Understanding Sleep Apnoeas: Causes, Signs and Care

It is the most common type of sleep apnoea. The cause of this apnoea is complete or partial obstruction of the upper airway, which usually results in reduction in blood oxygen saturation. The most common symptom of this apnoea is shallow or paused breathing during the sleep. It has been found that this apnoea typically lasts for about 20-40 seconds.

This apnoea is commonly accompanied by snoring. The affected person is mostly not aware of the breathing difficulty but the bed partner or people close can observe the problem. Generally the muscles in the body relax during the sleep so it is not surprising that the breathing gets obstructed during the sleep as the walls of throat are composed of soft tissues.

Many people experience episodes of OSA for only a short period. This can be the result of an upper respiratory infection that causes nasal congestion, along with swelling of the throat, or tonsillitis that temporarily produces very enlarged tonsils. The Epstein-Barr virus, for example, is known to be able to dramatically increase the size of lymphoid tissue during acute infection, and OSA is fairly common in acute cases of severe infectious mononucleosis. Temporary spells of OSA syndrome may also occur in individuals who are under the influence of a drug (such as alcohol) that may relax their body tone excessively and interfere with normal arousal from sleep mechanisms.

Symptoms

The most common symptoms of OSA are:

• Daytime sleepiness
• Restless sleep
• Loud snoring (with periods of silence followed by gasps).

Causes

The most common causes of OSA

• Old age (natural or premature)
• Brain injury (temporary or permanent)
• Decreased muscle tone
• Obesity (however, obesity is not always present).
• Tonsillitis