Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome

With Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome (UARS), the airway narrows to a point that results in an increased effort to breathe. It is sometimes associated with snoring but not all patients with UARS snore or realize they sleep poorly. UARS often goes unnoticed by almost everyone until the symptoms are more severe. It can be diagnosed by a home sleep study test. Sleep-disordered breathing is a progressive disease so it is important to get treatment.

Due to repetitive signals to the brain to wake up, because the body stops breathing, the body cannot remain in deep restorative phases of sleep that are needed to feel refreshed and rested. It is possible to sleep through the night but remain in light sleep the entire time because the body is fighting to breathe. These arousals don’t necessarily wake you up from sleep, but they do pull you out of whatever sleep stage you are in.

If these patients get a referral for a sleep test to check for sleep apnea, they often do not stop breathing enough to receive the diagnosis of sleep apnea. Insomnia is a frequent misdiagnosis of these patients who are sent home with medication to help them sleep. Unfortunately, medications prescribed for sleep can cause more relaxation of muscle tone and actually make the problem worse.

In most cases of UARS the anatomic reason for the collapse of the airway is the tongue. Oral appliance therapy has been proven extremely successful in the treatment of UARS by repositioning the jaw and tongue forward to open the airway.