Diagnosing Sleep Apnea

How to Diagnose Sleep Apnea at Home

If you are single and living alone, diagnosing sleep apnea can be difficult.

Do you know if you snore during sleep? I am sure you don't.
You need someone to tell you that.

"Someone" is maybe your bed partner.

Untreated, sleep apnea can evolve in time, worsening over the course of many years, until it presents a real threat to life.

Firstly, I will give you some tips to find if you have a connection with sleep apnea. Then I will teach your partner (if you have one) to identify if you have a symptom of sleep apnea.

Video - How to Spot a Sleep Disorder?

Tips for Diagnosing Sleep Apnea - If You are Single -

If you live alone, you need to pay attention to this symptoms:

• morning headaches, short term memory and poor concentration

If you have sleep apnea, not enough air enter into your lungs during sleep. The amount of oxygen in your blood decreases. With low blood oxygen level, your brain is affected.

The brain will release stress hormones that will raise you blood pressure, risk of heart attack, stroke and irregular heart rhythm.


• heart problems

Sleep apnea and heart problems are very connected. If you don't treat sleep apnea in time, your heart health will be one of the targets. This medical problem can be prevented if sleep apnea is treated correctly.



• excessive daytime sleepiness

This sleep symptom is common to people with sleep apnea, when they sleep too much. "Maybe I am getting old..." you'll think. It's not normal to sleep at weddings, at sport events, at work, or at wheel while driving.


This symptom is very important in diagnosing sleep apnea, be careful if you are very sleepy during the day. You may have a sleep disorder.



• drowsy at work, or while driving

The excessive daytime sleepiness may lead to problems at work, problems with the family, and problems dealing with friends.

It often causes irritability, decreased productivity or injuries on the job, motor vehicle accidents, and disruptive family and social relationship.

Are you in this situation?



• obesity

You don't need a bed partner to tell you that you are fat. You can see yourself in the mirror. Obesity is very common among people with sleep apnea.

But not everyone who has sleep apnea is necessarily overweight.

A thick neck with a lot of fat can obstruct your airway. For example, men and women with large neck size: 17 inches or more for men, 16 inches or more for women, are in danger to manifest sleep apnea symptoms.



• Pickwickian Syndrome is a type of sleep apnea associated with obesity. With weight loss program you can treat this disorder.

Are you interested in diagnosing sleep apnea at home, with a simple and cheap method?

This page about home sleep apnea testing can get you very close to diagnose sleep apnea.

Tips for Diagnosing Sleep Apnea - For Your Bed Partner -

Did you know that your bed partner can save your life?

A detailed history from bed partners is imperative in all cases of suspected or undiagnosed sleep apnea. Snoring is the cardinal complaint reported by the bed partner.

Typically, the snoring is loud, nightly, and has existed for many years. Snoring may be so disruptive that partners may be driven to sleep in another room.

A bed partner may report a witnessed apnea that is often followed by loud snorts or gasps at the end of apneic episodes. This can be extremely concerning to the partner and serve as the trigger to seek medical attention.

A patient with sleep apnea syndrome might not even be aware that he woke up 500 to 1000 times during the night!
But YOU will know!

Your bed partner can be your best friend in diagnosing sleep apnea.

Bed partners might see the following sleep apnea symptoms:

• irregular and loud snoring, gasps and snorts

If your partner has irregular snoring, with breathing that stops briefly, with struggle to breathe...then you must be careful. This is a common symptoms of sleep apnea.

Apnea snoring is noisy and powerful. You may suspect sleep apnea if these symptoms are present, but diagnosing sleep apnea must be confirmed with an apnea monitor or sleep monitor. This monitor will reveal pauses in breathing, sleep arousals and low blood oxygen level.



• pauses in breathing during sleep

A normal person has irregular breathing at certain times during sleep. But a person with sleep apnea stops breathing entirely and may hold his breath for at least 10 seconds. And it may happen more than 5 times during a sleep to a couple of hundreds!

The most strange thing is that your partner is not aware of such effort of breathing.

These are the first symptoms that you should give a thought.

There are many other symptoms to help diagnosing sleep apnea. For more information about symptoms click here.

People who read about Diagnosing Sleep Apnea also read about:

• What is sleep apnea?


• Why do people snore?


• Sleep apnea pillow


• Sleep apnea side effects


• Natural cure for sleep apnea

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