Sleep Apnea

One of the most common causes of interrupted sleep is a blocked airway, which is the case with those who suffer from sleep apnea. Because of this blockage, you will have trouble breathing while you sleep. Sleep apnea is characterised by snoring and periodic interruptions in breathing while sleeping. About 80% of those who snore have sleep apnea.

Although OSA is the most frequent, there are two other forms of sleep apnea.

When the airway is physically blocked during sleep, a condition known as obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) develops. When the brain has trouble regulating the muscles responsible for breathing during sleep, a condition known as central sleep apnea (CSA) occurs. Mixed or complex sleep apnea occurs when a person has both obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and central sleep apnea (CSA) and so has obstructions from both conditions. Learn more can heart arrhythmias be linked to sleep apnea?

Exercising can help with the first two degrees of sleep disruption and the third level is beneficial in its own right. Not breathing when sleeping is a significant problem that can have major consequences for your health, as you may well know. Thanks to its ability to alleviate symptoms and prevent the onset of sleep apnea, exercise is a double-edged sword for your health.

Can Exercises Help Reduce Risk or Improve Symptoms of Sleep Apnea?

Physical Consequences of Sleep Apnea

Some of the organs and tissues that are impacted by sleep apnea are the brain, the heart, and the reproductive system. Because sleep apnea is so often overlooked, patients are often prescribed drugs and therapies that don’t provide optimal results. In the case of people with untreated sleep apnea, the effectiveness of medications like insulin and blood pressure medicine may be diminished.

When it comes to the negative consequences of OSA on the body, exercise has an even higher impact because it is also helping lessen the effect of sleep apnea. This is because many of the symptoms associated with OSA are also warning indicators.

Reduced sleep quality is a major consequence of OSA. This is because the exhaustion and physical repercussions of breathing difficulties sometimes persist even after a full night’s sleep.

Additional health issues that can be exacerbated by sleep apnea include:

Problems with cognitive function or memory loss; diabetes or pre-diabetes; excessive daytime sleepiness; erectile dysfunction; high blood pressure; gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD); heart disease or heart failure;

Adding insult to injury, obstructive sleep apnea worsens with age and weight. That’s why it’s crucial to finish your therapy or get help if you suspect you have sleep apnea. The symptoms you’re experiencing won’t go away on their own, and they may get worse if you ignore them. Read more about Can Sleep Apnea Contributes to Hair Loss? to click here.

What methods exist for dealing with sleep apnea?

Before discussing the role of exercise in treating sleep apnea, it is crucial to realise that while weight reduction can assist OSA symptoms, it will not cure the illness.

Treatment with a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine is the gold standard for treating sleep apnea and other breathing disorders during sleep.

Patients with sleep apnea can benefit from CPAP therapy by using a device that delivers a steady stream of air to their airway while they sleep. Consistent use of a CPAP device has been shown in several trials to improve cognitive function, reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and heart attack, and even extend life expectancy.

Common treatments for sleep apnea include continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines and dietary and lifestyle changes. Losing weight can help alleviate certain OSA symptoms, but it won’t cure the condition. Losing weight can help lessen symptoms and improve sleep quality, which makes sense given that being overweight can make the condition worse.

Can Exercise Cure Sleep Apnea,

The prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea increases with body mass index. It may be the most important contributor to sleep apnea for certain people. That’s because carrying more weight around your neck might cause your upper airway to get blocked, making breathing difficult. This is the root cause of the severe snoring that is a hallmark of OSA. The same is true for the lungs: excess body fat in the midsection can diminish lung volume and so limit one’s breathing ability.

One of the finest things you can do for yourself is to lose weight if you’re overweight or obese and have sleep apnea. Losing weight can help you breathe easier by reducing the pressure in your chest. This can help you stop snoring. The severity of OSA might be decreased by half with just a 10% to 15% weight loss in obese individuals.

Researchers found that moderately obese OSA patients may not need long-term CPAP therapy if they lost weight. When paired with CPAP treatment, losing weight can have additional health benefits.

As a result, this is where exercise comes in. Physical exercise is a key factor in achieving weight reduction success. Exercise may not even be the most beneficial part if you have OSA, even if weight loss can lower OSA severity by 50%.

