Have you ever been told that you snore loudly, or that sometimes you seem to stop breathing while you’re asleep? Maybe you wake up tired even after what should have been a full night’s sleep.

Those can be signs of sleep apnea, and it’s something we really shouldn’t ignore.

As a heart surgeon, I spend a lot of time talking about things that affect our hearts, like blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, exercise, and smoking. But there’s another important part of heart health that often gets overlooked: our sleep.

With obstructive sleep apnea, your airway repeatedly becomes blocked while you’re sleeping. Your oxygen levels can fall. Your brain recognizes the problem, and your body essentially sounds an alarm to get you to breathe again. This can happen over and over throughout the night.

Each episode can put stress on your cardiovascular system. Your heart rate and blood pressure can surge, oxygen levels can fluctuate, and your body releases stress hormones when it should be resting and recovering.

Over time, untreated sleep apnea has been associated with high blood pressure, abnormal heart rhythms such as atrial fibrillation, coronary artery disease, heart failure, and stroke.

And here’s the important part: you may not even realize it’s happening.

Sometimes it’s a spouse or partner who notices the snoring, gasping, or pauses in breathing. Other clues can include morning headaches, difficulty concentrating, daytime sleepiness, or simply never feeling rested.

So please don’t dismiss significant snoring or chronic exhaustion as simply getting older or being busy. Talk with your healthcare provider.

Testing for sleep apnea can often be done with a sleep study, sometimes even in your own home. And if you have it, there are effective treatments, including lifestyle changes, CPAP, and other options depending on each individual.

We spend about a third of our lives sleeping. That time isn’t wasted time. It’s part of taking care of our bodies and taking care of our hearts.

So take your sleep seriously. Your heart never gets the night off.

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(𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘴 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘺𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘻𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.)