Sleep Apneoa

When you have sleep apnoea, you will stop breathing for a period ranging from a few seconds to a couple of minutes. This will arouse you out of deep sleep. Even limited airflow causing a drop in oxygen in blood and brain will arouse you from deep sleep.

Sometimes the only symptom is a dull morning headache and maybe a stiff neck on waking. People say "Oh, I must have just slept badly or slept the wrong way" as if it is no big deal. These people are usually having a problem with airflow/breathing or/and bruxism/clenching muscle activity. Because it affects the quality of their sleep, sooner or later it will affect their health. After all you spend a third of your life asleep.

Some people say they cannot be bruxing or clenching because they go to sleep with their teeth apart and mouth open. This is all very well but once you fall asleep, your higher brain shuts down and your autonomic nervous system takes over and your muscle activity is out of your control. Similarly, people say they can't be bruxing and clenching because their partner says they snore. Every time you swallow, your jaw muscles contract and your teeth go together for anything from a second to a couple of minutes before relaxing again.

During this time, breathing stops! Usually a snorer cycles between snoring, swallowing, clenching, stopping breathing, opening mouth, gasping and starting snoring again.

People do this because they cannot breathe through their nose adequately so that enough oxygen gets in the blood and into the brain. The brain then switches to mouth breathing. Mouth breathing arouses the autonomic nervous system out of autopilot into primed mode.

The problem with ignoring poor sleep, bruxing, clenching and breathing disorders is that the constant longterm stress stimulates the adrenal and pituitary glands to secrete stressor hormones which keep the body primed in sympathetic mode. Lack of deep restful sleep prevents the brain from producing enough serotonin and growth hormones needed for repair and recovery. Chronic inflammation builds acidic wastes and muscle tension prevents proper lymph flow. Chronic pain or neurological symptoms can start. Eventually general symptoms can start to appear with metabolism and thyroid trouble, clinical depression, fibromyalgia and sympathetic dystrophy in various forms.

Dr David Stephenson at Albany Dental and Sleep Health Centre feels that the first point of diagnostic information required should be a Home sleep study with a monitor on jaw muscles. The study should happen in your own bed under normal conditions so that changes in sleep position can be analysed not just when you are on your back in a hospital bed.