Can sleep apnea change your personality?

Can sleep apnea change your personality?

Sleep apnea can cause depression, mood swings, personality changes, and irritability. Even if an OSA sufferer feels as if he has slept a full eight hours, repeated awakenings to initiate breathing will ultimately cause sleep deprivation.

What is the most severe form of sleep apnea?

Obstructive sleep apnea is classified by severity: Severe obstructive sleep apnea means that your AHI is greater than 30 (more than 30 episodes per hour) Moderate obstructive sleep apnea means that your AHI is between 15 and 30.

What is the root cause of sleep apnea?

In adults, the most common cause of obstructive sleep apnea is excess weight and obesity, which is associated with the soft tissue of the mouth and throat. During sleep, when throat and tongue muscles are more relaxed, this soft tissue can cause the airway to become blocked.

Can skinny people have sleep apnea?

Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) has long been though of as an overweight man’s disease. The stereotypical patient snores loudly, stops breathing for long pauses, shakes the bed, and is impossible to sleep with!

Does sleep apnea shorten your lifespan?

Studies have shown that sleep apnea can decrease life expectancy by several years. In addition, people with untreated sleep apnea find their focus, concentration and organizational skills are reduced. Further, sleep apnea is linked to higher incidences of motor vehicle accidents due to decreased attention.

What are the long term effects of untreated sleep apnea?

As a result, if left untreated, people may experience “poor sleep quality and progressive brain damage, induced by obstructive sleep apnea” which could lead to “poor memory, emotional problems, decreased cognitive functioning and increased cardiovascular disturbances,” according to Seung Bong Hong, PhD, MD and lead …

Is having sleep apnea a disability?

The Social Security Administration (SSA) no longer has a disability listing for sleep apnea, but it does have listings for breathing disorders, heart problems, and mental deficits. If you meet the criteria of one of the listings due to your sleep apnea, you would automatically qualify for disability benefits.

Can sleep apnea cause dementia like symptoms?

Sleep apnea is considered a risk factor for dementia. People with sleep apnea have been shown not only to have impaired memory and executive function, but also biomarker changes that are associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

What are the three types of sleep apnea?

There are three forms of sleep apnea: central, obstructive, and complex. The most common of these is obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).

What does it mean when you have sleep apnea?

Sleep apnea, also spelled sleep apnoea, is a sleep disorder characterized by pauses in breathing or periods of shallow breathing during sleep. Each pause can last for a few seconds to a few minutes and they happen many times a night. In the most common form, this follows loud snoring.

Can a person with central sleep apnea be idiopathic?

However, central sleep apnea can sometimes be idiopathic, which means that doctors cannot identify an underlying disease. Sometimes central sleep apnea occurs in a pattern called Cheyne-Stokes breathing, a kind of breathing that causes a person to alternate between hyperventilating and not breathing at all.

Is there such a thing as complex sleep apnea?

Complex sleep apnea syndrome is a type of sleep apnea that combines OSA and central sleep apnea. Sometimes, complex sleep apnea syndrome is obvious in an initial sleep study. Other times, it becomes apparent after the apnea does not resolve with a typical CPAP machine or other traditional OSA treatments.

What are the two main types of sleep apnea?

Sleep apnea is a common sleep disorder characterized by frequent pauses in breathing throughout the night. There are two main types of sleep apnea: obstructive sleep apnea and central sleep apnea.

What makes you more likely to have obstructive sleep apnea?

Having family members with sleep apnea might increase your risk. Use of alcohol, sedatives or tranquilizers. These substances relax the muscles in your throat, which can worsen obstructive sleep apnea. Smoking. Smokers are three times more likely to have obstructive sleep apnea than are people who’ve never smoked.

What are the signs and symptoms of sleep apnea?

All three types of sleep apnea share certain common symptoms: 1 Disrupted breathing in which a person’s respiration can become labored or even stop for up to a minute at a time 2 Excessive daytime sleepiness 3 Morning headaches 4 Irritability 5 Limited attention span or difficulty thinking clearly

What’s the difference between Central and obstructive sleep apnea?

Central sleep apnea, which occurs when your brain doesn’t send proper signals to the muscles that control breathing. Complex sleep apnea syndrome, also known as treatment-emergent central sleep apnea, which occurs when someone has both obstructive sleep apnea and central sleep apnea.