All of us love sleeping. Fondness for sleep is as important as ensuring a sound sleep, as interruptions may have serious cascading effects, says ENT specialist T.V. Rajani Kanth.
Delivering a talk on ‘Obstructive Sleep Apnea’ organised by The Hindu , in association with the State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH), on the occasion of World Sleep Day on Friday, spoke at length about this sleep disorder characterised by pauses in breathing or instances of shallow or infrequent breathing during sleep. “Each pause in breathing, called an apnea, may occur 30-50 times in a hour, resulting in heavy snoring,” he said.
He said obesity may be an aiding factor to heavy snoring but there may be instances of obese people sleeping quietly and very thin people snoring heavily. “What we see as snoring is actually the body trying to breathe and in the struggle, the sound that we make is snoring,” he explained.
“It’s all in the body anatomy. Indians have higher chance of snoring while Chinese snore more than us,” he informed.
Lifestyle changesLacing the talk with interesting anecdotes that had the listeners breaking in chuckles, Dr. Rajani Kanth spoke about how obesity and lifestyle changes contributed to a rise in the disorder. “Ailments like diabetes and hypertension will take you a step closer to sleep apnea,” he cautioned.
To test the level of snoring, sleep endoscopy was one method in practice, he said and explained about its significance and limitations. Informing that there were no medicines available to cure the ailment, he said the general advice included weight loss, proper sleeping position, and lifestyle modifications.
SBH General Manager J. Sithapati Sarma, Deputy General Manager K.G. Venkatesh Reddy and other staff members were present.
