How can snoring kill you

This is partially true if they are not getting at least six hours of sleep each night. OSA can alter the chemicals in your brain glutamate and gamma-aminobutyric acid that impact your stress and depression levels.

OSA is most likely to occur in individuals who are obese. Likewise, if left untreated it can cause weight gain which only worses other health issues. Did you know that if you are not getting quality sleep, you may be more likely to encounter diabetes in your lifetime?

The best thing those suffering from OSA can do, is to seek help and treatment. You are using an outdated browser. Things may not appear as intended. We recommend updating your browser to the latest version. An analysis of health data from one sleep study found that the intensity of snoring was related to the risk of carotid atherosclerosis — narrowing of the arteries in the neck due to fatty deposits called plaque — and as a result, stroke.

Simply put, the louder and longer you snore each night, the greater your long-term risk for a stroke. Protect yourself by getting help for snoring, especially if you experience daytime sleepiness, if your spouse says your breathing stops in your sleep both signs of sleep apnea , or if you have other health concerns, such as high blood pressure. In fact, data suggest that people with sleep apnea are twice as likely to have both nonfatal heart disease events and fatal heart attacks.

Treatment for this sleep disorder is effective: Clinical studies have also shown that treating sleep apnea with continuous positive airway pressure CPAP reduces your heart disease risk to that of people without sleep apnea. People with long-term snoring or sleep apnea risk developing an irregular heart rhythm, or arrhythmia. Researchers have found that people with sleep apnea are more likely to have episodes of atrial fibrillation , the most common type of arrhythmia, than people without it or people whose apnea is treated with CPAP.

Apnea may affect the conductive system of the heart, says Doghramji. Or it might be more common because obstructive sleep apnea appears to enlarge the left atrium over a long period of time. Gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD , is very common in people with sleep apnea, Doghramji says. People who have sleep apnea also may have GERD because of the disordered way in which their throat closes while air moves in and out during sleep, causing pressure changes that can suck the contents of their stomach back up into the esophagus.

Both GERD and sleep apnea are related to being overweight and both seem to ease as people return to a normal weight. This is one of the more serious dangers of sleep deprivation caused by snoring or sleep apnea. Daytime sleepiness can be so intense that it puts you and the people around you at risk, says Doghramji. If snoring or sleep apnea is leaving you exhausted, you run the risk of falling asleep, perhaps while driving.

An analysis of health information and driving data for adults over 10 years showed that the sleepier people felt during the day, the greater their risk for a car accident.

The risk was also greater if people were driving alone. Sleep apnea can affect your mental well-being, leading to issues from crankiness from a lack of sleep to serious depression, Doghramji says.

When somebody snores, it's a sign that something is wrong. This condition is called sleep apnea. Twenty percent of Jakarta residents suffer from this condition, according to research by Indonesian Society of Sleep Medicine.

Sleep apnea happens when your respiratory tract narrows or closes off, which causes you to reduce or stop your breathing, which can lead to death. This condition usually goes unnoticed, since few people notice what they do in their sleep.

What makes sleep apnea a silent killer is people's misconception. Snoring is more dangerous than smoking or having high cholesterol, according to research published in the medical journal The Laryngoscope. They might feel strange when they wake up, and sleepy during the afternoon, but they won't feel anything in their sleep," Andreas told me.

Andreas said that sleep apnea can cause hypertension, diabetes, cardiac disease, stroke, depression, impotence, and death. When sleep apnea happens to a pregnant woman, it may lead to premature childbirth, fetal disorders, and other pregnancy issues.

According to Andreas, foreign literature shows that sleep apnea patients make up to percent of the population in Western countries. But populations in Western countries are mainly caucasian, which means they have longer necks and bigger jaws than most Asians. About 20 percent of people in Asian countries suffer from sleep apnea, where a majority of the population have smaller jaws and longer necks than Westerners. Does snoring have anything to do with body weight? Andreas said no.