Differentiating between sleep apnea and snoring is very important because a lot of people get it mixed up. You can visit a sleep study center to get diagnosed. For your convenience, here is a thorough difference between sleep apnea and snoring.
Sleep Apnea
Sleep apnea is a disorder of sleep. In sleep apnea, people can stop breathing for 30 seconds and the time can extend up to a minute as well. Sleep apnea is a serious sleep disorder. Although no deaths have ever been reported by the cause of sleep apnea, the inability to breathe during your sleep can be quite scary.
Causes
The cause of sleep apnea is the sudden blocking of the airways of your lungs. This can cause breathing to cease. The airways can become blocked due to the reduction of pressure in the vessels, which can allow the airways to suck and create a vacuum, hence, the vessels become blocked for some time and you are unable to breathe.
The general cause of sleep apnea is not known as of yet, but some measures can be taken to allow your breathing to be more precise and continuous during your sleep if you do suffer from sleep apnea.
Treatment
There are special masks available for people suffering from sleep apnea. They are called CPAP masks and CPAP machines. CPAP stands for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure. This machine is specially designed for creating an optimum pressure for your airways so that they don’t get blocked during your sleep.
The machine is set to an optimal pressure and a tube is attached to the machine with a mask on the other side. The mask is going to deliver air with the right pressure so that your airways remain open throughout the night. This is the most successful treatment for people who suffer from sleep apnea.
The machine is small and extremely easy to handle. You can place it on your nightstand and put the mask on before you sleep. This will ensure a proper night’s rest without any problems in breathing.
Snoring
Now, talking about snoring, it might sound similar to sleep apnea, but it’s not. Sleep apnea and snoring are two different things. Snoring happens when the soft tissue surrounding your airways relax on top of your airways, allowing you to make a loud noise in your sleep. This is not the stoppage of breathing, rather, it is a disruption in your breathing.
During snoring, you are still able to breathe completely fine and you don’t feel any sort of discomfort either.
Causes
The cause of snoring is not known either. It is usually familial and it has no such medical treatment.
Although snoring is not a major issue, it can be quite difficult for someone who tends to sleep with you. It can be disturbing and uncomfortable for the sleeping partner. It has been seen a lot that people who are overweight or people who smoke, tend to snore a lot in their sleep. Snoring can be short and sporadic or it can occur for longer periods of time, which adds to the discomfort of the sleeping partner.
Treatment
To tackle snoring, there are several natural treatments. You can try by losing some weight. Losing weight helps a lot with snoring. It makes the tissue not relax on your airways so that you don’t snore. Being obese can cause you to snore a lot because the extra weight adds extra pressure to the airways and the tissue cannot lift so easy to prevent snoring.
Other treatments include having your nasal issues treated. Sometimes, people who cannot breathe through their nose while sleeping, because of sinuses or other nasal issues, tend to sleep with their mouths open. This can also cause snoring. So, if you can get your nose issues treated, that would help with snoring.
Nasal strips can help you in this regard. Putting a patch of the nasal strip on top of your mouth can clear up your nose and allow you to breathe through your nose easily so you don’t have to use your mouth.
There you go! Now you know every single detail there is to know about sleep apnea and snoring. Now you will not get confused between the two. But if you’re experiencing breathing issues during sleep, go to a sleep apnea doctor.
