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Sleep Apnea Overview

Sleep apnea is a common disorder in which a person stops breathing while they sleep. The breathing pauses can last for ten seconds or longer. It usually happens 5 to 30 times or more an hour. The pause between breathing is called apnea. The word “apnea” is a Greek word, which means without breath.

Sleep apnea is a chronic condition and disrupts sleep three or more nights a week. This sleeping pattern causes poor sleeping quality. An affected person often feels tired and sleepy during the day. Sleep apnea often comes with snoring. It is similar to snoring; therefore, people might not recognize that they have the condition. Sleep apnea is in fact one of the leading causes of daytime sleepiness.

The word “apnea” is the Greek word, which means absence of breath. It is one of the leading chronic conditions disrupting the sleep pattern. The condition is difficult to identify, thus sleep apnea is often misdiagnosed. There are no available diagnosis techniques to detect it. Doctors cannot detect the condition by routine clinic visits. In addition, most people may not realize that they have the problem, because it occurs during their sleep. Most of the times, apnea is noticed by the person’s partner or a family member.

There are three types of apnea:

•    Obstructive Sleep Apnea - the airway is completely or partially blocked. It causes by throat muscle and tongue relaxes more than usual while asleep. 

•    Central Sleep Apnea - occurs when brain does not send proper signal to the muscle that controls breathing. Central apnea is not caused by obstruction and can occur without snoring. It happens because the brain fails to signal for a breath.

•    Mixed apnea - is a combination of both obstructive and central sleep apnea. When obstructive sleep apnea is persistent, the central sleep apnea starts to develop; it causes mixed apnea or complex sleep apnea.

Obstructive sleep apnea is the most common type of apnea. The blockage airway occurs when throat muscle relax. It is more common in older adults and is twice more common in men than in women.