Snoring or snoring while sleeping could be a sign of Sleep Apnea, a sleep disorder related to breathing.
Sleep apnea is characterized by loud snoring sounds and in the middle of snoring, the patient suddenly stops breathing followed by coughing like someone is choking. As a result of not being able to breathe, the patient can immediately wake up from sleep.
Sleep apnea can be experienced by all ages, from babies to the elderly can experience sleep apnea.
Although it can occur in all age ranges, the symptoms of sleep apnea in children tend to be different from those in adults. During sleep, the clinical symptom that occurs is snoring like an adult. However, when awake or during the day, the symptoms tend to be the opposite.
When adults are conscious, they feel excessively sleepy, especially when doing activities during the day. In young children, the symptoms are actually hyperactivity, the child becomes super-super active, we have to be careful if we find young children with superactive conditions.
Symptoms of hyperactivity are generally found in young children, while in children who are old enough, the symptoms are like those of adults, including often sleeping in class, so you have to be careful about the possibility of sleep apnea.
The Process of Snoring During Sleep
Snoring is one of the clinical symptoms of sleep apnea, while sleep apnea is a disorder.
So sleep apnea is a disorder, with the main symptom being snoring. Why snore? Because something blocks the airway during sleep in obstructive sleep apnea.
So automatically, even though we are sleeping, we will try to breathe harder to take in more oxygen, which is what is called snoring.
Sleep Problems Apart from Sleep Apnea
There are five groups of sleep disorders that can be experienced, including:
- Breathing-Related Sleep Disorders
A group of sleep disorders related to breathing is called sleep apnea. Sleep apnea can also be divided into three types. Because there is a blockage (obstructive sleep apnea) or there is no blockage but our brain fails to give us a signal to breathe (central sleep apnea). Or a combination of the two (mixed sleep apnea).
- Insomnia
Insomnia is actually the most common sleep disorder. This is a condition of difficulty sleeping, both difficulty in starting to sleep and maintaining sleep throughout the night.
- Hypersomnia
The opposite of insomnia, hypersomnia is excessive sleepiness but is not caused by sleep apnea. We know that one of the symptoms of sleep apnea is excessive sleepiness, but in hypersomnia this is not the cause of sleep apnea.
- Parasomnias
Parasomnias include several types such as bedwetting while sleeping, sleep walking, sleeping while eating, sleeping while talking, and frequent nightmares.
- Circadian Rhythm Disorders
Circadian Rhythm Disorders are sleep disorders such as those that occur in people with jet lag. It is also actually a sleep disorder if it occurs for a longer time than normal for jet lag people. This sleep disorder can also occur in workers who work on a shift system. Workers like this often have to be awake even when they should be sleeping. Instead, they should sleep during the day.
The article was written based on the collaboration of Liputan6's Healthy Monday program with Dr. Lanny Swandajany Tanudjaja, RPSGT (Sleep Clinic Doctor / Sleep Physician at EMC Hospital Tangerang).