WASHINGTON — Loud snoring doesn’t just annoy your spouse. It could signal dangerous sleep apnea, yet millions go undiagnosed.
A government move may help change that: Medicare is poised to allow at-home testing for sleep apnea, letting people snooze in their own beds instead of spending the night in a sleep laboratory.
While sleep apnea is a problem for seniors, it is most common in middle-aged men. But private insurers now reluctant to cover home apnea testing are expected to follow the government’s lead, thus easing access for all ages.
Today, Medicare pays for sleep apnea treatment — called CPAP, a mask that blows air through the nose while sleeping — only for seniors diagnosed in a sleep lab.
Last month, Medicare proposed covering those diagnosed with cheaper home tests, too. Final approval is expected in March.
Sleep apnea doesn’t just deprive family members of their own zzz’s. Sufferers actually quit breathing for 30 seconds or so at a time, as their throat muscles temporarily collapse.
They jerk awake to gasp in air, sometimes more than 15 times an hour. They’re fatigued the next day because their brains never got enough deep sleep.
Research from the University of California, San Diego, suggests 1,400 deaths each year are caused by drivers with sleep apnea.
But patients don’t remember the nightly breathing struggle, and often don’t see a doctor unless a family member complains about snoring, or until daytime sleepiness gets so bad they can’t function.
For about $500, home tests use primarily breathing monitors to detect only sleep apnea, not other disorders. Hook it up at bedtime, and a doctor checks the recordings later.
But a home test can miss apnea, because it won’t signal if someone never fell into that deep REM sleep where breathing is most likely to falter, says Dr. Thomas Gravelyn of the Saint Joseph Mercy Hospital sleep center in Ann Arbor, Mich., who opposes home tests.
Still, a Canadian study published last year found that a sleep lab or home testing worked equally well.
Sleep apnea
Risk factors include: n Loud snoring and choking or gasping during sleep, signaling narrowed airways that can be temporarily blocked as throat muscles relax too much.
n Being overweight.
n A family history of apnea.
n Having small airways.
n High blood pressure.
n Aside from snoring, the main symptom is daytime sleepiness. Other signs may include morning headaches and dry throat, memory problems from lack of sleep, and irritability.
Associated Press
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
