Sleep Apnea

In obstructive sleep apnea, breathing is interrupted by a physical block to airflow despite respiratory effort, and snoring is common.

This is the most common category of sleep-disordered breathing. The muscle tone of the body ordinarily relaxes during sleep, and at the level of the throat the human airway is composed of collapsible walls of soft tissue which can obstruct breathing during sleep.

The development of obstructive sleep apnea in children is different from that in adults. If a child has a chronically blocked nose due to inflammation of the nasal airways or sinuses, the child will tend to breathe through his or her mouth during sleep. Prolonged breathing through the mouth has been shown to affect a child’s facial development and possibly trigger the development of obstructive sleep apnea.

A child with obstructive sleep apnea is more likely to exhibit daytime inattention and hyperactivity.

Obstructive sleep apnea affects more adult men than women. It leads to daytime sleepiness.

The risk of obstructive sleep apnea rises with increasing body weight, active smoking and age. In addition, patients with diabetes or borderline diabetes have up to 3 times the risk of having obstructive sleep apnea.

Research has also shown that obstructive sleep apnea is a risk factor for hypertension, stroke and heart failure in adults.

Complex apnea is a combination of both central and obstructive apnea. Some people with sleep apnea have a combination of both types. When obstructive sleep apnea syndrome is severe and longstanding, episodes of central apnea sometimes develop. The exact mechanism of the loss of central respiratory drive during sleep in OSA is unknown but is most commonly related to acid-base and Carbon Dioxide feedback malfunctions stemming from heart failure. There is a constellation of diseases and symptoms relating to body mass, cardiovascular, respiratory, and occasionally, neurological dysfunction that have a synergistic effect in sleep-disordered breathing.