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By Buck Traxler – I-O Editor
Do you keep your spouse up at night with loud snoring? Do you feel tired and groggy when you wake up in the morning? Are you still sleepy during the day and do you fall asleep quickly? Are you overweight and do you have a large neck? And, have you been seen to choke, gasp, or hold your breath during sleep?
If you can answer YES to one or more of these questions you may want to discuss this with your physician or a sleep specialist. You just might have a serious sleep disorder called Sleep Apnea.
“The disorder is very common, more so than people think,” says Kit Robinson a Respiratory Therapist at the Pondera Medical Center. He goes on to add, “It’s as common as adult diabetes.”
This disorder is big, however, since most people don’t know what it is, it doesn’t get reported to family doctors. It is estimated that Sleep Apnea affects between 12 and 18 million Americans.
 APNEA RESULTS -- Kit Robinson, a Respiratory Therapist at the Pondera Medical Center, checks a read out of brain wave activity, breathing and heart activity on a computer at the Sleep Apnea center in the PMC. I-O Photo by Buck Traxler
Researchers say obstructive sleep apnea syndrome affects up to four percent of women between the ages of 30-60, but it can affect anyone at any age, man, woman, or child.
Sleep Apnea can be diagnosed right at the PMC. The hospital is associated with the Rocky Mountain Sleep Disorders Center. No longer does one have to go down to Great Falls to be tested.
Untreated, it can cause serious problems. Heart disease and stroke probability is higher if Sleep Apnea goes untreated.
Robinson explains that there are three types of apnea and they include obstructive, central and mixed. “Obstructive is the most common,” he says.
Obstructive Apnea (OSA) is caused by the blockage of the airway, more times than not when the soft tissue in the rear of the throat collapses, obstructing the airway when you are asleep.
Somewhat rare, is Central Sleep Apnea. The airway is not blocked, but the brain fails to signal the muscles to breathe.
Mixed Apnea is just that, a combination of two mentioned above.
There are a variety of steps people may take to sleep better if they have Sleep Apnea.
One is to stop all use of alcohol or sleep medicines. These relax the muscles in the back of the throat, making some degree of blockage more likely.
If you smoke, now is the time to quit.
If you are overweight, once again, now is the time to lose weight, and, try to sleep on your side instead of your back.
“A common treatment for Sleep Apnea is called continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP,” says Robinson
For this treatment, the patient wears a special mask, for which Robinson can fit you. “There are many mask choices and the technology improves almost daily,” he says, adding, “Finding the right mask and proper fit is one key to successful therapy.”
The mask will keep your airway open by adding pressure to the air you breath.
For more information on this sleep disorder, contact your primary physician or Robinson at the PMC at 271-3211. There are also a number of websites for information, familydoctor.org and sleepapnea.org are two Internet sites that you can check out.
“A common treatment for Sleep Apnea is called continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP,” says Robinson
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