Sleep apnea is a sleeping disorder which is characterised by breaks in breathing during sleep. It occurs when enough air cannot progress into your lungs while you are asleep. Some of the common complaints related to sleep apnea are waking up with a dry mouth, unrefreshing sleep, loud snoring, morning headaches or heartburn complaints in the morning. 

With sleep apnea the breathing stops abruptly or becomes very slow while a person is asleep. To be classed as sleep apnea each of these short pauses in breathing should last 10 to 30 seconds. Based on the severity of this disorder, these short stops in breathing can happen up to 400 times every night. A person might wake up in the middle of the night during the periods of not breathing, however the whole activity is very momentary and generally people do not remember if their sleep was interrupted at all during the night. Poor sleep quality makes people tired during the day and sleep apnea is one of the leading causes of excessive daytime sleepiness which can lead to accidents and injuries due to carelessness.

There are two types of sleep apnea: Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) and Central Sleep Apnea. Obstructive Sleep Apnea can be treated in a number of ways, however most of them have very low success rates (surgeries, mouthpieces etc). The only remedy to Obstructive Sleep Apnea that has proven high rates of success is the use of a CPAP Machine (breathing device) in conjunction with life style changes.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea is the most common type of sleep apnea. In this, a person has events of stopped breathing as the airway physically collapses or gets blocked during the sleep. Some common symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea include snoring, disturbed/restlessness in sleep, frequent or partial awakenings and mouth breathing during daytime. People with this disorder generally sleep in odd positions, often with their neckline bent backwards, or even in a sitting position and sweat profusely during sleep. Most adults with this disorder are over weight. Due to Obstructive Sleep Apnea, a complete or partial obstruction of the airway during sleep takes place. When a person tries to breathe, any air that squeezes past the blockage causes loud snoring. Some of the factors that increase the risk are:

• Large neck or collar size 
• Large tongue
• Slender airway Nasal obstruction
• Recent weight gain
• Certain shapes of the palate and jaw
• Big tonsils and\or adenoids in both children and adults.

Initially there is a partial obstruction which then leads to snoring and, as the tissues collapse further or the patient rolls over on his or her back, the airway becomes completely obstructed. In both the cases of partial (hypopnea) or total (apnea) obstruction, the patient struggles to breathe and woken up from sleep. Mostly, patients fail to recognize the arousals even if they occur hundreds of times a night.

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