Sleep Apnea

Sleep apnea means you stop breathing when you sleep. You stop breathing because the air passage to your lungs gets blocked. The air passage is blocked by soft tissue in the back of your throat. This block makes your stress system wake you up so you can start to breathe again.

Signs of Sleep Apnea

Signs of sleep apnea are:

• loud snoring
• feeling very tired during the day
• you stop breathing at night (other people may have noticed)
• high blood pressure

Problems from Sleep Apnea

Sleep apnea makes your stress system wake you up as many as 30 times every hour to breathe. When you wake up this often you cannot get into a deep sleep at night. You wake up feeling like you did not sleep at all.

Sleep apnea makes your health worse. Each time your stress system wakes you up to breathe, your blood sugar goes up. You will notice that your blood sugar is high in the morning if you have sleep apnea. Sleep apnea also makes your blood pressure and cholesterol go up.

Sleep apnea is common in people living with type 2 diabetes (it is found in half of the people living with type 2 diabetes). You are more likely to have a heart attack or a stroke if you do not treat your sleep apnea (your risk is 4 times higher).

Take Action

If you have some of the signs of sleep apnea, you may have sleep apnea. Ask your doctor if you should go for a sleep test.