Do you think you could be suffering from sleep apnea? Has a doctor recently diagnosed you with this sleep disorder? Then let this be your wake up call to take immediate action.
Sleep apnea is caused when you actually stop breathing during sleep.
This can happen to you between 1 to over 50 times every hour.
The disorder is commonly characterized by loud snoring, morning headaches, sleepiness during the day, constantly waking in the middle of the night, awakening to a choking or gasping sensation, insomnia, forgetfulness, irritability, anxiety, depression, and decreased performance in your daily activity.
Because sleep apnea occurs during sleep it is often difficult to truly determine if you are being affected by it.
However, if you have noticed a recurrence of these symptoms either of yourself or someone you know it may not be too late to take action toward preventing the problem from becoming more severe.
6 ways to preventing a serious problem

1. Sleep apnea generally affects people who are overweight.
   Therefore a simple change in your diet to lose weight has proven to effectively help cure many people with the ailment.
   
2. Change sleeping positions to promote regular breathing.
   
3. Along with changing positions, avoid sleeping on your back to keep to keep your throat open.
   There are special pillows you can use to help you avoid this.
   
4. Stay away from alcohol and sleeping medication, because they make it harder for your throat to stay open.
   
5. Keep nasal spray near by if you need to.
   These obviously help keep your nasal passages clear and open at night.
   
6. Finally, it is a must that you quit smoking.
   Smoking already causes serious health problems.
   In this case, it increases swelling in your upper airway that will impair your breathing.
   

This is a very serious sleep disorder that affects millions and millions of people all over the world.
The issue is that since the major symptoms go unnoticed because they happen while you sleep, this has led to so many individuals going undiagnosed and untreated.
Without any sort of treatment you run a dangerous risk of hypertension, stroke, irregular heart beat, heart attacks, and possibly even sudden death.
This article was designed to give you the option of taking matters into your own hands for treatment, although this does not mean you shouldn't consult your doctor.
A doctor will have treatment options available such as a CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) mask to wear at night, but that will cost you about $2000.
More expensive surgeries are out there to help you should you remain untreated long enough for conditions to worsen.
The courses of action listed above are not only effective and easy to implement into your lifestyle, but they also do not require you to come out of pocket, especially in these current economic times.