What is sleep apnea?

Sleep apnea is a very common disorder in which you have one or more pauses in breathing or shallow breaths while you sleep, therefore causing many different chain reactions in your brain and body.

Sleep apnea is a condition that makes you stop breathing temporarily while you sleep. This forces you to awaken to resume breathing, resulting in disruptive sleep.

People with sleep apnea show marked increases in their blood pressure over time and have a higher level of sympathetic nervous system (SNS) action, research shows.

The SNS plays an important role, controlling heart rate and the constriction of the blood vessels.

Normally, when you sleep, your blood pressure and SNS will taper off gradually. That doesn't happen if you have sleep apnea and you are waking at regular intervals to resume breathing.

Sleep apnea is associated with loud snoring, followed by gasping for breath as the airway closes, during which time the person is unable to breathe. This is similar to having a pillow over your head thirty to fifty times a night until the lack of oxygen wakes you up enough to force you to breathe deeply. Sleep apnea is more common in those who are markedly overweight, have high blood pressure, have a shirt collar size over 16.5, or have sleepiness during the day. A history of falling asleep at the wheel while driving is much more common in people with sleep apnea.

 

 

Snoring is caused by the vibration of the soft parts of the throat while breathing in and out during sleep. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) involves periods of breath-holding while snoring. The periods of stopped breathing are called apneas, which are caused by obstruction of the upper airway. Apneas may be interrupted by a brief arousal that does not awaken you completely--you often do not even realize that your sleep was disturbed. Yet if your sleep was measured in a sleep disorders laboratory, technicians would record changes in the brain waves that are characteristic of the arousals.

Watch as Dr. Michael Breus discusses what sleep apnea is and how the condition affects patients.

Do you snore loudly? Do you regularly suffer from daytime sleepiness? If so, you could have sleep apnea, a common and serious sleep disorder that affects many people with cardiovascular disease. Sleep apnea is a series of pauses in breathing during sleep due to temporary airway obstruction, which can tax your cardiovascular system and contribute to disease. 

Snoring is not always related to sleep apnea, but it is no laughing matter and it could be a reason to be checked by your doctor for sleep apnea, especially if you already have cardiovascular disease.

The short answer is stopping breathing during sleep.  What is important is how many times, for how long, and what problems the sleep apnea is causing.  Often the apnea is a result of collapse of the airway, causing the brain to go into panic mode to get the air flowing again.  When this happens many times an hour, every night, the person has very poor sleep quality and can suffer from daytime sleepiness, heart disease, kidney problems, and a host of other things no one wants.

Apnea is a Greek word that means "breathe." Sleep apnea is the inability to breathe properly, or the limitation of breath or breathing, during sleep.

There are three general types of apnea described in the literature:

1. Central apnea, which typically relates to your diaphragm and chest wall and an inability to properly pull air in
2. Obstructive apnea, which relates to an obstruction of your airway that begins in your nose and ends in your lungs
3. Mixed apnea is a combination of both

Obstructive sleep apnea consists of the frequent collapse of the airway during sleep, making it difficult for victims to breathe for periods lasting as long as 10 seconds. Those with a severe form of the disorder have at least 30 disruptions per hour. Not only do these breathing disruptions interfere with sleep, leaving you unusually tired the next day, it also reduces the amount of oxygen in your blood, which can impair the function of internal organs and/or exacerbate other health conditions you may have.

Snoring, interrupted breathing during sleep, and daytime fatigue are distinct markers of the sleep-breathing disorder known as sleep apnea. Until about a decade ago, doctors thought that sleep apnea affected only overweight men. But new research has shown that at age fifty, women represent the same number of new sleep apnea cases as men, and a study of midlife women found that the menopausal transition was significantly associated with an increased risk of sleep-disordered breathing. Two causes may be at work. First, the levels of sex hormones that are thought to protect women against sleep apnea decrease; second, during the menopause transition many women gain weight, which increases risk for sleep apnea.

Sleep apnea is serious business. If you suspect that you or someone you know might have it, seek medical advice. One clue: snoring, coupled with significant tiredness in the morning, even after a full night's sleep. Untreated, sleep apnea is associated with daytime sleepiness that can increase the risk of accidents, not to mention your risk of day-long grumpiness. Plus, some research suggests the condition may increase the risk of other health ills, like high blood pressure.

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Sleep apnea is a condition of abnormal breathing during sleep where airflow stops repeatedly and for a prolonged time each time. Obstructive sleep apnea ("OSA") is due to blockage of the airway despite a person making the effort to breathe ("respiratory effort"). Because the airflow stops, the body arouses enough to engage muscles to open up the airway, but not usually enough to wake the person. As a result, though, oxygen saturation is lower than it should be, and the person does not get restful sleep. OSA also increases the risk for cardiac, vascular, and other diseases.

Central apnea is due to damage to the brain or central nervous system and results in a lack of respiratory effort.

Women are about half to a quarter less likely to have sleep apnea than men, but the incidence in middle-aged women in North America is still about 2%.

Sleep apnea is breathing that stops during sleep. The problem can be mild or severe, based on how often your lungs don't get enough air. This may happen from 5 to more than 50 times an hour.

The two main types of sleep apnea are obstructive sleep apnea, caused by blocked airways, and central sleep apnea, caused by a problem with how the brain signals the breathing muscles.

Sleep apnea can cause you to snore loudly. People with sleep apnea often have sleep problems and are tired during the day. And they are more likely to have high blood pressure and some heart problems.