Snoring and Obstructive Sleep Apnea
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=James_Kerslake]James Kerslake

Snoring and the associated disturbance used to be (and sometimes still is) regarded as a joke that people seemed to just accept. However, it is now known that snoring may be a sign of more serious abnormalities with breathing, which may be harmful to the health of the snorer.

During sleep all the muscles of the body relax, including those that help hold open the airway. This results in a partial collapse and narrowing of the airway. Even in non-snorers, this narrowing increases the resistance to the airflow when breathing in but is usually of no significance. The airway may collapse transiently when the narrowing during sleep becomes greater than normal. This gives rise to a fluttering of the tissues producing sounds that we recognise as snoring.

Should the collapse be complete and long lasting, air cannot be drawn into the lungs and the sufferer is literally without breath. This is known as apnea (or apnoea) taken from the Greek word apnoia, from apnous meaning breathless’.

These episodes of breathlessness may occur as often as 300 – 500 times through the night, without any recollection in the morning. These missed or delayed breaths are typically followed by a longer, gasping breath. This is thought to be the result of brain stimulation from altered blood oxygen levels, brought about by depleted air intake to the lungs. The classic daytime fatigue associated with obstructive sleep apnea could be due to these persistent low levels of oxygen, coupled with the fragmentation of normal sleep patterns.

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