How to Treat Sleep Apnea with Throat Exercises

Additional exercises for the nose, mouth, and throat can aid in reducing or eliminating snoring in addition to the weight reduction benefits of aerobic activity.

When your airway muscles relax or protrude during sleep, you experience snoring and obstructive sleep apnea. These manoeuvres assist with nasal breathing as you sleep by training and strengthening the muscles that line the nasal passages, moving the tongue, and opening the mouth slightly.

Oropharyngeal exercise, also known as myofunctional treatment for sleep apnea, works on the muscles and soft tissues of the jaw, neck, and mouth. It’s a great way to train your tongue and jaw into a more comfortable resting position.

Some studies have found that myofunctional treatment can lessen the sleep apnea symptoms. One meta-analysis showed that patients treated with myofunctional therapy had a reduction in their apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) from 24.5 to 12.3. Reduces moderate apnea to a milder form of the condition.

Keeping your mouth and throat muscles toned and strong via daytime exercise might help reduce snoring and treat moderate obstructive sleep apnea by limiting muscular vibration during sleep. When performed in conjunction with a CPAP machine and a healthy lifestyle, these activities can be even more beneficial.

Exercises that focus on deep breathing can also assist with sleep apnea by opening and strengthening the muscles around the airways. Using them before bed can help you breathe more easily through your nose and keep your airways from collapsing as you sleep.

Knowing When to Seek the Advice of a Professional

Modifying your way of life can help your sleep apnea, but it may not be enough for severe cases. An expert in sleep medicine can help you choose which treatments are best for you.

You may take our sleep quiz to see whether you have sleep apnea if you haven’t been diagnosed with it yet. You can use it to evaluate your symptoms and determine if sleep apnea testing is necessary. A consultation and sleep study might be helpful if you have trouble sleeping. Get in touch with Air Liquide Healthcare right now to set up a consultation and learn more about the effective treatments available.

Getting a simple and quick sleep exam might be the difference between another night of bad sleep and the peaceful sleep you deserve if you have obstructive sleep apnea.

Your heart beats most efficiently when it maintains a constant rhythm, just like the steady drumming of your favourite music. Arrhythmias, or abnormal cardiac rhythms, can cause serious health issues if they occur frequently.

When you’re awake, you might notice if your heart misses a beat or two, but when you’re asleep, you might not. Sleep apnea is a respiratory issue that has been linked by researchers to several different cardiac rhythm abnormalities.

Can arrhythmia be caused by sleep apnea?

OSA, or obstructive sleep apnea, is a respiratory disease that occurs during sleep and causes frequent interruptions in normal breathing. The pause (and the other frequent pauses that seem to come with it) may be brief, but they can have an effect on your heart.

About a quarter of patients who rely on a pacemaker to regulate their heartbeat also suffer from sleep apnea. This provides further evidence that sleep apnea and arrhythmias may be closely linked.

It is probable that sleep apnea is the cause of arrhythmia in some patients because treating sleep apnea has helped reverse or lessen the occurrence of arrhythmias.

Sleep apnea is more common in those who have heart problems. This suggests that some people who experience sleep apnea may have preexisting cardiac conditions. One’s chance of developing irregular heartbeats is already elevated by sleep apnea, but this condition can make things much worse.

To what extent is arrhythmia and sleep apnea linked?

Patients with sleep apnea often suffer from bradyarrhythmias, or abnormally slow heart rates. The likelihood of developing bradyarrhythmia increases as the severity of sleep apnea does.

However, additional arrhythmias are possible. People with sleep apnea, for instance, are at a 2x higher risk of developing atrial fibrillation.

Why do people get arrhythmia when sleeping?

Multiple sleep apnea-related factors can contribute to nighttime heart rhythm irregularities:

Making adjustments to the pressure inside the chest.

Stopping breathing during a sleep apnea episode is like to attempting to take a drink through a blocked straw. The more forcefully you try to sip through the straw, the less liquid you manage to move.

This impact is analogous to that of trying to breathe through a blocked airway. Click here to read more about Can Exercises Help Reduce Risk or Improve Symptoms of Sleep Apnea?

As a result, your normal intrathoracic pressure, which has an effect on your lungs and heart, shifts. These alterations may activate and move the heart, and also impact blood flow back to the heart. An arrhythmia may result from any of these alterations.

