Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) does more than make you feel tired during the day. If you don’t seek treatment, ongoing OSA significantly raises your risk for serious complications like high blood pressure and an irregular heartbeat. Chuan Jiang, MD, provides a home sleep study to diagnose OSA and recommends the best treatment for your health needs at his practice, Chuan Jiang Medicine PC in Flushing, New York. To learn if you have OSA, call the office or schedule an appointment today.

What is obstructive sleep apnea?

OSA occurs when you briefly stop breathing while you sleep. You may have these episodes 5 to 30 times or more every hour, depending on the severity of your OSA.

You stop breathing when your tongue and soft tissues in your throat relax, move toward the back of your throat, and cover the airway. The tissues vibrate and cause snoring when they partially block the airway. But when they completely cover it, you stop breathing.

Your oxygen levels quickly drop, and then your brain nudges you to start breathing again. You don’t fully wake up when it happens, so you don’t realize you have OSA.

What are the symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea?

Loud snoring is the most common symptom. Others in your household typically hear loud snoring, a moment of silence, and then a gasp when you breathe again.

OSA also causes daytime symptoms, such as: 

• Difficulty waking in the morning
• Fatigue during the day
• Morning headaches
• Forgetfulness
• Difficulty concentrating
• Depression
• Irritability

You feel tired during the day because your sleep is disrupted every time you stop breathing — even if you don’t wake up.

How is obstructive sleep apnea diagnosed?

Dr. Jiang diagnoses OSA with a home sleep study (portable polysomnography). Before going to bed, you put on several monitors that measure your breathing, air flow, and blood oxygen levels while you sleep. The monitors send information to a recording device that allows Dr. Jiang to evaluate and diagnose OSA. 

If your symptoms point to a more complex sleep disorder than OSA, Dr. Jiang refers you to a sleep lab for an overnight sleep study.

The lab technicians record brainwaves, heart activity, and eye and leg movements. They can also diagnose other sleep disorders by performing studies, such as split night studies, a multiple sleep latency test (MST), and maintenance of wakefulness test (MWT). 

How is obstructive sleep apnea treated? 

Your treatment depends on the severity of your OSA. Dr. Jiang may recommend:

• Oral appliance therapy 
• Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP)
• Surgery to remove excess tissues in your throat
• Glossopharyngeal nerve stimulation therapy

Dr. Jiang prescribes the CPAP device and refers you to the appropriate specialist for the other treatments.

If you feel fatigued through the day, it’s time to seek an OSA evaluation. Call Chuan Jiang Medicine PC or schedule an appointment online today.