Therapist, cardiologist Azizkhon Askarov told why a person can die in his sleep.
Many consider death in a did not torment his loved ones. However, sometimes seemingly healthy people who have not reached the threshold of old age die in their sleep. According to doctors, there are pathologies that can lead to such a ending. These are:
- ischemic disease and hypertension causing arrhythmia and cardiac arrest;
- obstructive sleep apnea;
- diseases of the nervous system associated with brain hypoxia, for example, it can be cerebral atherosclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, parkinsonism, cerebral strokes.
Obstructive sleep apnea is a severe form of respiratory failure in obese people. Pauses in breathing can be more than 10 seconds.
Risk factors associated with death in sleep:
- older age;
- obesity;
- snoring;
- short and thick neck;
- incorrect or insufficient treatment of hypertension and diabetes.
There are mechanisms that lead to the death of a person in a dream.
— If a person has prolonged and deep hypoxia of the brain, depression of the respiratory center and then respiratory arrest, then this will lead to the development of coma and even death, — noted Askarov .
With age, protective reflexes during brain hypoxia in a sleeping person weaken, and therefore he may not wake up (for example, from coughing) and die from respiratory arrest. Every patient with heart disease belongs to a high risk group.
We must remember that sleep is an important physiological process for maintaining health. Serious sleep disturbances lead to chronic cerebral hypoxia and a high probability of death during sleep.
Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome is a common pathology associated with a sharp decrease or complete cessation of breathing. It is characterized by a temporary collapse of the soft tissues of the upper respiratory tract, which leads to their complete overlap (obstruction).
Sleep apnea symptoms
- < li>Snoring, especially loud
- Breathing that stops for a while and then resumes
- Difficulty inhaling
- Suffocation
- Cough
- li>
- Difficulty breathing
- Mouth breathing
- Restlessness during sleep
- Sleeping in unusual positions
- Sweating
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