Essay On Sleep Apnea

Background of Research

What is Sleep Apnea?

Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder which causes frequent pauses in the breathing process during the sleep.

These breathing pauses can last from 10 seconds to several minutes and may occur 5 to 30 times in an hour.

There are three forms of sleep apnea:

Central sleep apnea (CSA) found in 0.4% of the cases. It involves the central nervous system and occurs when the brain fails to send signal to the muscles that control the breathing.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) found in 84.3% of the cases and it occurs when the soft tissues in the back of the throat relax during sleep and blocks the airway.

Mixed sleep apnea found in 15.3% of the cases (it is a combination of both the central and the obstructive sleep apnea).

Obstructive sleep apnea is the most common type of sleep apnea.

Men are more likely to suffer from obstructive sleep apnea than females. It is affects 4% of adult males as compared to only 2% of the adult female population.

Common symptoms of OSA are:

1. Loud snoring,

2. Excessive daytime sleepiness,

3. Restless Sleep.

If not treated obstructive sleep apnea can increase the risk of

1. Hypertension,

2. Strokes,

3. Depression and diabetes.

Treatments and Methods to Assess OSA

Since, OSA increases the risk of various health issues it is very important that people suffering from it go through the required treatment to get it cured. Usually the treatment methods for OSA require a long term management and some of the treatment methods used are:

1. Making lifestyle changes – avoiding alcohol.

2. In certain cases patients are provided with mouthpieces and other breathing apparatus which helps them sleep properly.

3. Sometimes, mouth and throat surgeries are also performed to treat OSA.

Befor...

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...ncement can revolutionize the healthcare sector. Smartphones are more affordable, more accessible to the population than computers because these days everyone own a smartphone and are easier to carry. In the recent years the use of cell phones and wireless sensors to gather data and access health data has grown up tremendously. Lot of mobile applications are already available in the market that count your daily calories intake, keeps track of your nutrition’s and workout plans.

So keeping in mind the increased availability and accessibility of smartphones worldwide, the proposed solution would be to create an application that will gather data about OSA risks through surveys.

• Moreover, this application can be used outside the TRU Sleep clinic, maybe in remote areas to perform cost-effective data collection that can be later analyzed by healthcare professionals.