Health Effects of Sleep Apnea

During the pauses in breathing, the oxygen level in your blood drops. Your brain reacts to the drop in oxygen by waking you enough to resume breathing (and snoring), but not necessarily enough to fully awaken you. The cycle of snoring, not breathing, waking, and resuming breathing means that you do not get good quality sleep. Because of this, you may often feel very sleepy during the day, find it hard to concentrate, and your daytime performance may suffer.

The effects of sleep apnea range from annoying to life threatening. They include depression, high blood pressure, irritability, sexual dysfunction, learning and memory problems, and falling asleep while at work, on the phone, or driving. People with severe sleep apnea are two to three times more likely to have automobile crashes. Risk for heart attacks, high blood pressure, heart failure, and stroke also increase with sleep apnea.