Sleep study Dallas deals with sleeping disorders like sleep apnea. This is a sleeping disorder which is manifested by abnormal pauses in breathing pattern. What happens is that during sleeping time the patient experiences shallow breaths. These pauses in breathing are the ones referred to as apnea. Apneas can last from a few seconds to minutes and the reoccurrence maybe 30 or more times in an hour. The abnormal low breathing event is referred to as hypopnea. When a patient is not in apnea state, normal breathing resumes though a loud snorting or unpleasant choking sound can accompany it.
When in apnea state, one moves out of the deep comfortable sleep to a poor light sleep. This affects the quality of sleep and makes one to sleep a lot during the day. It usually goes undetected because a normal visit to a doctor will not lead to it being diagnosed. Also blood tests carried out can not help. Diagnosis of this disorder is done by the use of an overnight sleep test called a polysomnogram. A family member or a sleeping partner can be the first to detect the problem as it occurs during sleep time.
There are two types, obstructive apnea, (the most common type) is as a result of the blocking of the airways. The airways collapses and becomes blocked during sleep time making the patient breath in pauses. This mostly affects overweight persons; it can also affect small children with enlarged tonsils. In the other type, central apnea, the airways are not blocked at all but the brain does not send a signal to the muscles for breathing. This makes the patient fail to breath for brief periods of time. This type of sleeping disorder can affect anyone though more common to people with certain medical conditions. Sleep Apnea is treatable.