Central sleep apnea (CSA) is a condition in which you repeatedly stop breathing throughout the night because your body ceases sending signals to your lungs to breathe.
When this happens, you have to then wake up to begin breathing again (called an “apnea” or “apnea event”). Due to CSA, you may have anywhere from 40 to 100+ apnea events per night. The most common scale used to measure the severity of sleep apnea is number of apneas per hour:
Both mild and severe CSA can lead to a high degree of sleep deprivation and all of the associated health problems that are associated with sleep deprivation. CSA is relatively uncommon compared to obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).
Central sleep apnea has several disorders that fall underneath it:
Risk factors include [Mayo Clinic]:
The primary difference between obstructive sleep apnea and central sleep apnea is the effort to breathe. In OSA, you try to breathe, but can't because of an obstruction. In CSA, there is no signal, therefore there is no effort to breathe.
This difference can be difficult to identify in actual clinical practice. OSA is much more common and has a greater number of potential cause, but for the most part, both have a lot of overlap.
Symptoms of CSA include [WebMD]:
The main symptoms is frequent pauses throughout sleep, but this entails having a bed partner to report this. Otherwise, you. may have to rely on certain symptoms or observations to help you and your doctor come to the conclusion that you have sleep apnea. This includes feeling excessively tired, waking up with headaches, worsening health problems despite active management, and potentially even recording yourself at night to see if you snore excessively. Your physician also will have to have a high index of suspicion to order a sleep study and rule in or out CSA.
These risks stem from chronic sleep deprivation.
Fortunately, treatment options for CSA are generally very successful, and often includes some forms of positive airway pressure therapy, such as CPAP therapy (continuous-PAP) or lifestyle changes.
If you live in Alaska, and are concerned that you or a loved one has sleep apnea or has already been diagnosed, please consult with our sleep specialists about any questions you have. You may also start with taking a free online sleep test by clicking below!