Sleep apnea

Normally, the muscles that control the upper airways relax during sleep. If they relax too much, the upper airways become too narrow, and some people start to snore. When airway relaxation is too pronounced, breathing difficulties may occur. Sometimes, the airways become completely obstructed, and the person temporarily stops breathing: this is called “obstructive apnea”. Such an event may last ten seconds or more. It can be frequent or very frequent, to the point of occurring several hundred times a night.

If you suffer from it, every time apnea occurs, you struggle to breathe, putting stress on your brain and heart. Night after night, your sleep is disrupted. You experience fatigue that affects your quality of life, your work and your personal life. Your partner may have heard the warning signs of apnea while you were asleep: snoring, followed by a period of silence, then perhaps noisy breathing when you start breathing again.