Basics

• Sleep apnea is caused by the body's inability to breathe properly during sleep. This can be caused by various factors such as obstruction of the air passages. When this occurs, the person has trouble breathing and the sleep is disturbed. Another cause for sleep apnea is the inability of the central nervous system to perform its function of regulating breathing properly. When this occurs, one of the symptoms that can manifest is seizures. The signs of seizures can range from feeling disoriented to involuntary muscle movement.
  
  

Epilepsy

• Sleep apnea and epilepsy are two medical conditions that are often connected by their tendency to exacerbate the manifestation of each other. When a person experiences sleep apnea, the person is deprived of sleep because he or she tends to wake up at various times. The constant lack of sleep can decrease an epileptic patient's ability to fight off the occurrence of a seizure. On the other hand, the medication taken to treat epilepsy has side effects that affect the respiratory functions of the central system as well as relaxing the air passages. Thus, this can cause a predisposition to sleep apnea. Both of these conditions tend to cause seizures for people.
  
  

Evaluation

• Apnea seizures can happen to anyone and at any particular point. However, there are some people who are more prone to experiencing it. For example, apnea more commonly occurs in men. People who snore or are overweight also have a higher risk of experiencing apnea seizures. The reason behind this is that they are the ones who have more trouble getting enough oxygen in their systems while they sleep.
  
  

Effects

• Sleep apnea seizures can take a major toll on the body. People who experience involuntary movement while they sleep tend to wake up tired and without energy in the morning. A headache is also most likely to set in. Besides the inconvenience of exhaustion, the effects of apnea seizures can also be life-threatening. The deprivation of sleep over prolonged periods of time can cause cardiac arrhythmia, or the irregular beating of the heart.
  
  

Treatment

• Doctors recommend an overall healthy lifestyle when it comes to lessening apnea seizures. Weight loss and regular exercise is needed because it will help the body regulate the oxygen it uses. Thus, the cause of sleep apnea, which is abnormal respiration, can be eliminated or lessened. In some extreme cases, surgery may be resorted to in order to tear sleep apnea and the seizures that accompany it. A procedure called the tracheostomy, which involves the removal of any obstructing uvula, can be performed.