Women and Sleep Apnea

Last Updated on August 11, 2020 by Paula

Do you:

• Always wake up tired feeling like you never had a
  good night’s sleep,
• Wake up a lot of times in the middle of the
  night coughing or gagging,
• Wake up with dry mouth and your heart beating
  like crazy?

Chances are you are just one exhausted, multi-tasking mom like me, but for some women, they may have sleep apnea.

What? Women can have sleep apnea?

We used to think that only men can get sleep apnea, but in reality, women can also have sleep apnea.

Sleep Apnea is a sleeping disorder when you unconsciously cease breathing a lot of times (like, around fifty or more), because your upper airway closes.

Your body turns into panic mode, making you wake up and have a restless sleep.

Most people who have this disorder often snore, are always sleepy at daytime, and are most likely overweight or obese.

Doctors also discovered that unlike men who snore and wake up catching their breath, women may have subtler symptoms like appearing exhausted, restless, having morning headaches, and being all-time cranky.

And because women with this sleeping disorder may seem healthy, they always end up being misdiagnosed and their sleep apnea, untreated.

This sleep disorder can be serious and can lead to hypertension, diabetes, heart failure and even dementia.

Apparently, sleep apnea causes a drop in the oxygen level in the blood called hypoxemia resulting to a decline in memory.

In a study, 85% of the women who had sleep apnea at the beginning of the study ended up having mild cognitive impairment after five years.

Because of these health risks, if you suspect you have sleep apnea, talk to your doctor.

If after evaluation of your medical and family histories and exhaustive tests, you will be diagnosed with sleep apnea, a variety of treatments like change in lifestyle, breathing devices and gadgets may be used.