Catathrenia and Sleep Apnea

Unlike 20 years ago, sleep apnea is now a pretty well-known sleep disorder. One of the main reasons is the general understanding of how important sleep is to your physical and emotional well-being. Sleep apnea disrupts the sleeping pattern of millions of people. One reason that it becoming more of an issue could well be the fact that the population is gaining weight at an alarming rate. The excess weight blocks the back of the throat causing you to stop breathing. This certainly differentiates it from other types of sleep disorders such as restless leg syndrome, insomnia and bruxism or grinding your teeth. But not all snoring and groaning at night is positively OSA. It could be something called catathrenia.

Catathrenia is a rapid eye movement sleep condition that can be confused with sleep apnea and other sleep breathing disorders. There is the holding of breath and a groaning during sleep (REM stage) but the snoring is decidedly different. Catathrenia is not as serious as OSA because the problem is during the exhaling not the inhaling that exists with sleep apnea. Catathrenia is sometimes referred to as nocturnal groaning because of the sound that is made. This rare condition can occur every night off and on throughout the night.

It has been believed that bad dreams may be associated with catathrenia but that usually isn't the case. While the sound of the groaning might be quite loud, the individual with it doesn't necessarily wake up from it unlike those with sleep apnea. But like sleep apnea the noise that is made can irritating to your bed partner. If that is the case your first step would be to go to your doctor and ask for sleep study to see if you have this condition or sleep apnea. At the sleep study you will stay all night and be observed by sleep technicians. You will be hooked up to machines that will be able to determine if you have catathrenia, or possibly another sleep disorder.

As for a cure it has been suggested that the use of the CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) can help cure the groaning but not everyone is so sure about that. This rare condition can occur every night off and on throughout the night. In fact since the quality of sleep isn't affected you may not need to be treated for it. Of course it is always best to check with you doctor first.

David Stillwagon writes about age and health issues like sleep apnea

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