What is Sleep Apnea

Monday 25 June 2012 @ 8:07 am

Sleep apnea is one of the common sleep disorders according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In Greek, apnea means without breath. People with sleep apnea stop breathing involuntarily while they sleep. Each even may last for a minute or longer. This can happen repeatedly; even hundreds of times each night. In most cases, the sleeper is unaware of it as they do not really fully wake up as a result.

There are three types of aleep apnea: obstructive, central, and mixed, according to the American Sleep Association. The most common is obstructive sleep apnea or OSA.

Obstructive sleep apnea happens when the airway gets blocked by soft tissue at the back of the throat collapsing and closing it during sleep.

Sleep disturbances result in very fragmented and poor quality sleep in those with sleep apnea. This can have serious consequences to health.

You can find more information on sleep apnea and other oral and dental health problems in the FreeDentistFinder.com article archive. You can also use the FreeDentistFinder.com network of quality dentists to find a dentist in your area.

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