Prior to Lap-band surgery - you must know if you have sleep apnea

Lap-band surgery as with all surgeries requires a period of time to heal. Frequently when you have sleep apnea, you cannot get a solid night of sleep. You cannot stay asleep because you stop breathing. Limited sleep and stopping breathing is bad enough relative to your ability to heal, but you can also wake up violently when your body runs out of oxygen and needs to breath. Convulsive coughing frequently occurs as your body gasps for breath. This violent action can result in serious damage to healing areas from your surgery.

Additional sleep disorders that can affect your health

Narcolepsy - sufferers fall asleep unexpectedly and sometimes inappropriately.
Insomnia - sufferers cannot get to sleep or get enough restful sleep during the night.
Night terrors - similar to nightmares, but night tremors are more intense. Experienced mostly by children; who wake sitting upright and screaming.
Restless leg syndrome - the suffer has an overwhelming urge to move their legs. In some cases there may be involuntary jerking of the limbs.
Bed wetting - is more prevalent in children and can be related to the child's breathing.
Sleep walking - a phenomenon that ranges in duration and intensity and may effect up to 10% of the population.
Sleep hyperhidrosis - known as Night Sweats, this condition can be brought on by hormone changes, food, drugs and fevers.

40 Million Americans Suffer from long-term sleep disorders

20 million more experience occasional problems with sleep. Sleep is a critical component to a healthy productive life. Not getting enough sleep can limit your performance on the job and it can affect your social life. A sleep disorder can be temporary, intermittent, or lifelong and is often accompanied by daytime sleepiness and nightly sleep disruption. Many sleep disorders interfere with a person’s mental and emotional health and can cause high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke. Sleep disorders put people in increased risk of automobile and industrial accidents and may decrease mental ability, productivity and quality of life.

Sleep disorder symptoms

Loud, habitual snoring
Choking, gasping, or snorting during sleep
Pauses in breathing during sleep
Daytime fatigue
Frequent napping
Trouble falling or staying asleep
Crawling, tingling or painful sensations in legs while sitting or lying still in bed
Leg or arm jerks during sleep
Morning headaches
Depression
Memory and concentration problems
Irritability/personality changes
High blood pressure
Sexual problems

When you should contact your doctor about possible sleep disorders

You are sleepy in the "daytime" in spite of 8 hours in bed every night
You snore loudly and especially if you actually stop breathing at night
You have violent behaviors during your sleep
You are always very sleepy and have had muscle weakness when you get emotional
You are kept awake by restless legs (a creeping, crawly sensation of the legs)
You remain unsatisfied with the quality of your sleep after following sleep hygiene recommendations for two weeks

The Epworth sleepiness scale - discovering sleep disorders

The calculator below is the Epworth Sleepiness Scale. Developed by Dr. Murray Johns of Melbourne, Australia, to measure your daytime sleepiness. It determines how likely are you to doze off or fall asleep during certain situations, in contrast to just feeling tired.