When you look at your life, are you frustrated that you can’t seem to do anything right? Even something simple like parking your car or using your smartphone can turn into an embarrassing fail. You can’t stick to a diet or exercise plan. Nothing seems to go right at all. Nobody wants to be the butt of every joke, and if you’re having a hard time turning your life around, sleep apnea may be to blame.
Handwriting
It’s easy to forget how complex a fine motor task handwriting is, because it’s something we do all the time. But to do it right requires a good procedural memory–the kind of long-term memory that controls muscle conditioning and automatic response. This is the kind of memory that is most strongly impacted by sleep apnea. As a result, sleep apnea may be to blame if you’ve noticed your handwriting going downhill.
Typing
But few of us really use handwriting that much anymore, right? Too bad typing is also a task that’s highly dependent on procedural memory. Tests have even been done, and people with sleep apnea have a harder time learning to type number sequences quickly because sleep apnea impacts their speed and accuracy. Have you noticed more typos lately (not to mention falling asleep at your keyboard)?. You might need to be evaluated for sleep apnea.
Smartphone Use
Probably our most demanding procedural memory task these days is using our smartphone. Pinching, tapping, swiping, all in a confined area requires fine motor responses that should become automatic. If you can’t seem to master some of these motions or if every text message turns into a losing battle with autocorrect, sleep apnea might be to blame.
Speaking
Speaking is actually a fine motor skill, though it’s easy to forget. And it’s one that’s measurably affected by sleep apnea. If you have sleep apnea, your ability to pronounce certain sounds can decline, making you harder to understand, especially on the phone.
Driving
People with sleep apnea have a high risk of accidents. This is partly because they have a tendency to doze off behind the wheel, but it’s also because your procedural memory is impacted. Procedural memory is vital to know how much to brake and how much to steer to control your car. When your procedural memory is impacted, it can increase your risk of accidents in traffic or even just trying to parallel park.
Dieting
Are you frustrated with the way that you can’t seem to keep on your diet? In addition to the fact that sleep apnea might be responsible for your original weight gain, it can also keep you from being able to stick with a diet. Disturbed sleep like what you experience with sleep apnea can sap your willpower and make it hard to resist tempting treats, especially those that can perk you up in your midafternoon slump.
Exercise
That’s right, sleep apnea not only undermines dieting, but exercise, too. Not only do you have the willpower problem we mentioned above, but sleep apnea also reduces your ability to exert yourself. this can make it hard to stick to an exercise plan and even harder to exercise enough to build up your strength and lose weight. If you think sleep apnea in Philadelphia is making every day harder than it has to be, please call (610) 272-0828 for an appointment with a sleep dentist at Dental Excellence of Blue Bell to learn about comfortable, convenient treatment options.
