What Happens If Sleep Apnea Isn't Treated?

Sleep apnea may not seem like a life-threatening condition, but it is. If you don’t treat your obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), you leave your body deprived of oxygen multiple times a night.

An apnea is a pause. Every time you have an apnea, you literally stop breathing. Maybe if the condition were called Breath Apnea or No Breath, it might be taken more seriously.

To put apneas in perspective, one of the hallmarks of dying is the occurrence of multiple apneas that progressively lengthen over time. A person stops breathing for longer and longer until they take their final breath.

Dr. Kimberly Bolling is an experienced physician who wants you to breathe well and fully throughout the entire night. She diagnoses and treats sleep apnea at our office in Bowie, Maryland, so you can renew and refresh your body with every good night’s sleep.

What happens if you don’t treat your sleep apnea? Here’s what you need to know:

What apneas do

Untreated sleep apnea means that you continue to rob your body and brain of oxygen as you sleep … for the rest of your life. To be considered an apnea, the pause in your breath has to last for at least 10 seconds. If you have sleep apnea, those 10-second or longer pauses occur at least five times an hour. 

However, your apneas could last significantly longer, and there could be significantly more of them. One 70-year-old woman had apneas that lasted for almost four minutes. 

Each apnea lowers the amount of oxygen in your blood. That means that your organs don’t get sufficient oxygen to adequately dispose of old cells, repair damaged cells, and build new ones.

How many apneas do you have, and how long do they last? Your sleep study determines this with a score called the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI). Hypopnea is a blocked breath, which also reduces blood oxygen. If you have severe OSA, you could have more than 30 apneas and hypopneas per hour.

How untreated OSA affects your brain

Nobody wants to develop dementia. But untreated OSA dramatically increases your risk for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of cognitive decline. When your blood isn’t rich with nourishing oxygen, your brain’s white matter becomes damaged.

White matter is a web of nerve fibers that comprises more than half of your brain. White matter allows different parts of your brain to communicate with one another. 

Damaged white matter can’t transmit signals efficiently. You may start to have trouble with your vision, memory issues, and attention problems. Luckily, using a CPAP for just 12 months can almost completely reverse white-matter damage. 

How untreated OSA affects your heart

Obviously, your heart needs oxygenated blood, too. So do all of the rest of your organs. A heart without oxygen can’t repair damage and rebuild itself. In addition, the lack of oxygen in the blood causes your body to release the stress hormone adrenaline, which causes high blood pressure and damages the lining of your blood vessels.

Untreated OSA is associated with cardiovascular events, such as:

• High blood pressure
• Heart failure
• Heart attack
• Stroke 
• Left ventricular dysfunction
• Coronary artery disease

Women and men with untreated OSA are twice as likely to have a heart attack as those who don’t have it. 

Why CPAP is worth it

While you may not relish the thought of sleeping with a mask over your nose at night, it doesn’t take long to adjust to CPAP. You should feel the effects pretty quickly. Just a few nights of uninterrupted sleep, where your body gets all the oxygen it needs, makes a difference in how you feel and function.

You don’t have to worry about coming in for a sleep test, either. We give you an at-home test to measure your AHI, and then devise a treatment plan. In addition to CPAP, lifestyle changes can also help OSA, including:

• Improving your sleep hygiene
• Eating a whole-foods diet
• Getting more exercise
• Losing weight

Do you suspect that you or your partner has untreated sleep apnea? Find out for sure, and preserve your health by booking a sleep study. Call our team directly at 301-352-0090 today or click here to fill out the online appointment form.