Snoring at night and sleepy all day? Doctor explains signs you may need a sleep test

Snoring is often dismissed as a nuisance, but it can also signal an underlying breathing disorder. If you regularly wake up tired despite getting enough sleep, or feel excessively sleepy during the day, it may be time to take a closer look at your sleep. Certain diagnostic methods that monitor sleep patterns at night and daytime sleepiness can help identify such problems. A combination of these symptoms may point to obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Dr Annu Varghese, Consultant Pulmonologist at Paalana Hospital, Palakkad, explains.

What is Obstructive Sleep Apnea(OSA)?
The word 'apnea' refers to pauses during breathing. People who suffer from OSA repeatedly start and stop breathing during their sleep. This happens because their airway repeatedly narrows or becomes blocked during sleep. There are three types of sleep apnea, including OSA. The other two are 'Central Sleep Apnea' and 'Complex/Mixed Treatment-Emergent Sleep Apnea '. 

Signs of OSA
Some of the common warning signs for obstructive sleep apnea are:
a) Poor or disturbed sleep
b) Loud snoring
c) Waking up suddenly or repeatedly during the night
d) Getting up several times to urinate
e) Waking up gasping or struggling for breath
f) Erectile dysfunction
g) Constantly tossing and turning in bed.
The symptoms may continue into the day. Morning sleepiness despite having slept through the night, headaches, difficulty in concentrating, poor attention leading to mistakes, depressive thoughts and persistent fatigue can also be associated with OSA.

How sleepy are you during the day?
One simple way to assess your daytime sleepiness is the Epworth Sleepiness Scale. It measures how likely a person is to fall asleep in eight everyday situations, including sitting quietly, reading, watching television, sitting in a public place, travelling as a passenger in a car, lying down to rest after lunch, talking to someone, and driving or waiting at a traffic signal. A score above 11 indicates excessive daytime sleepiness and warrants a sleep test.

What does a sleep test involve?
One commonly used test is polysomnography, which monitors various aspects of sleep using specialised equipment. The test helps assess breathing patterns and identify episodes in which breathing stops during sleep. If breathing stops for more than 10 seconds, treatment is necessary.

Treatment depends on the underlying cause. In some cases, surgery can address problems such as nasal obstruction, enlarged tonsils, the tongue falling back during sleep, a recessed jaw, and certain thyroid-related conditions. For others, positive airway pressure (PAP) devices can help keep the airway open while sleeping. There is no medicine that can directly eliminate obstructive sleep apnea.

People with thyroid disorders, women with polyendocrine metabolic syndrome, those with thick necks and people with respiratory disorders should also consider undergoing a sleep score test. Don't ignore persistent snoring, especially if it is accompanied by daytime sleepiness or repeated breathing interruptions at night. Early identification and treatment of sleep apnea can help reduce the risk of complications associated with the condition.