The health risks behind snoring

2018-11-09 China journal of traditional Chinese medicine 7 edition

Snoring is considered by many as a sign of good sleep. Snoring has long been described in Chinese literature. But recently, the driver, Lao liu, nearly caused a traffic accident by falling asleep for two days. He realized the seriousness of the problem and went to the hospital for treatment. Old liu told the whole story after he arrived at the hospital, and I quickly asked him about his daily sleep. He says he sleeps no less than eight hours a day, touching his pillow, and sometimes takes a nap at noon. Did I ask him to snore while he slept? Old liu replied, "my wife says I snore and yell." A few days later, Lao liu's sleep monitoring results came out, and was diagnosed as severe sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome with severe hypoxemia at night. That is to say, Lao liu suffered from severe apnea in his sleep and snoring and suffered from severe hypoxia.

This is true of narcolepsy driving

It turns out that Lao liu's drowsiness is caused by the sleep apnea at night, which interferes with the continuity of sleep. At the same time, it is accompanied by the symptoms such as breathing exertion, breathing difficulty and choking and awakening, which leads to the shallow sleep and the lack of deep sleep. As a result, sleep no longer has the function of eliminating fatigue and restoring physical strength. So patients with hypoxemia, such as Lao liu, can increase daytime sleepiness, and if they drive during the day, they are likely to have reduced attention and reactivity, increasing the risk of traffic accidents.

The high risk of driving in patients with sleep apnea is also due to the prevalence and low public awareness of the disease. The survey showed that one in six to seven people had the condition, and two in five drivers had sleep apnea. The national sleep association found that nearly a third of those surveyed had dozed off while driving, and more than a fifth had been in accidents as a result.

See the doctor in time for sleep discomfort

In fact, Chinese medicine has been concerned about sleep diseases for a long time, as described in the pathogenesis of all diseases, volume 31: "snorers, the sound between the throat and the throat in the sleep. The person's throat, the qi up and down, if the qi blood tone, although detaining sleep might as well xuancheng; If the air is discordant, it blows the throat and is silent. It has fat people sleep, but fat people blood thick, forced throat between, astringency and adverse also." "The theory of febrile and cure of the sun's disease" also has: "the wind temperature is the disease, the Yin and Yang of the pulse all float, from sweat out, body weight, more sleep, snore in the breath, difficult language out." "Compendium of febrile speech and tongue dryness" contains: "snorers snore, rheumatism." It can be seen that snoring disease has a long history in Chinese medicine and has a variety of causes and pathogenesis. Modern doctors mostly believe that the disease is caused by the accumulation of phlegm, the spleen as the source of the phlegm, the lung as the container of phlegm, renal qi abnormality can also help to generate phlegm and dampness, so the lung, spleen and kidney function abnormality is the main cause of snoring, outside feeling the evil of six can also aggravate the disease.

Traffic safety hazard caused by sleep apnea syndrome will lead to serious social harm, therefore, we remind each snorers, when there is a frequent snoring, snoring, difficulty breathing during sleep, breath or apnea, even is suppress awake, feel tired or sleepy during the day, especially no reason of long-term lethargy, have hypertension, difficult to control and drugs, the symptom such as being overweight or obese, must go to hospital in time to prevent the accident.