Women's sleep health is ignored! Over 80% of women with sleep disorders do not seek medical treatment on World Sleep Day: Taiwan Sleep Medicine Association starts from caring about women's sleep health
Marshmallow Girl’s sleep test revealed that she snored more than a thousand times a night
The 43-year-old travel writer Fanfan Mao recently revealed in the self-media that she obviously has no insomnia and sleeps for 7 hours every day, but she is often awakened by her own snoring in the middle of the night, or occasionally has frequent urination at night. As a result, he felt very lackluster when he got up in the morning and felt more tired the more he slept. After doing a home sleep test, he found out that he had sleep apnea. He snored more than 1,000 times a night, so a professional doctor recommended that he use Yang pressure. The respirator solved her problems of snoring and lack of oxygen at night, and her sleep quality also improved.
According to the 2024 Dongsen Poll commissioned by the Taiwan Sleep Medicine Society, 605 women over the age of 30 were interviewed. Only 35% of them were satisfied with their sleep quality. However, when faced with sleep problems, more than 80% of women did not seek help. Doctor diagnoses or performs sleep testing for professional medical intervention.
Common sleep deprivation, sleep disruption, and nocturia may be related to sleep apnea
Sleep problems are common among women. The survey showed that nearly half of the women said they felt they did not have enough sleep and could not maintain a long sleep, and 1/4 suffered from light sleep and nocturia. However, these problems may be related to obstructive sleep apnea. Abortion syndrome (OSA).
Dr. Li Peiling from the Sleep Center of National Taiwan University Hospital said that obstructive sleep apnea is caused by the collapse of the patient’s upper respiratory tract muscles during sleep, causing hypoxia. This may cause the patient to wake up multiple times every night and be unable to obtain deep sleep, thus affecting the body’s normal metabolism and rest.
Sleep apnea is on the rise among women after menopause, but women of all ages need to pay attention
Hong Xiaojing, a senior sleep technician at Colin Sleeping Beauty, explained that although men are more likely to suffer from sleep apnea than women, it does not mean that women are not at risk of the disease. In fact, the prevalence rate among women gradually increases with age. According to the STOP-BANG questionnaire, the survey found that the proportion of women at high risk of sleep apnea increases significantly after the age of 50, and more than 1/4 are high-risk groups.
Dr. Li Peiling emphasized that women should be more vigilant when entering menopause. During this period, hormonal fluctuations, the protective effects of estrogen and progesterone decrease, and insulin sensitivity decreases, resulting in decreased respiratory muscle tone and an increased risk of obesity. These effects increase the risk of sleep apnea. These changes not only affect appearance and self-confidence, but more importantly, we need to pay attention to potential threats to health. However, the survey found that nearly 70% of the public did not know that sleep apnea is related to changes in female hormones, highlighting women’s lack of understanding of this disease.
Sleep apnea may not only worsen skin conditions and accelerate aging that women care about, but also accumulate waste in the body, causing inflammation and damage to organs and blood vessels, thereby increasing the risk of heart disease, stroke, hypertension, obesity and other diseases, forming a vicious cycle . The clinical manifestations of sleep apnea in women often include daytime fatigue, headache, depression or anxiety as the main complaints.
Encourage women to actively accept sleep examinations and treatments to improve their quality of life
The survey shows that when women have sleep problems, only 16% choose to see a doctor or get tested, and nearly 1/5 of women with sleep problems even choose to do nothing. Hong Xiaojing, a senior sleep technician at Colin Sleeping Beauty, reminded that women are often the main caregivers at home, but they often neglect their own health and need to take care of it. On World Sleep Day 2024, Dr. Zhou Kunda, chairman of the Taiwan Sleep Medicine Society, called and encouraged women to actively receive sleep examinations and treatments when encountering sleep problems to maintain health and improve quality of life.
Extended reading: Waking up with sudden pain while sleeping! “Cardiovascular spasm” is serious and may lead to sudden death. Doctor: “This test” is the only diagnostic method
