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Does Sleep Apnea Lead To Bad Breath, Bad Dreams, And Bad Headaches?
If you’ve consistently begun waking up with a headache, with the lingering memory of terrible dreams, or with a dry mouth and foul breath, it’s time to discuss the chance of sleep apnea with your physician.
Sleep apnea can result in bad breath.
Having a foul morning breath
“Morning Breath” is usually caused by dry mouth as saliva production decreases while you sleep. Saliva eliminates bacteria in the mouth, and without saliva, bacteria lead to halitosis and morning breath. Lousy breath, mostly in the morning, can indicate Sleep Apnea.
Mild morning breath is natural due to low saliva production. However, for those suffering from sleep apnea, a sleep disorder that emanates from the airway collapsing, which causes restrictive breathing, lousy morning breath can be the eventuality of the body compensating for these apnea events when asleep. During an apnea event, people seem to either clench their jaw (leading to bruxism grinding or clenching the teeth) or open their mouth to gasp for air. The majority of people with sleep apnea tend to snore, and may not even know that these adrenaline-fueled flight or fight responses are happening. All these reactions tend to dry out the mouth, causing bad breath upon awakening.
Sleep apnea can lead to bad dreams.
Someone with manageable to severe sleep apnea can experience an apnea episode several times an hour, which results in frequent sleep interruptions. When an apnea happens during REM sleep (the dream phase of sleep), it can interrupt the dream, and this can, in turn, improve dream recall. Moreover, the actual dream subject content can be influenced by an apnea because it causes a significant decrease in blood oxygen levels. Lower blood oxygen levels have been associated with nightmares. Several studies substantiate the relationship between bad dreams and untreated sleep apnea.
Bad dreams can be an indication of sleep apnea.
It would be best if you always talked about frequent nightmares with your physician because many other conditions trigger bad dreams.
Headaches caused by sleep apnea
One of the first signs of untreated sleep apnea is a morning headache that usually lasts 30 minutes after waking. More than 50% of all OSA patients experienced morning migraines before their diagnosis of OSA. Bad headaches can show that sleep apnea is present.
Don’t Ignore these symptoms of Sleep Apnea.
Don’t Ignore the symptoms.
Bad breath, terrible dreams, bad headaches, bruxism, and snoring are all signs of the possibility of obstructive sleep apnea, and should not be ignored. Sleep apnea is a significant and chronic health problem. The best course of action is to talk to your doctor about sleep apnea. The gold standard for successfully treating sleep apnea does not need surgery or medication. A CPAP machine is highly effective at remedying sleep apnea, bad breath, nightmares, bad headaches, and many other symptoms that have been known to cease as soon as CPAP therapy is successfully implemented.
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