What's Sleep Apnea

Sleep Apnea is a common breathing condition that affects more than 1 million Australians, or 5% of the population. The most common form of sleep apnea is Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), which not only affects your sleep but can severely impact on your health and your quality of life.

The table below shows the percentage of Australians who have the condition by age group.

Unfortunately more than 80% of people with the condition are undiagnosed and remain at risk.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is a condition where a person stops breathing for short periods of time while asleep due to the narrowing or collapsing of the airway in the throat. This is caused by the soft tissue in the back of the throat closing over the airway. These events, called apneas can last anywhere from 10 seconds to over a minute and can occur several hundreds of times per night.  Snoring is often associated with OSA.

Another type of sleep apnea is called Central Sleep Apnea (CSA). The condition is uncommon and occurs in only 5-10% of the Sleep Apnea population. Unlike OSA, a patient with CSA stops breathing even though the airway is still open. The condition is caused by the brain’s respiratory centre malfunctioning which interferes with the signal which tells your body to breathe.  People with brain stem injuries such as stroke and brain tumours, those with chronic respiratory conditions or people with heart conditions such as congestive heart disease or atrial fibrillation are more at risk of developing CSA.

Mixed Sleep Apnea is even less common then CSA. It is a combination of both OSA and CSA.  Usually, the CSA event occurs first, which is then followed by an obstruction (OSA) in the airway.

Having either or both types of sleep apnea can cause a reduction of oxygen in the blood which alerts the brain causing the person to wake. It is unlikely the person remembers this in the morning. The reduction in oxygen may also, in turn cause cardiovascular conditions such as high blood pressure, and make it harder to control other conditions such as diabetes.

Normal Upper Airway: No obstruction

Partial obstruction: of the upper airway resulting in the vibration of tissues in the airway causing snoring

Obstructive Sleep Apnea: the flow of air is totally blocked through the upper airways and the patient is deprived of oxygen