By now, many of us have heard about obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), or just "sleep apnea" as it is commonly referred to in public dialogue. OSA is a condition in which the flow of air pauses or decreases during breathing while you are asleep because the airway has become narrowed, blocked, or floppy. A pause in breathing is called an apnea. Impacts from OSA are widespread, including straight-forward dangers related to reduced oxygen delivery and it's impact on the mechanics of the heart, to less intuitive impacts such as the onset or exacerbation of diabetes, obesity, and mental and emotional health disorders by virtue of secondary mechanisms.
The trouble with limiting public discussion of OSA to formal definitions of apneas and their mechanical causes is that many people assume they do not have sleep apnea because they'd KNOW if they stopped breathing during sleep. That is not the case, however.
Our body overcomes and even anticipates upper-airway resistance— of which snoring is a prime indicator, by setting in motion repeated patterns of increased neuromuscular vigor around the upper airway to keep the airway open. The problem is that effort does not always wake you, but it sets in motion adverse effects from OSA, including hypertension, blood sugar problems and cognitive impairment.
It is hard to imagine— but true— that repeated bouts of tiny nerve and muscle signals can have such adverse effects on basic health, including driving persistent hypertension, obesity, and diabetes. After all, these episodes may happen literally hundreds of times per night and we may not even be aware of them. Nonetheless, they disrupt our basic sleep architecture, which means that we do not enter deep, restorative stages of sleep. When that happens, more adverse effects ensue for our mental and emotional health.
