More Than Just Snoring? Sleep Apnea Is Raising Your Blood Pressure

How alarmed are you when you see a loved one choke and stop breathing while asleep? Far from being dismissed as mere snoring, sleep apnea is a disorder where the upper respiratory tract repeatedly becomes blocked during sleep, causing periods where one does not breathe for ten seconds or longer to persist. When this phenomenon repeats dozens or hundreds of times throughout the night, our body is placed in an extreme state of stress even while sleeping. Every time breathing stops, the brain detects oxygen deprivation, declares an emergency, and excessively activates the autonomic nervous system. In particular, the sympathetic nerve surges explosively, making the heart race and causing blood pressure to skyrocket. When this process repeats every night, blood pressure becomes chronically elevated, often leading to a diagnosis of hypertension. Hypertension is dangerous in itself, but it is even more concerning because it is a potent risk factor for cardiovascular disease and cerebrovascular disease. Countless studies also show that patients with sleep apnea have a two- to three-fold higher risk of developing myocardial infarction and stroke compared to healthy individuals. Furthermore, sleep apnea promotes inflammatory responses in the body and elevates insulin resistance, thereby increasing the risk of developing diabetes. Because one cannot achieve deep sleep throughout the night, one is perpetually tired during the day, concentration drops, and in severe cases, depression may even accompany it. While our body needs to repair damaged cells and recharge energy during sleep, sleep apnea interferes with this recovery process and instead continuously attacks the body. In particular, hypoxia during sleep damages vascular endothelial cells to accelerate arteriosclerosis, and can lead to fatal heart conditions such as arrhythmia and heart failure. You must remember that this is not an issue to be taken lightly as simple snoring, but an important disease that exerts a severe impact on whole-body health. Sleep is not merely rest; it is the most crucial time for reorganizing our body.