Sleep apnea takes a huge toll on your body and your quality of life if you don’t seek the right treatment—and quickly. Since sleep apnea affects the breathing in your sleep, it also affects the quality of your sleep.

In the beginning, you may only experience a harder time concentrating throughout the day, the distracting feeling of fatigue, and even irritability. As the time passes, the lack of sleep can lead to sleep deprivation—which is even worse for your body. All your symptoms will intensify, and you could even be putting yourself at risk for death.

Learn more about sleep apnea and how you should treat it wit the help of your dentist.

The Symptoms of Sleep Apnea

Your Daily Functions May Be Affected

Lack of sleep impacts your ability to function correctly throughout the day. Your brain functions may become slowed, decreasing your ability to concentrate, think as you normally do, and even solve problems with reasonable decision making. Not to mention, you’ll become less alert and have a decreased ability to learn. In some cases, you can have problems remembering things or developing memory loss.

You May Increase Your Chance for Being Involved in Car Accidents

As your cognitive functions cease overtime, you’re less able to perform certain tasks safely, even like driving. When you’re extremely sleep deprived or suffering from fatigue, you can’t concentrate on the road or may even nod off while driving. When you aren’t properly rested, and you get behind the wheel, you become a danger to yourself and others.

Severe Overall Health Complications

When your body isn’t properly rested, your overall health can begin to suffer. In fact, those with sleep disorders and chronic sleep loss could lead you to develop diabetes and cardiovascular problems, like heart disease, heart attacks, and irregular heartbeats. Thankfully, you can address them early on with the help of your dentist.

Implications on Mental Health

When you become too tired to really enjoy every moment of your life, depression can take hold of your life instead. When you don’t feel well-rested, you will hardly want to get out of bed—let alone take the day by storm. In addition, lack of sleep can also cause mood fluctuations, irritability and even anxiety. It will affect your relationships with your loved ones.

As you can probably tell, sleep apnea and deprivation can ruin your life—if you let it. Your dentist cares about your overall health and doesn’t want to see this happen to you. If you’re experiencing untreated sleep apnea, we encourage you to seek treatment from a simple oral appliance. Learn more about how your local dentist can help you today!

About Our Office

Here at Weatherford Dental Sleep Medicine, you can tell that we care about more than just your teeth. Although those are always a priority, we want your overall health to be in good standing as well. Learn more about how our office can help you recover your overall health by contacting us today.