Adenoids and tonsil problems can affect your sleep greatly, especially if they are enlarged or frequently infected. Generally, adults don't have these problems because adenoids are frequently removed during childhood or they have shrunk considerably by adulthood. However, if you still have your tonsils and adenoids, then there is a chance that you could also have sleep apnea. Here is more information about how your intact adenoids may affect your sleep.
What Are Adenoids?
Adenoids are a cluster of lymph node-like tissue located in the back of your sinus cavity. Their job is to "strain," or prevent germs and allergens from entering your respiratory system. They are generally at their largest before a person reaches 6 years old and steadily shrink down to near nothing during the teen years. However, some adults still retain a significant amount of tissue if they have frequent allergies and infections.
Why Do Adenoids Swell?
Generally, adenoids swell up with chronic or near constant infections or allergies, especially if you have high sensitivity. If you have suffered from life-long allergies, then your adenoids probably never shrunk down as much as they should have. Also, if you are a smoker, or live with one, then your adenoids may become enlarged. Chronic sinus infections also impact your adenoids.
How Can Adenoids Contribute to Sleep Apnea?
Adenoids can swell up so much that they completely block your breathing through your nose and even push back on your throat. This means that you must breathe with an open mouth and this also affects the position of your tongue and jaw and this contributes to your sleep apnea. Some other signs that your adenoids are severe enough to affect your sleep quality include speaking with a nasally tone, having a lot of sore throats, and regularly swollen lymph nodes in the throat area.
How Are Enlarged Adenoids Treated?
Other than keeping your allergies and infections under control, there is no specific treatment for adenoid problems other than surgery. Surgery is mostly recommended if you have serious, life-threatening infections and breathing problems including sleep apnea. This type of surgery is done under general anesthesia on an outpatient basis with an average home recovery time of about a week.
Sleep apnea is potentially life-threatening, so if you are having severe sleep problems that leave you close to non-functioning during the day, then you need to have medical intervention. Sleep apnea not only makes you feel tired all day, it can actually affect your cardiovascular system. Contact a sleep center to see what can be done to help you breathe at night despite having enlarged adenoids.