A highlight on sleep apnoea
One medical condition that can be commonly mistaken for insomnia is sleep apnoea.
Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is a condition where the airway is repeatedly obstructed during sleep. The usual symptoms are excessive sleepiness in the daytime, irregular breathing at night-time and recurrent waking to correct the obstruction. It happens due to increased force on the pharynx (throat) and only appears at night-time as this is when our muscle tone decreases and can’t resist the pressure as well as in the day-time (1).
Risk factors for this include increasing age, obesity or overweight, a family history of sleep apnoea and obstructions of the airway such as enlarged tonsils or adenoid glands. Lifestyle factors also play an important role such as smoking, alcohol and sleeping on your back.
Aside from feeling more tired during the daytime leaving you more at risk of road traffic accidents and work-related injury, OSA is associated with heart disease and depression. With this in mind it is important to get a diagnosis and manage your condition.
If you suspect you might have sleep apnoea a useful questionnaire to complete is the STOP BANG questionnaire (2) found on the British Snoring and Sleep Apnoea Association. It asks questions about symptoms and risk factors that make it more likely sleep apnoea is present. To assess the severity of a sleep apnoea another questionnaire called the Epworth Sleepiness Scale can be completed and is useful to grade the urgency of referral for further tests (3).
Overnight pulse oximetry is normally the test completed at a Sleep Clinic in the hospital. If OSA is confirmed you will normally be offered CPAP therapy. This is a mask worn at night-time to maintain healthy pressure in the airways and prevent obstruction.
However given that waiting times for hospital appointments are lengthy in the present climate, what can you do for yourself in the meantime?
Fortunately there is a charity called The Sleep Apnoea Association (4) who provide support for patients and their partners. They offer more information on sleep apnoea and it’s treatments as well as support with weight loss and advice on driving. You can also talk to your GP if weight loss is proving difficult.
Stopping smoking if you do smoke is also key. Advice and help on stopping smoking can be accessed through smoking cessation schemes in pharmacies, smoking cessation clinics in your local hospital and through your GP. I have linked the Stop Smoking Clinic for my local Southern Trust below but similar clinics are run in other local trusts regionally (5).
If you or your partner are demonstrating symptoms of sleep apnoea, please make an appointment with you GP.
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