What Is Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA)?

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a problem in which your breathing pauses during sleep. This occurs because of narrowed or blocked airways.

People with sleep apnea may:

• Feel sleepy or drowsy throughout the day
• Wake up unrefreshed in the morning
• Act impatient, or irritable
• Be forgetful
• Fall asleep while working, reading, or watching TV
• Feel sleepy while driving, or even fall asleep while driving
• Depression
• Hyperactive behavior, especially in children
• Difficult to treat high blood pressure
• Headaches, especially in the morning

 

Home Sleep Study

First, you will need to have a sleep study to confirm OSA. This testing can be done in your home or in a sleep lab.

Philips Alice Night One Sleep Study System is designed to help patients get their study done right the first night. Alice Night One uses the same sensors recommended by the AASM for in-lab studies (American Academy of Sleep Medicine). It has 3 sensors (effort belt, cannula and oximeter) and a built-in body position sensor that provide seven channels of data (body position, pressure flow, snore, respiratory effort, SpO2, pleth and pulse rate). It is easy to  setup. Please refer to picture below:

Home Sleep Study can be done within one night and report will be generated on next day. Kindly contact us to make appointment for a sleep test at home.

 

Treatment – CPAP Therapy

CPAP Therapy work best to treat obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in most people.

You wear a mask over your nose or over your nose and mouth while you sleep. The mask is connected by a hose to a small machine that sits at the side of your bed. The machine pumps air under pressure through the hose and mask and into your airway while you sleep. This helps keep your airway open.

It can take some time to get used with CPAP therapy. Good follow-up and support from a good sleep centre is important. Philips Respironics DreamStation CPAP Machine has advanced features and functions to overcome the problem using CPAP Therapy.

 

If not treated, sleep apnea may cause:

• Anxiety and depression
• Loss of interest in sex
• Poor performance at work or school
• Motor vehicle accidents from driving while sleepy
• Industrial accidents from falling asleep on the job
• Sleep apnea may lead to or worsen heart disease, including:
  • Heart arrhythmias
  • Heart failure
  • Heart attack
  • High blood pressure
  • Stroke

In most cases, treatment completely relieves symptoms and problems from sleep apnea.

If you think you or your family members might have the symptoms above, kindly contact us to make appointment for Sleep Study or CPAP Machine Trial.