Invoking the fight-or-flight and relaxation responses.

Certain “backup” processes in the body are activated to restart breathing if it stops for any reason. The parasympathetic system, which lowers the heart rate, and the sympathetic system, which speeds it up, are two examples of such systems.

Inducing myocardial ischemia

Oxygen levels in the blood might decline during a sleep apnea episode if the person stops breathing for a period of time. Deficiency of oxygen to body tissues (hypoxia) might result.

The issue of hypoxia is one of supply and demand. The body needs oxygen to function, but the heart isn’t getting enough. Arrhythmias can develop in the event that the heart does not receive enough oxygen, a condition known as myocardial ischemia.

When a person has sleep apnea, what happens to their heart?

The heart’s capacity to take in oxygen can be disrupted by sleep apnea episodes. Your body will attempt several different kinds of adaptation at first.

In order to acquire more oxygenated blood, it may try to make the heart beat faster or harder. This can have long-term consequences for heart health by increasing heart size or wearing out heart muscle.

Additionally, cardiac cells may be harmed by a lack of oxygen. Because of this, the affected region may become thicker and scarred, reducing its ability to conduct electricity.

The association between sleep apnea and heart failure has been called “bi-directional” by some experts, meaning that both conditions can exacerbate the other.

Can sleep apnea cause cardiac problems?

Due to oxygen deprivation, untreated sleep apnea can lead to permanent cardiac abnormalities including scarring or fibrosis.

Less efficient conduction of electrical impulses via cardiac tissue. This can lead to an increase in the incidence of cardiac arrhythmias.

Your doctor should check for sleep apnea before any serious cardiac problems develop. Common causes of sleep apnea include:

Obesity
Age
Increased girth around the neck
A history of feeling “unrefreshed” or like you haven’t slept when you get up
Gender

Snoring or pausing to breathe repeatedly while you sleep may be signs of sleep apnea, which can be detected by a sleeping companion. If you suspect you have sleep apnea, make an appointment with your doctor.

Doctors might potentially prescribe therapy for sleep apnea at an earlier stage if patients undergo screening for risk factors.

However, your doctor may first notice an arrhythmia before concluding that you have sleep apnea.

Arrhythmias can cause symptoms including feeling dizzy or like your heart is missing a beat. If you experience any of these signs, it may be because your heart isn’t beating in a regular rhythm.

Can sleep apnea-related cardiac damage be repaired?

If sleep apnea and cardiac arrhythmia are intertwined, treatment of both problems is necessary.

Anti-arrhythmic drugs may be less effective if sleep apnea is left untreated. And if you’re undergoing certain therapies, like ablation for atrial fibrillation, failing to address your sleep apnea might raise the likelihood of the condition returning. To what extent sleep apnea causes cardiac damage determines whether or not that damage may be reversed.

Arrhythmias may be mitigated with the use of a CPAP machine to treat sleep apnea, which increases oxygen intake while you sleep. Reduced oxygen levels can be mitigated with the use of this apparatus by keeping the airways open.

Some studies have shown that using a CPAP machine to treat sleep apnea may reverse cardiac abnormalities, depending on how severe they are. Left ventricular function may be enhanced via CPAP therapy in some patients.

However, studies conducted in 2021 show that CPAP was not successful in reducing the occurrence of atrial fibrillation among persons with moderate to severe sleep apnea.

There are alternative options for sleep apnea treatment than CPAP equipment. Surgery of the upper airway or the use of oral equipment to keep the tongue in the correct position during sleeping are two of the options.

The effectiveness of these therapies in correcting damage caused by sleep apnea is unknown at this time. While sleep apnea therapies may not be able to reverse all cardiac damage, they can alleviate some potentially fatal side effects.

Takeaway

The effects of sleep apnea extend beyond simply disrupting your sleep schedule. Another argument for treating sleep apnea is that doing so reduces the risk of having irregular heart rhythms.

Treating irregular cardiac rhythms and sleep apnea can help keep your heart as healthy as possible, which is important since arrhythmias can raise the chance of premature death. Discuss with your doctor the best course of action for treating your sleep apnea and maintaining a healthy heart rate.

More to read: Frequently asked questions on CPAP machines