Sleep Apnea Essay

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If you toss and turn all night or feel tried during the day, it could be a sign of a sleep disorder. A sleep disorder is defined as a change in sleeping patterns or habits that can negatively affect one’s health. The average teen requires eight to ten hours of sleep each night, but only gets around seven hours. This means that they lack the amount of rest they need to function during the day. Sleep disorders affect nearly seventy million Americans and many do not realize they have one. There are many types of sleep disorders including restless legs syndrome and narcolepsy, but the main ones include insomnia, sleep apnea, and parasomnias (“Sleep Disorders Overview”).
Insomnia is the most common sleep disorder affecting over fifty percent of
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Left untreated, sleep apnea can be very dangerous if not deadly. The disorder may cause high blood pressure, strokes, diabetes, depression, or heart failure (“Sleep Apnea - Overview & Facts”).
To prevent sleep apnea, avoid using alcohol and medicines before bed. These drugs can numb throat muscles and slow breathing. Maintaining a healthy weight by eating smart, exercising, and refraining from nicotine can also lower the chances of sleep apnea (“Sleep Disorders Overview”).
A third sleep disorder is known as parasomnias. These are disturbances in the nervous system that occur during sleep including nightmares, night terrors, sleep walking, sleep aggression, sexsomnia, and sleep paralysis (“Sleep Disorders Overview”). Although episodes of parasomnia look complex to observers, the patient often remembers nothing of the event. Parasomnias affect ten percent of the US population. Jennifer Aniston, a famous actress and businesses woman, has be known to sleep walk
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Researchers have found that those with sleep disorders showed to have a far lower density of neurons than the average person. The greater their lack of these neurons, the worse their sleep problems were ("Sleep Disorders Linked To Faulty Brain Chemistry, Study Finds”).
While asleep, the brain keeps the heart and lungs operating while the muscles shut down. Patients with little dopamine-producing neurons in the brain often fail to get their muscles shut down and may experience violent hitting and shouting while they sleep. Those with low levels of acetylcholine-producing neurons in the brainstem are more likely to have sleep apnea ("Sleep Disorders Linked To Faulty Brain Chemistry, Study Finds”).
Sleep disorders are becoming more common in today’s society. Work, school, and other demanding tasks are cutting into time that people would use to sleep and rest. Many famous actresses and artists are often deprived of sleep due to demanding schedules, constant meetings, and endless concerts. They are not the only ones. Doctors, lawyers, and police officers have all been shown to be insufficiently rested

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