Sleep Apnea
What is Sleep Apnea?
Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder where your breathing stops and starts repeatedly throughout the night. These pauses can last from a few seconds to over a minute and may happen 30 times or more per hour. When breathing stops, oxygen levels in your blood drop, which signals your brain to wake you up briefly to resume breathing.
The most common form is obstructive sleep apnea, which happens when throat muscles relax too much during sleep. This blocks your airway and prevents normal breathing. Central sleep apnea is less common and occurs when your brain fails to send proper signals to breathing muscles. Some people have complex sleep apnea, which combines both types.
Sleep apnea affects more than just your rest. Repeated drops in oxygen can trigger your body to make more red blood cells over time, which thickens your blood. Hormone levels like testosterone can also shift in ways that worsen the condition. Left untreated, sleep apnea increases your risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.
Symptoms
- Loud snoring that disrupts your sleep or your partner's sleep
- Gasping or choking sounds during sleep
- Pauses in breathing witnessed by another person
- Waking up with a dry mouth or sore throat
- Morning headaches that fade as the day goes on
- Difficulty staying asleep or frequent nighttime awakenings
- Excessive daytime sleepiness even after a full night in bed
- Difficulty concentrating or memory problems
- Mood changes including irritability or depression
- Decreased interest in sex or sexual dysfunction
Many people with sleep apnea do not realize they have it. The breathing pauses happen during sleep, so you may not remember them. Your bed partner often notices symptoms before you do.
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Causes and risk factors
Obstructive sleep apnea develops when the muscles in the back of your throat relax too much during sleep. These muscles support your soft palate, tonsils, tongue, and the sides of your throat. When they relax excessively, your airway narrows or closes as you breathe in. Risk factors include excess weight, which creates fat deposits around your upper airway. A naturally narrow throat, enlarged tonsils, or a thick neck can also block airflow. Men are two to three times more likely to have sleep apnea than women, though risk increases for women after menopause.
Other risk factors include family history, age over 40, smoking, alcohol use, and nasal congestion. High testosterone levels may worsen sleep apnea in some people. Certain medical conditions raise your risk too, including high blood pressure, heart disorders, type 2 diabetes, and polycystic ovary syndrome. Central sleep apnea is more common in people with heart failure, stroke history, or those taking opioid pain medications.
How it's diagnosed
Doctors diagnose sleep apnea through a sleep study, which monitors your breathing, oxygen levels, heart rate, and brain activity during sleep. This can happen in a sleep lab overnight or at home with a portable device. The study counts how many times per hour your breathing stops or becomes shallow. Five to 14 events per hour indicates mild sleep apnea. Fifteen to 29 events is moderate, and 30 or more events is severe.
Blood tests can reveal important clues about sleep apnea and its effects on your body. Rite Aid testing measures hematocrit, which shows the percentage of red blood cells in your blood. Chronic low oxygen from sleep apnea causes your body to produce extra red blood cells, raising your hematocrit. We also measure testosterone levels, which can influence sleep apnea severity. Testing these biomarkers helps your doctor understand how sleep apnea may be affecting your overall health. Get tested at over 2,000 Quest Diagnostics locations nationwide.
Treatment options
- Lose weight if you carry excess pounds, especially around your neck and upper body
- Sleep on your side instead of your back to keep airways open
- Avoid alcohol for at least four to six hours before bed
- Quit smoking, which increases airway inflammation and fluid retention
- Use a CPAP machine, which delivers steady air pressure through a mask to keep airways open
- Try a dental device that repositions your jaw and tongue to maintain airflow
- Consider surgery to remove excess tissue or reposition your jaw in severe cases
- Treat nasal allergies or congestion that contribute to airway blockage
- Avoid sedatives and sleep medications that relax throat muscles
- Establish regular sleep and wake times to improve overall sleep quality
Concerned about Sleep Apnea? Get tested at Rite Aid.
- Simple blood draw at your nearest lab
- Results in days, not weeks
- Share results with your doctor
Frequently asked questions
The most common warning signs include loud snoring, gasping or choking during sleep, and extreme daytime tiredness despite spending enough time in bed. Your bed partner may notice that you stop breathing for brief periods during the night. You might also wake up with headaches or a dry mouth.
Yes, chronic sleep apnea can change several blood markers. Repeated drops in oxygen trigger your body to produce more red blood cells, which raises your hematocrit level. Sleep apnea can also affect hormone levels including testosterone. These changes show up in blood tests and help doctors understand how sleep apnea is affecting your health.
When breathing stops during sleep, oxygen levels in your blood drop repeatedly throughout the night. Your body interprets this as being at high altitude or in a low-oxygen environment. To compensate, it produces more red blood cells to carry oxygen more efficiently. This process is called secondary erythrocytosis and can make your blood thicker.
Regular snoring is just noise caused by vibrating tissues in your throat. Sleep apnea involves actual pauses in breathing where your airway becomes blocked. People with sleep apnea often snore loudly, then suddenly stop breathing, then gasp or choke as breathing resumes. Regular snorers maintain steady breathing throughout the night.
You need a doctor's order for a sleep study, which is the standard test to diagnose sleep apnea. However, you can get blood tests through Rite Aid that measure biomarkers affected by sleep apnea, including hematocrit and testosterone. These tests can provide valuable information to discuss with your doctor about whether you need a sleep study.
Weight loss can significantly improve or even resolve sleep apnea in many people, especially if you are overweight. Losing just 10% of your body weight can reduce the severity of obstructive sleep apnea. However, thin people can also have sleep apnea due to anatomy, so weight is not the only factor. Talk to your doctor about whether weight loss is right for you.
Untreated sleep apnea raises your risk of serious health problems including high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, irregular heartbeat, and type 2 diabetes. It also increases your risk of accidents due to daytime sleepiness. The repeated drops in oxygen put stress on your heart and blood vessels over time.
Most doctors recommend testing at least once or twice per year to monitor how sleep apnea affects your body. Rite Aid offers two tests per year with our subscription, which is ideal for tracking changes in hematocrit and testosterone over time. Your doctor may recommend more frequent testing if your levels are concerning or if you start new treatments.
No, CPAP is the most common and effective treatment, but not the only option. Lifestyle changes like weight loss, positional therapy, and avoiding alcohol can help mild cases. Dental devices that reposition your jaw work for some people. Surgery is an option for severe cases or specific anatomical problems. Your doctor will recommend treatment based on your severity and circumstances.
Women definitely get sleep apnea, though it is more common in men. Women have lower rates before menopause, but risk increases significantly after menopause when hormone levels change. Women with sleep apnea may have different symptoms than men, including insomnia, fatigue, depression, and morning headaches rather than loud snoring.