Sleep Apnea (OSA)

Sleep apnea is a sleeping disorder in which you have one or more episodes of pauses in your breathing pattern or breathing too shallow during sleep. Usually the regular breathing pattern starts again with a loud snore or choking sound that often times can wake you up, interrupting your sleep during the night. As a result, this causes poor sleep quality and can cause excessive daytime sleepiness and fatigue during the day. Sleep apnea is most common in over weight males over 40 years old. Some other risk factors of sleep apnea can include, having a large neck size, family history of sleep apnea, allergies or nasal obstructions, or having large tonsils.

There are 2 types of sleep apnea. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is most common and is caused by a blockage of the airway, usually when the soft tissue in the back of the throat collapses during sleep. Central sleep apnea is when the brain fails to signal the muscles to breathe due to instability in the respiratory control center.