People don’t always notice the nighttime symptoms of sleep apnea because they don’t know how they behave in their sleep. You may think that you’re sleeping like a rock, when in reality, you toss and turn all night long. Nevertheless, there are symptoms you may see the aftermath of, or your spouse may notice them as you sleep. Here are some nighttime signs of sleep apnea.
Restless Sleep
People with sleep apnea are very restless at night. Every time your airway gets clogged while you sleep, you wake up momentarily. Your body can’t let you stop breathing, so it will jolt you out of sleep to restart the breathing process. You may not notice this is happening, but you could notice if your sheets are moved around a lot, or if you wake up on a different side of the bed than the one you started on.
Frequent Bathroom Breaks
Going to the bathroom frequently at night may not be from an overactive bladder. If your body is constantly waking up, you may be more sensitive to your bladder’s signals than someone who is sleeping soundly. Most people wake up once or twice at night, but anything over that could be a sign of a more serious issue going on. Keep that in mind if you find yourself visiting the bathroom half a dozen times each night.
Loud Snoring
This is once again a sign of sleep apnea that you personally may not notice. However, if there is someone else living in your house who complains about your loud snoring, you may want to get a sleep study. There are other causes of snoring, like clogged sinuses, but sleep apnea is one of the more common ones. With sleep apnea treatment like the programs we offer in our Michigan sleep apnea center, you may be able to eliminate your snoring altogether.
Gasping For Air
Have you ever woken up choking or gasping for air? This sometimes happens when people get startled in a dream, but most of the time it is because something happened with their breathing at night. Your body is frantically trying to keep breathing, and that may require extreme measures at times. As your treatment progresses, these experiences will happen much less often or they will stop altogether. You can breathe easily at night and have a more pleasant experience overall.
