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Obstructive Sleep Apnea or sleep apnea as it is commonly referred to affects a lot more people in the World and the United States than you would ever think. There are approximately 20 million men, women, and childred who have Obstructive Sleep Apnea. A lot of people have no idea that they have it. It is usually noticed first by a partner when the person stops breathing in their sleep temporarily. It can be kind of scary to a spouse or partner.

I never realized that I had it at all because I never was a snorer. When I finally found out that I had Obstructive Sleep Apnea was in 1998. I had fallen asleep at the end of a twelve hour night shift at the coal mine where I was working and had an accident in a 190 ton coal truck loaded with coal. Fortunately no one was injured in the accident but I did over $100,000 damage to the truck. Thy sent me for a bunch of tests to see why I was falling asleep and having an accident. If two of those trucks had ever hit head-on, it wouldn't be a pretty site and somebody would probably die. I went to the hospital in Rapid City South Dakota and they ran a sleep study and that is when they found out that I did indeed have sleep apnea. While I thought I was getting a good 7-8 hours of sleep a night but in all actuality I was only getting 2-3 hours. When you work a twelve hour shift and then spend another two hours driving back and forth you need more than two hours of good sleep.

What causes sleep apne you ask? It happens because your airway collapses repeatedly during sleep. It may be caused by an abnormally large tongue or from the muscles holding the airway opengetting weak or any combination of the above. When this happens you don't get enough air into your lungs. This causes your body to wake you up so you styartt breathing again. This can happen up to 30 times a hour.. Needless to say if you are only getting 7-8 hours in bed and are awakened up to 30 times every hour, you are going to be tired.

Untreated Sleep Apnea can lead to heart problems and other serious health problems. Sleep apne is not prejudiced. It can affect all races religions sexes and creeds.

Some of the key synptoms of Obstructive Sleep Apnea are being sleepy all the time, loud snoring, frequent urination during the night and irritability. People who are very much overweight and have excessively large necks are more prone to sleep apnea. Smoking doesn't cause sleep apnea but if you have it you should definitely quit the nasty habit. If left untreated it can be very

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