One of the strongest links to sleep apnea is obesity. In fact, some studies suggest that 60-90% of people with sleep apnea are overweight or obese. Carrying extra weight around the neck and abdomen can narrow the airway, making it harder to breathe normally at night. This relationship between sleep apnea and obesity goes both ways. Obesity not only raises the risk of sleep apnea, but sleep apnea itself can make it harder to lose weight.
Sleep is meant to be the body’s time to rest and repair — but for people with sleep apnea, it can become a nightly struggle that puts more than just rest at risk. Sleep apnea is a common sleep-related breathing disorder where a person’s breathing repeatedly slows or stops throughout the night. Over time, these interruptions can take a serious toll on the body, including raising the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes — and even stroke.
It’s a common belief that the older you get, the less sleep you need. But that’s simply not true. Older adults actually need about the same amount of sleep as everyone else — around seven to nine hours a night.1 What often changes with age isn’t the need for sleep, but the pattern of sleep. Many older people tend to go to bed earlier and wake up earlier than they did in their younger years.
If you’ve ever felt guilty for taking an afternoon nap, thinking it might throw your sleep schedule out of balance, here’s some good news — napping doesn’t automatically ruin your night’s rest. In fact, when timed and managed well, a short daytime snooze can be one of the best ways to recharge your body and mind.
Snoring might seem like just a noisy bedtime nuisance, but for many couples, it’s more than that. When the snoring is loud, frequent, and linked to obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), it can put a real strain on relationships, intimacy, and emotional wellbeing. Learning how to treat sleep apnea can help in restoring energy, patience, and intimacy for both you and your partner.
As we mark Women’s Health Week, it’s important to shine a light on a condition that is still too often overlooked in women: obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). OSA is a sleep disorder where the airway repeatedly narrows or collapses during sleep, causing breathing pauses, fragmented rest, and drops in oxygen levels.
We’ve all been there - a runny nose, scratchy throat and that “can’t breathe through my nose” feeling that comes with a cold. For most of us, it’s just a few uncomfortable nights. But if you have sleep apnea, those sniffles might make your nights even tougher. And surprisingly, untreated sleep apnea could even make it harder to recover from that cold.
Menopause changes a lot about how our bodies work - and often, how we sleep. Many women expect hot flushes, night sweats and occasional insomnia. But if you’re waking up feeling unrefreshed, dragging yourself through the day, and wondering why your energy has disappeared, the culprit might not just be menopause. It could be undiagnosed sleep apnea.
Menopause is a natural stage of life, but it often brings unexpected changes to health and wellbeing. One lesser-known change is an increased risk of sleep apnea, a condition where the airway becomes partially or completely blocked during sleep, causing repeated interruptions in breathing.
