Sleep Monitor and Sleep Apnea

How to Monitor Sleep Apnea?

If you have sleep apnea, you already feel very sleepy during the day. You don't remember that you had a poor sleep, however, you feel that you didn't sleep for ages.

To be at our best, each of us needs a certain quantity of sleep every night. If we do not get enough sleep, we tend to build up a sleep debt. This leads to a tendency to feel drowsy during the day and to fall asleep more readily.

However, the quantity of sleep we get is the entire story. The quality of your sleep has the same importance. You need to answer to some question about your sleep quality:

• do you have big, nice and continuous blocks of sleep quality, or is it fragmented into short bits?
• do you have enough deep sleep?

Answering to these questions can show you if you have sleep apnea, or how effective is your sleep apnea treatment. And that's why you need to monitor your sleep with a sleep moitor.

One of the best monitors for sleep is Zeo monitor, which is designed to help you analyze your sleep. It’s composed:

• of a lightweight wireless headband,
• a bedside display,
• a set of online analytical tools,
• and an email-based personalized coaching program.

With Zeo sleep monitor you will see the next morning some interesting results:

• how many times you woke up during sleep.
• how much time you spend in REM sleep, light sleep and deep sleep.

Let me explain the terms that describe the quality of sleep:

The quality of sleep is related to the sequence of sleep stages that the brain passes through during the night. After you go to sleep, the activities of your brain and body settle into a fairly predictable pattern, with two types of sleep:

• NREM sleep - is also called quiet sleep, because:
  
  
  • your breathing and brain activity are slow and regular.
  • your body is quiet and relaxed.
  • your dreams from NREM sleep are thoughtlike rather than emotional.
  • NREM sleep has 4 stages of sleep:
  
  
  • Stage 1 lasts about five minutes. Eyes move slowly under the eyelids, muscle activity slows down, and you are easily awakened.
  • Step 2 is the first stage of true sleep, lasting from 10 to 25 minutes. Eye movement stops, heart rate slows, and body temperature decreases.
  • In Stage 3 (Deep sleep) you’re difficult to awaken, and if you are awakened, you do not adjust immediately and often feel groggy and disoriented for several minutes.
  • Stage 4 (intense deep sleep) is the deepest stage of sleep. Brain waves are extremely slow. Blood flow is directed away from the brain and towards the muscles, restoring physical energy.

  
  

• REM sleep - rapid eye movement


• is also called active sleep, because there are active changes in your physiology.
• REM sleep plays a key role in learning and memory.
• your body temperature rises
• the blood circulation in your brain increases
• the large muscles of your body (leg and arm muscles) become paralyzed.
• your eye muscles become very active and move your eyes back and forth with speed.
• the most intense and emotional dreams occur during REM sleep.
• we all need REM sleep. People who are deprived of REM sleep and then allowed to sleep normally, usually experience several nights of REM rebound, in wich they spend a longer time in REM sleep - as if they have been deprived of REM sleep
• people experiencing REM rebound tend to remember dreaming more and have more vivid and often scarier dreams than normal.
• patients with sleep apnea are often deprived of the normal amount of REM sleep.

The most important stages of sleep are deep sleep (stages 3 and 4) and REM sleep.

Deep sleep is a time when the body repairs itself and builds up energy for the day ahead. It plays a major role in maintaining your health, stimulating growth and development, repairing muscles and tissues, and boosting your immune system.

In order to wake up energized and refreshed, getting quality deep sleep is key. And a sleep monitor will show you where your sleep problems are.

With Zeo sleep monitor you have the ability to see the most important aspects of sleep, where sleep apnea interferes:

• the quantity of sleep,
• the quality of sleep,
• the amount of REM sleep and deep sleep.

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