To keep the air flowing into your lungs when you’re awake, throat muscles keep the airway stiff and open. But these muscles relax when you’re asleep. Usually, even the relaxed muscles do not stop your airway from opening to allow air to enter the lungs.
But airways can be blocked or narrowed in people with sleep apnea because of the following reasons:
*Your tonsils and tongue may be too big in relation to the opening of your windpipe.
*Thickening of the wall of the windpipe due the extra soft fat tissue in overweight people. Because of this, the inside opening becomes narrow and more difficult to open.
*The tongue and throat muscles relax more than normal.
*As you age, the brain’s ability to emit signals to keep the throat muscles stiff during sleep weakens. This will result in the narrowing or collapse of the airway.
*Some people have bone structures (shape of head and neck) that may cause a smaller airway size in the mouth and throat area.
During sleep, partially or completely blocked airways causes the lungs to lack a normal airflow. Loud snoring may occur because of this. Not to mention the drop in your body’s oxygen levels.
Your brain will interrupt your sleep when the oxygen drops to dangerous levels so that the upper airway muscles will tighten and the windpipe will open. This way, normal breathing can resume, most of the time accompanied with a choking sound or loud snort.
Stress hormones are released due to low quality sleep and frequent drops in oxygen levels. This reaction causes our heart rate to increase. It also boosts the possibility hypertension, stroke, heart attack and irregular heartbeats. More importantly, these hormones may raise the risk or induce heart failure.
Our body’s metabolism is also affected by untreated sleep apnea which can cause obesity and diabetes.