Sleep Apnea It IS NOT JUST SNORING… Snoring may be doing more than keeping someone you love awake…it is serious and many of us dismiss this as a mere annoyance to our significant other or someone close enough to hear you. Sleep Apnea is the interruption of breathing during sleep. Typically it is accompanied by loud snoring. Apnea during sleep consists of brief periods throughout the night in which breathing actually stops. During these periods, the oxygen levels in the body are dangerously reduced. These lower oxygen levels have been proven to create severe health problems such as strokes and heart attacks.

There are 2 major Apnea types… Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA): This is the most common and is due to an obstruction in the upper respiratory during sleep. Bed partners notice pauses approximately 10 to 120 seconds between loud snores. The narrowing of the upper airway can be a result of several factors including inherent physical characteristics (large tongue and/or soft palate), excess weight, and alcohol consumption before sleep.

Central Sleep Apnea (CSA): A less common occurrence that is as deadly or debilitating as OSA. This is an interruption of the signal from the brain to the respiratory system causing the cessation of respirations thereby reducing the oxygen in the blood to dangerous levels.

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With both obstructive and central apnea you must wake up briefly to resume breathing, sometimes hundreds of times during the night. Usually there is no memory of these brief awakenings. This causes severe sleep deprivation. The consequences of pervasive sleep deprivation and undiagnosed sleep disorders are collectively one of our nation's biggest and most serious health problems. A single sleep disorder, OSA is now known to afflict over 15 million Americans.