Having sleep apnea may disrupt your sleep and leave you sleepy. Long-term effects of untreated sleep apnea can include heart disease, COPD, and diabetes.
Sleep apnea is a condition in which your breathing repeatedly pauses while you sleep. When this happens, your body wakes you up to resume breathing. These multiple interruptions to your sleep can leave you feeling extra tired during the day.
Sleep apnea does more than make you sleepy, however. Without treatment, the condition can contribute to heart disease, diabetes, and other long-term health risks.
Sleep apnea happens in either of the following situations:
- your airway becomes blocked or collapses during the night (obstructive sleep apnea)
- your brain fails to signal to the rest of your body to breathe (central sleep apnea)
When your breathing restarts, you might snore loudly or appear to choke for air. If you share a bed with a partner, they are likely to notice these symptoms.
Many health conditions are linked to sleep apnea, including obesity and high blood pressure. These conditions, coupled with the lack of sleep, can harm many different systems in your body.
By depriving your body of oxygen while you sleep, sleep apnea can worsen symptoms of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). You might find yourself short of breath or have more trouble exercising than usual.
People with sleep apnea are more likely to develop insulin resistance, a condition in which cells don’t respond as well to the hormone insulin. When your cells don’t take in insulin like they should, your blood sugar level rises and you can develop type 2 diabetes.
Sleep apnea has also been
If you have sleep apnea, you’re more likely to have fatty liver disease, cirrhosis, and higher-than-normal levels of liver enzymes.
Apnea can also worsen heartburn and other symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), which can interrupt your sleep even more.
Sleep apnea has been
Central sleep apnea is caused by a disruption in the brain’s signals that enable you to breathe. This type of sleep apnea can also cause neurological symptoms like numbness and tingling.
Sleep apnea can reduce your desire to have sex. In males, it could contribute to erectile dysfunction and affect your ability to have children.
Other common symptoms of sleep apnea include:
- dry mouth or sore throat in the morning
- headache
- trouble concentrating
- irritability
Sleep apnea can disrupt your sleep and put you at risk of several serious diseases, but there are ways to manage it. Treatments, such as continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) and oral appliances, help keep oxygen flowing into your lungs while you sleep.
If you have overweight or obesity, losing weight can also improve sleep apnea symptoms while reducing your heart disease risk.
