Sleep Apnea
What Happens
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) causes your airway to narrow or close off, reducing or stopping breathing for short periods during sleep. If your breathing stops, you may make grunting, gasping, or snorting sounds and restless body movements. As breathing resumes, loud snoring starts. This may happen many times during a night.
How often your breathing is interrupted while you sleep determines the severity of sleep apnea.
When you stop breathing, the oxygen levels in your blood go down and carbon dioxide levels go up. This makes your heart and blood vessels work harder and can affect your heart rate and nervous system. This in turn may lead to other problems including high blood pressure (hypertension) and coronary artery disease (CAD). Sleep apnea can also make these diseases worse and more difficult to treat. Sleep apnea also raises your risk of having a stroke.3
Because sleep apnea disturbs your sleep, it can make you very tired during the day. If you have sleep apnea, you may:
- Be more likely to have a car accident.
- Perform poorly at school or work and have difficulty concentrating. You also may have memory problems.
- Have personality changes, anxiety, and depression.
- Lose the desire for sex.
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| Author: | Maria Essig | Last Updated: July 9, 2009 |
| Medical Review: |
E. Gregory Thompson, MD - Internal Medicine
Mark A. Rasmus, MD - Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine |
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