What is Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA)?

Obstructive sleep apnea is a sleep disorder and potentially serious medical condition. OSA causes you to stop breathing for 20+ seconds many times throughout the night, anywhere from 40 to hundreds of times. Each time you stop breathing you rouse yourself out of sleep to begin breathing again. However, this process is subconscious, and prevents you from entering the deep, restorative stages of sleep. In the morning you will not remember rousing, though you will certainly feel the effects of not having any restful sleep!

The reason OSA causes you to stop breathing is because your throat becomes obstructed:

• The breathing muscles in the back of your throat relax
• This causes the back of your throat to collapse fully or partially
• Your collapsed throat, sometimes with the assistance of tonsils or tongue, blocks your airway
• Your body wakes from sleep to resume breathing
• You do not remember waking up in the morning

Each blockage/arousal cycle is called an apnea or apnea event. OSA can lead to moderate or catastrophic sleep deprivation, with well-known medical side effects.

OSA can be mild, moderate or severe depending on how many apneas you experience.