Sleep Apnea

The word sleep apnea is made up of sleep and apnea. Apnea comes form the Greek prefix a meaning no and the greek word pnoia meaning breath. It is estimated that about 18 million Americans have sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is when breathing is interrupted lasting 10 seconds or longer. Sometimes, the interruptions can be as long as 2 minutes.

Common type of sleep apnea

Obstructive sleep apnea or OSA is the most common type of sleep apnea. You can read about obstructive sleep apnea in our later section of Sleep Apnea Snoring website. People with obstructive sleep apnea often snore loudly until breathing stops. When breathing stops, the lung's oxygen level drops and the person often wakes up slightly with a gasp, cough, choke, or snort. The air passage often clears and the person falls asleep again. When he or she wakes up, he or she often would not remember this ever happening.

Severity of sleep apnea

How severe your sleep apnea is depends on how many interruptions of breathing you have per hour. Often, five to fifteen times constitutes to a mild case of sleep apnea whereas sixteen to thirty is moderate case of sleep apnea. More than thirty an hour is a severe case of sleep apnea.

• what is sleep apnea?
• central sleep apnea
• obstructive sleep apnea
• mixed sleep apnea
• effects of sleep apnea
• Sleep Apnea Treatments
• Sleep Apnea Surgery