature of the air and the humidity.” “But the machines have gotten smaller, quieter, and less troublesome. That hasn’t changed since 1981,” she says. “The CPAP works by providing positive airway pressure-all it does is blow air in to keep the airway open. “I couldn’t do the CPAP mask over my nose and mouth at the same time,” said one.Ĭollop urged her to try again with one of the newer machines. The conversation moved to CPAPs, with a few panelists saying they tried but couldn’t get used to them. “And 70 percent of people who have it are overweight, but you don’t have to be overweight to have it. If you have a first-degree relative with it, you are four times more likely to have sleep apnea, says Collop. Is sleep apnea hereditary? Is it weight related?” “She recorded me, and it was like you went home and recorded my dad or my brothers. “My friend says I snore,” says a panelist. About 10 percent of people with sleep apnea have this type, Collop estimates. In central sleep apnea as opposed to obstructive apnea, the brain fails to send signals to the diaphragm to breathe during sleep, and the sleeper will have breathing pauses. It is not such a silent disease for the person sleeping beside them, however.” Sleep Apnea: More Than Just Snoring Occasionally, they may dream about drowning. “They may have a dry mouth in the morning, from trying to get air. ![]() “All they know is their partner is nudging them, complaining about their snoring, or they just don’t feel like their sleep is restorative,” she says. The upshot: most people who have sleep apnea don’t know they have it. As soon as you wake up, the muscles tighten and the problem is gone.” Sometimes that airway closes completely and your brain says, ‘Hey, there’s a problem here,’ and wakes you up. “I like to say, not everybody who snores has sleep apnea, but almost everybody who has sleep apnea snores,” she says.Ĭollop uses the analogy of a straw: “As your air vent gets narrower, or your throat muscles start to soften and collapse, you have to work harder to breathe. This may or may not mean you have sleep apnea. When tissues in your throat (and sometimes your nose) start to vibrate, you are snoring. When you go to sleep, the muscles in your throat relax behind the hard palate, from the soft palate on down, that area is collapsible.” Obstructive sleep apnea, the most common, involves your air vent-your throat. “Two things usually happen when you go to sleep. “Can you describe what sleep apnea is?” a panelist asks. “Some patients use sleep aids to help get used to using a CPAP, to overcome their anxiety.” ![]() “But again, as long as you are using a CPAP machine, you should be OK,” she says. “Most prescription sleeping pills-Ambien, Lunesta-and over-the-counter sleep aids are pretty safe, if you’re using a CPAP or other treatment.”Ĭaution should be used with drugs that are not sleep aids but are sometimes used for sleep, like benzodiazepines such as Valium and Xanax, or opioids prescribed after surgery may suppress respiration, Collop says. “If you’re treating your sleep apnea, it’s probably okay,” she replied. “If you have sleep apnea should you take sleep aids?” a panelist asks. Emory Medicine’s Dinner with a Doctor was off to a rousing start. “It was the first year we did more sleep studies at home than in the lab.”Įmory also has two other clinics with sleep clinics embedded: the Pulmonary Medicine Department at Emory Midtown Hospital and Emory Saint Joseph’s Hospital.īefore Collop’s main course had arrived, our five panelists were already peppering her with questions. ![]() “Last year, we did more than 1,900 lab studies and 2,200 home studies,” says Collop. It also offers home testing-an increasingly popular option for those who wish to be tested for sleep disorders from the comfort of their own beds. The Emory Sleep Center, at Executive Park in Brookhaven, has its own sleep lab with eight bedrooms, an interdisciplinary team of 12 providers, including sleep specialists, and its own medical equipment company that provides CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) devices. Serving as their guide through this dreamscape: Nancy Collop, professor of medicine in pulmonary, allergy, and critical care medicine, sleep medicine, and neurology, and director of the Emory Sleep Center.
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