The Root Cause Medicine Podcast is created by Rupa Health, the best way to order, track & get results from 30+ lab companies in one place. In today’s episode, Dr. Carrie Jones is joined by Emily Lucente, a Critical Care Nurse and Sleep Care Specialist. They discuss how sleep disorders, sleep apnea, snoring, and mouth taping can affect you. Key Takeaways: What Are Sleep Disorders and Sleep Apnea? A sleep disorder is a problem with sleep due to insomnia, falling asleep, staying asleep, maybe a REM behavioral sleep disorder, sleepwalk, or sleep talk. There are also breathing disorders while you're asleep. And that's what sleep apnea or obstructive sleep apnea is. There are two different types of sleep apnea. Central sleep apnea occurs when your brain doesn't trigger you to sleep and breathe. And obstructive sleep apnea is a mechanical problem as the airway collapses when you go to sleep. Sleep Apnea Symptoms: There are two types of people with sleep apnea, asymptomatic and symptomatic. The asymptomatic group doesn't have any symptoms, except they snore or stop breathing when sleeping. The symptomatic group has most of the symptoms related to sleep apnea. These include snoring, daytime sleepiness, fatigue, hypersomnia, dry mouth, headaches, brain fog, and fragmented sleep. Sleep Disorders During Perimenopause: We have complex muscles in the back of our throat that work together to keep the airway open and have good muscle tone. As women transition to perimenopause, estrogen and progesterone levels drop, and the throat muscles loosen. So when women go to sleep at night, those muscles relax. And as our estrogen and progesterone levels drop, they relax even more. Emily Lucente is a board-certified nurse practitioner and member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. As a sleep care clinician and expert, she regularly educates on all aspects of sleep as she feels it's a significant foundation of overall health and well-being.