Don't let excessive daytime sleepiness control your life

Your physician has identified you as a good candidate for a sleep study. It is important for you to get tested because you may have possible sleep disordered breathing. Having a sleep study performed will give your physician a complete understanding of your breathing while you sleep and how your overall health is being affected.

Very often patients do not get screened for sleep apnea because snoring and breathing pauses are seen as normal and as a result of not getting help to treat sleep disordered breathing the patient continues to suffer with commonly associated symptoms such as:

Sleep

• Frequent snoring

• Gasping or choking for air

• Episodes of Insomnia

• Poor sleep quality

Awake

• Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS)

• Inability to remain awake and alert during the day resulting in unintended lapses into drowsiness or sleep.

• Feeling tired upon awakening

Cardiopulmonary

• Increased breathing effort and pulmonary artery vasoconstriction

• Hypoxemia and hypercapnia

• Increased sympathetic activity

• Increased heart rate and arrhythmias in some patients

• Oxidative stress

• Inflammation

Neurologic

• Sleep disruption

• Hypoxia

• Oxidative stress

• Inflammation

• Neuronal injury

If you are experiencing symptoms associated with sleep disordered breathing please don't hesitate to contact your primary care physician to discuss this further.