Mr. Wang is 36 years old and is a cab driver. Like many people who sit for a long time and exercise little, he is a bit fat, especially his stomach, often teased “pregnant with a baby”.
Fast asleep, snoring, Mr. Wang’s sleep has always been the envy of everyone. Because everyone thinks that snoring is a good sleep, the louder the snore, the better the sleep, and lie down within two minutes to fall asleep, and never have the trouble of sleep. But Mr. Wang has an indescribable distress. He fell asleep quickly, but too “sleepy”, no matter what place, as long as sitting quietly is very easy to fall asleep, and even once driving a car almost fell asleep, startled him out of a cold sweat! Snoring is very loud, but Mr. Wang will often have the feeling of holding his breath, and his wife said he also sleep when the breathing pauses.
What’s more, although Mr. Wang slept for a long time, he did not feel energetic when he woke up the next day, but felt dry mouth, fatigue, wanting to sleep, and also had elevated blood pressure. Mr. Wang was referred to a sleep specialist, who arranged a sleep monitoring examination and finally diagnosed him with moderate “sleep apnea syndrome”. After treatment, Mr. Wang’s sleep improved, and he also turned into a “sleep health champion”, enthusiastically promoting the knowledge of “sleep apnea syndrome” to people around him.
Snoring is a good sleep, which is actually a sleep misconception. Snoring is actually caused by various reasons that lead to relaxation of the respiratory tissues and restricted breathing, and if the lack of oxygen is serious, the brain will send a signal to wake up, which is medically known as “sleep apnea syndrome”. Most patients with sleep apnea syndrome have shallow sleep and poor continuity and sleep quality.
The hormones secreted by the body during hypoxia can lead to increased blood pressure and lipid disorders, resulting in an increased risk of heart disease and stroke; in addition, it may also affect the sensitivity of insulin, increasing the risk of diabetes. Therefore, if it is difficult to control high blood pressure with medication, sleep monitoring is needed to exclude the possibility of sleep apnea syndrome.
Patients who snore should go to the hospital for sleep monitoring to clarify the presence and severity of sleep apnea syndrome. Weight loss, side sleep, smoking and alcohol cessation, and exercise are the “basic prescriptions” for patients with sleep apnea syndrome. Patients with mild sleep apnea syndrome can improve their symptoms by adjusting their lifestyle habits, while patients with moderate to severe sleep apnea need to wear a ventilator or undergo surgery in addition to adjusting their lifestyle habits. It is also important to note that such patients should not take sleeping pills at will, because some sleeping pills have a muscle relaxation effect, but will aggravate the apnea, resulting in worse sleep.