Cause of Sleep Apnea

The cause of sleep apnea is what you might want to find out to avoid this sleeping disorder. As the old adage goes, look for the roots, pull them out and you eliminate growth. This goes for this sleep disorder where a victim experiences pauses in breathing while sleeping. Know the causes, and it will be easy to find the possible treatment options.

What really causes sleep apnea? There are lots of reasons why people may suffer from sleep apnea. It is possible that your throat muscles and tongue are relaxed more than normal or both your tongue and tonsils are larger compared to the opening into your wind pipe. And if you are obese, there is a high tendency that you might be suffering from sleep apnea. This is because the extra soft fat tissue can thicken the wall of your wind pipe which causes the inside opening to narrow and makes it harder to keep it open. The shape of your head and neck can cause a smaller airway size in the mouth and throat area and as a result be a clear cause of sleep apnea.

Another factor that can trigger sleep apnea is the aging process. It limits the ability of brain signals to keep your to throat muscles stiff during sleep. Most likely this will collapse or will narrow the airway. When your airways are fully or partly blocked while you are sleeping, there won’t be enough air that will flow in your lungs. This can cause a drop in your blood oxygen levels and results to the loud snore that you can hear in the midst of a quiet night.

Be aware when the oxygen drops and gets into a dangerous level as this triggers your brain to disturb your sleep by tightening the upper air way muscles and opening your wind pipe. Normal breathing resumes with a loud snort or choking sound. Another cause of sleep apnea is the release of stress hormones often triggered by frequent drops in oxygen level and poor quality of sleep. Other causes of sleep apnea are existing health problems like high blood pressure, heart problems, glaucoma, tonsillitis, common colds and pulmonary problems.

Cause of sleep apnea is one thing that you have to watch out for so that treatment options can be selected at an early stage.