Krista Biddiscombe was unaware that she had sleep apnea.
Biddiscombe, 58, sought the opinion of family physicians in two provinces for almost ten years during which she was unable to sleep, but they misinterpreted her symptoms as perimenopause. She was prescribed muscle relaxants and sleeping pills because she worked in a high-stress policy capacity for the federal government. These medications helped her sleep better but did not treat her problem.
Eventually, in 2023, following her move to Alberta, Biddiscombe saw a physician, who speculated that she might have sleep apnea.
With a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine in her possession now, she describes sleep as “a whole other world.”
She declared, “I stay asleep when I fall asleep.”
Millions of Canadians suffer from the same illness, which interferes with sleep and raises the risk of other health issues, but many are unaware of it, according to medical professionals. Although it can be treated, sleep apnea treatment varies greatly across Canada.
Describe sleep apnea.
Obstructive sleep apnea and central sleep apnea are the two primary types of sleep apnea.
The most prevalent type is obstructive sleep apnea. The disorder causes the upper airway to collapse in sleep, resulting in “recurrent interruptions in breathing,” according to sleep and respiratory physician-scientist Dr. Sachin Pendharkar.
It is, he said, a “mechanical problem.”
“What is normally a nice open airway, like a pipe that we can breathe through, starts to narrow progressively as those muscles relax,” Pendharkar explained to Dr. Brian Goldman, host of The Dose.
