What Is Sleep Apnea?

What is sleep apnea?  Sleep apnea is a sleeping condition, more specifically recognised as a series of irregular pauses during sleep.  An ‘apnea’ refers to a single pause which takes place, which can lead to missed breaths, and these apnea’s continue to occur throughout sleep.  Sleep apnea can be recognised by a minimum of 10 seconds between breaths, as well as one of the following;  neurological arousal and desaturation.  Neurological arousal is noted when the EEG frequency (the electrical activity within the scalp) changes by 3 seconds or more.  Desaturation is noted when the blood oxygen desaturation within the body drops by at least 3 or 4%.  Overnight sleep apparatus, called ploysomnograms, can be used to test whether or not someone has the sleep apnea condition, by testing for the various symptoms mentioned previously.

The most concerning levels of sleep apnea include 5 or more episodes per hour, which the polysomnogram is able to detect.  The three most common degrees of sleep apnea include obstructive, central and complex, the latter being a combination of the first two forms.  Obstructive sleep apnea accounts for 84% of all cases, central o.4% and complex 15%.  Obstructive sleep apnea occurs when breathing is interrupted, despite respiratory effort, by a physical block to airflow.  Central sleep apnea is caused by a lack of respiratory effort whilst complex sleep apnea manages to combine central and obstructive symptoms.

Sufferers themselves are not likely not to know that they have sleep apnea, as it is commonly noticed by those around them who notice the individual during these ‘episodes’.    Some people may never know they have sleep apnea, and learn to deal with the fatigue brought on by these nightly apnea’s.

That essentially summarises what sleep apnea actually is.