Osteopathic doctor

Sleep apnea occurs when airways collapse, compromising breathing and preventing oxygen from reaching the bloodstream. The resulting oxygen drop and adrenaline surge impair sleep and can increase the risk for high blood pressure, stroke, and heart attacks and can lead to death, if untreated.

Many people have sleep apnea and don’t know it. Signs to look for include snoring, which indicates that you may experience further airway collapse. You may also experience anxiety, stress, depression, or acid reflux or indigestion, since apnea causes chest pressure that pulls acid out of the stomach. This pressure may pull blood from the arms and legs, leading to dehydration. If your neck circumference is 17 inches (for men) and 16 ½ inches (for women), you’re more likely to have sleep apnea. Because poor quality or insufficient sleep disrupts the release of the metabolism-controlling hormones leptin, ghrelin, and cortisol, sleep apnea also can cause you to be overweight.

For treatment, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines—masks that blow air into the back of the nose and hold it open—are most common. However, lifestyle changes can help. The more tired you get, the more you snore, and the worse sleep apnea becomes. I recommend getting at least seven hours of sleep per night. Avoid sedative medications and drinking alcohol less than three hours prior to going to bed, which can negatively affect sleep. Eliminate cigarettes, which inflame airways and make them narrower, and use over-the-counter saline nasal spray if you have allergies. Sleeping on your side, rather than back, can help too, because your tongue is more likely to fall into the back of your throat when you’re on your back.

–Carol Ash, DO, ABSM, Medical Director at the “Sleep for Life” program at Somerset Medical Center, Somerset, New Jersey

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