Latest sleep apnea news
Sleep Apnea as a condition can be extremely dangerous and difficult to treat. However, some latest news about studies and innovations about the condition may help you to better understand what sleep apnea is all about.
Fewer Nightmares for Sleep Apnea patients
Recent news on studies shows that patients with sleep apnea report fewer cases of nightmares during their sleep. This may be the only silver lining to an otherwise tiresome and painful condition.
Though patients with sleep apnea continue to dream, they report fewer cases of nightmares. This finding will now allow the doctors to get a better insight into the condition and also to ask the right questions to the patients. The more severe the condition of the apnea is, the lesser nightmare the patient had.
However, patients must remember that apnea is a serious condition and may even become fatal. So, proper treatment of the condition is very important – even if you have fewer nightmares now.
OSA in kids may be genetic
Another new study has found that the treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea in children may become much easier. Doctors may soon be able to avoid a tonsillectomy and simply use an injection, or even a throat spray to stop snoring in children.
An online edition of a report by the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine says that they have identified genes that are linked to Obstructive Sleep Apnea in children. These genes cause the tonsil tissues to proliferate, thus resulting in partial or complete obstruction of the airway passage.
The fact that there might be effective non surgical ways of getting rid of sleep apnea in children is indeed exciting.
Brain damage linked with sleep apnea
In yet another unfortunate finding about sleep apnea, it has been found that sleep apnea may be linked to brain damage in patients. People, who are affected with severe sleep apnea, usually have reduced level of concentration of gray matters in several areas in the brain.
The brain’s cerebral cortex or the gray matter is the hot seat of the brain, where information is processed. However, gray matter reduces various memory issues, as well as increase cardiovascular problems in the patient.
Poor sleep quality can result in progressive damage of the brain, brought on by Obstructive Sleep Apnea. This will give rise to a number of emotional problems, decreased cognitive powers and increased cardiovascular problems.
The study took into account the condition of 36 men affected with sleep apnea and 31 healthy men. While the latter group showed no changes in the level of gray matter, the patients affected with OSA showed reduced concentrations of gray matter.
Adolescent sleep problem increases the risk of motor accidents
Studies have found that adolescent drivers who were suffering from sleep apnea are twice as likely to have had a crash. The fact is, motor accidents are a huge concern, whenever a sleep apnea patient is concerned. There are a number of accidents reported each day, caused by drowsy driving.
Sleep Apnea may cause drug abuse and dependency in teens
Latest news about a study revealing the dangers of sleep apnea links sleep apnea with increased drug dependency. It has been found that teenagers who have lesser than seven hours of sleep are more likely to use illegal drugs. This habit can spread through the friend circle and increase the number of cases of teen drug abuse. The Researchers at the University of California San Diego and Harvard University came to this conclusion after mapping the sleep patterns and drug use of more than 8,000 teens. They found that a teenager who gets less than 7 hours of sleep is 11% more likely to use drugs than those who get more sleep.
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