How Common Is Sleep Apnea?
Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder that causes someone to pause breathing during sleep. Those suffering from sleep apnea usually don't know their breathing is being interrupted for 10 or more seconds at a time, and it often happens repeatedly throughout the night. This disorder causes a long list of symptoms and health issues, including poor sleep quality, chronic fatigue, headaches, depression, and even high blood pressure and heart disease.
The bad news is that sleep apnea is a relatively common issue that affects millions of people worldwide. The good news is that most sleep apnea can be treated effectively with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines.
How Many People Have Sleep Apnea?
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that as many as 100 million people worldwide suffer from sleep apnea. Here in the U.S., it's estimated that 18 million people have it. That means roughly 5% of Americans suffer from this life-altering condition.
Unfortunately, many sleep apnea sufferers don't realize they have the condition and go undiagnosed and untreated. Millions of people in the U.S. today are feeling tired and grouchy all the time while suffering a variety of ongoing health problems that could be treated and improved. So, it's important to understand sleep apnea and how it's treated to help keep you and your loved ones healthy and happy.
How Does Sleep Apnea Work, & What Are the Symptoms?
The most common form of this condition is called "obstructive sleep apnea" or OSA. People who have OSA usually have some kind of issue in their airway that causes a physical block, making breathing impossible.
Because sufferers are sleeping, it can take ten seconds or longer for the brain to kick in and jump-start normal breathing. This leads to low blood-oxygen levels and interrupted sleep, which together can cause ongoing fatigue and many physical and emotional issues as well.
People with OSA often snore loudly and frequently due to constricted airways in the back of the mouth and the soft pallet area. Sufferers can experience waking up gasping for air, and many report having a very dry mouth and nose in the morning. Plus, because sleep is interrupted throughout the night, sufferers often make more frequent trips to the bathroom than they might otherwise.
These effects can also cause problems for the loved ones of people with OSA. Loud snoring, gasping for air, and making regular trips to the bathroom during the night can affect partners' sleep quality as well! That's not to mention the trouble that chronic fatigue and mood problems can cause OSA sufferers' relationships.
How Is Sleep Apnea Treated?
A device called a continuous pressure positive airway (CPAP) machine is used to treat most types of sleep apneas. These machines use an air pump connected to a facial mask with a hose, supplying airflow into OSA sufferers' lungs steadily through the night. This helps eliminate the snoring, breathing pauses, low blood-oxygen levels, and sleep interruptions that sleep apnea causes.
While proper CPAP therapy, prescribed and overseen by a sleep doctor, can greatly enhance someone's health, mood, and overall quality of life, it's not without its problems.
For one thing, most CPAP masks are made of hard plastic with a silicone cushion. These can be uncomfortable to wear all night and leave unsightly red marks on the wearer's face. They also contribute to poor air seals due to facial sweat and oil, thus interfering with performance and leading to loud whistling noises and dry airways. Unfortunately, many sleep doctors continue to recommend expensive new masks or uncomfortable tightened straps to fix these problems. That's where RemZzzs® comes in.
How RemZzzs® Makes All Masks Better
RemZzzs® CPAP mask liners are made from soft, breathable cotton to fit the majority of today's most popular masks from all the top manufacturers. Our cotton CPAP mask liners improve the quality of the seal by absorbing facial moisture and greatly enhancing comfort for CPAP users. That means more effective therapy, and no more distracting noises or painful red marks on your face!
We encourage you to browse our site today for more on how our CPAP mask liners work, explore our testimonials, and find the right RemZzzs® liners for you in our online store.