Community Magazine March 2014

Many people drink numerous cups of coffee or high energy drinks to give themselves enough energy to get through the day. Most will use caffeine to push their bodies to the extreme. Those of us who rely on caffeine to stay awake need to find out why our sleep is not refreshing. M illions of people in the U.S. snore and are tired during the day due to a condition called obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), without ever being aware of the problem. Sleep apnea is a blockage of the airway that causes the patient to stop breathing during sleep. Normally, we should spend about 25 percent of our night in deep sleep which is critical to feeling refreshed during the day. Although most people with sleep apnea don’t wake up as a result of the disruption of breathing, their deep sleep is disrupted, hundreds of times a night. When they finally get up in the morning, they are exhausted, and head straight for the caffeine drinks to make it through the day. Snoring and daytime drowsiness are the key signs of sleep apnea, which is becoming an epidemic in this country. Many people are living with it and using coffee, instead of treating the real problem, not realizing how much more productive and vibrant they would feel if they treat their sleep apnea. Besides hampering productivity, sleep apnea has been associated with car accidents, acid reflux, depression, high blood pressure and memory loss, and can lead to strokes and heart attack if not treated. Masking your sleep apnea with a few cups of coffee may help you stay up during the day – but does nothing to treat the underlying, serious problem of sleep apnea. A Vicious Cycle: Sleep Apnea, Sleepiness, Anxiety, Caffeine and Bruxism When nighttime bruxism (clenching or grinding the teeth) is associatedwithOSA, certain therapiesmay treat both problems. CPAP (Continuous positive airway pressure) and OAT (Oral Appliance Therapy) keep a sleeper’s airway open to allow for normal breathing, and have also been shown to decrease sleep bruxism. Mandibular Advancement Appliances (MMAs) have been seen to reduce events of bruxism by as much as 50 to 83 percent. Astudy conducted in Israel found that sleep apnea was the highest risk factor for bruxism, suggesting that treating sleep apnea may eliminate bruxism during sleep. One theory proposed to explain this link is that bruxism may be the result of the body’s forcing the lower jaw forward in order to move the tongue away and open the blocked airway from the air tract, and this causes the teeth to clench. If so, then correcting breathing irregularities can significantly improve or even eliminate sleep bruxism. Sure enough, in another study of nighttime bruxism among patients with sleep apnea, treating sleep apnea with an oral appliance was found to improve or even eliminate sleep bruxism. In fact, many patients have told us that wearing the dental device to treat their sleep apnea relieved their jaw pain and headaches. So if you rely on coffee to get you through the day, speak to your doctor about sleep apnea. Going to the source of the problem will help you get by without artificial stimulants, and will be beneficial for your jaw and teeth, as well. DR. JACQUES DOUECK Caffeine, Sleepiness and Grinding your Teeth 88 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE