Central sleep apnea

Central sleep apnea is the least common of all types of sleep apnea. In central sleep apnea, the cause of the breathing problem is in the brain or central nervous system. The cause of this sleep apnea leads to the name central sleep apnea. When a person has central sleep apnea, the respiratory center in the brain that controls breathing may stop working during sleep. The respiratory center in the brain fails to signal the person's chest muscles to make breathing movements.

What causes central sleep apnea?

The causes of central sleep apnea can be a number of things but the causes of central sleep apnea are all related to some disorder in the breathing reflex. This disorder that causes central sleep apnea may be an inherited neurological problem or a neuromuscular disorder that occurs later on in life. Examples of these neuromuscular disorders are:

• post polio syndrome,
• muscular dystrophy,
• multiple sclerosis (MS), or
• amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease).

Symptoms of central sleep apnea

Symptoms of central sleep apnea include difficulty of sleeping and breathing at the same time. A person with central sleep apnea will find it hard to breath while sleeping. As soon as the person with central sleep apnea drops off to sleep, he or she stops breathing. When his or her emergency arousal response takes over, he or she awakens with a start and a gasp. The worse case of central sleep apnea, the harder for the person with central sleep apnea to sleep at all. Most people with central sleep apnea will complain about not getting enough sleep. Insomnia is usually a symptom associated with central sleep apnea.