Sleep apnea (or sleep apnoea in British English; English pronunciation: /æpˈniːə/) is a sleep disorder characterized by abnormal pauses in breathing or instances of abnormally low breathing, during sleep. Each pause in breathing, called an apnea, can last from a few seconds to minutes, and may occur 5 to 30 times or more an hour. Similarly, each abnormally low breathing event is called a hypopnea. Sleep apnea is diagnosed with an overnight sleep test called a polysomnogram, or "sleep study".
There are three forms of sleep apnea: central (CSA), obstructive (OSA), and complex or mixed sleep apnea (i.e., a combination of central and obstructive) constituting 0.4%, 84% and 15% of cases respectively. In CSA, breathing is interrupted by a lack of respiratory effort; in OSA, breathing is interrupted by a physical block to airflow despite respiratory effort, and snoring is common.
Regardless of type, an individual with sleep apnea is rarely aware of having difficulty breathing, even upon awakening. Sleep apnea is recognized as a problem by others witnessing the individual during episodes or is suspected because of its effects on the body (sequelae). Symptoms may be present for years (or even decades) without identification, during which time the sufferer may become conditioned to the daytime sleepiness and fatigue associated with significant levels of sleep disturbance.
This text uses material from Wikipedia licensed under CC BY-SA
Latest Spotlight News
Laughing gas does not increase heart attacks
(Medical Xpress)—Nitrous oxide—best known as laughing gas—is one of the world's oldest and most widely used anesthetics. Despite its popularity, however, experts have questioned its impact on the risk ...
Model recreates wear and tear of osteoarthritis
(Medical Xpress)—There's a reason osteoarthritis is often called wear-and-tear arthritis: Repeated stress on joints over time results in degeneration of the soft cartilage that normally distributes loads ...
Women say they place a priority on a potential partner's earning prospects, and men claim to value a potential partner's physical attractiveness; these sex differences have been widely studied by psychologists for decades.
Study of vocal impersonations reveals how we manipulate our voices
A study of vocal impersonations has shown for the first time how speech production and voice perception systems in the brain interact to influence the way our voices sound. The research, supported by the ...
Researchers pinpoint how smoking causes osteoporosis
(Medical Xpress)—Human bone breaks down and regenerates naturally all the time, in a perfectly balanced dance that maintains skeletal integrity.
New paper offers insights into how cancer cells avoid cell death
(Medical Xpress)—A new study by a team of researchers from the University of Notre Dame provides an important new insight into how cancer cells are able to avoid the cell death process. The findings may ...
Study shows cultural images may hinder proficiency in second language skills
(Medical Xpress)—A team of combined researchers from Columbia Business School and Singapore Management University has found that people who have learned a second language become less proficient at speaking ...
Inside each of us is our own internal timing device. It drives everything from sleep cycles to metabolism, but the inner-workings of this so-called "circadian clock" are complex, and the molecular processes behind it have ...
The discerning fruit fly: Linking brain-cell activity and behavior in smell recognition
Behind the common expression "you can't compare apples to oranges" lies a fundamental question of neuroscience: How does the brain recognize that apples and oranges are different? A group of neuroscientists ...
Recent research has shown that cancer cells have a much different – and more complex – metabolism than normal cells. Now, scientists at The University of Texas at Dallas have found that exploiting these differences might ...
