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Recent news article about sleep apnea, observation and question
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2009/0708/122425022520...
A couple things stood out to me with the article. One poor guy had to way 18 months to get his initial sleep study! Wow!
One quote in the article is "“Snoring in itself is harmless. Yes it is a nuisance, but it won’t adversely affect your health. What is bad for your health is a condition called sleep apnoea,...". Would experts in the field really say this? What about snoring that causes airflow limitation that arouses you out of sleep? You may not show low oxygen levels, but isn't your sleep fragmented and thus exposing yourself to the problems of sleep deprivation and the problems caused by the repeated arousal responses?
A couple things stood out to me with the article. One poor guy had to way 18 months to get his initial sleep study! Wow!
One quote in the article is "“Snoring in itself is harmless. Yes it is a nuisance, but it won’t adversely affect your health. What is bad for your health is a condition called sleep apnoea,...". Would experts in the field really say this? What about snoring that causes airflow limitation that arouses you out of sleep? You may not show low oxygen levels, but isn't your sleep fragmented and thus exposing yourself to the problems of sleep deprivation and the problems caused by the repeated arousal responses?
Tags: flow, limitations, reras, snoring
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Mike on -
Eric, you're correct to note the problem with the statement: "snoring in itself is harmless." I would be concerned with Respiratory Effort Related Arousals (RERAs): Sleep Arousals due to respiratory events characterized by pressure flow limitations in the airflow indicator channel without significant O2 desaturations. As i understand it, there are 2 schools of thought among sleep medicine "experts" on this -- that it's important to measure and be concerned about RERAs / that it's not important to measure and be concerned about RERAs. I know that Stanford's Sleep Center, considered possible the foremost in the world, falls into the first camp -- they care deeply about RERAs.
Also, it seems obvious to me that all this stuff falls on a spectrum of harmfulness, and that RERAs/snoring is only slightly harmful. Just because it isn't harmful enough to get any respect with the AASM, or American Academy of Sleep Medicine, which is the governing body for the Sleep Medicine field, doesn't mean they won't change their mind one day and give it the prominence it deserves.
Also if you snore, you have "sleep apnea light" -- not full-blown sleep apnea.... yet. Chances are with age and sagging tissue in the airway, someone who snores will develop full-blown sleep apnea at some point in their lives.
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