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What happens in your throat while you sleep
Different types of sleep apnea
Sleep apnea in adults
Sleep apnea in children
When you are awake, the strength and rigidity of the muscles that line the airway help ensure that your airway stays open, so air flows properly into your lungs. As you inhale and exhale air freely, this in turn exerts enough pressure on the muscles in your airway to make sure that they stay rigid. This interdependent relationship is a continuous cycle as you breathe.
When you are asleep and your body is relaxed, however, the tissues and muscles in your mouth and throat relax, too. This causes your airway to narrow somewhat, but under normal circumstances, the airway remains open and air continues to flow freely to the lungs with normal breathing.
In individuals with sleep apnea, however, a different and dangerous cycle occurs with each apnea or hypopnea event. When airflow is partially or completely blocked due to some type of obstruction, normal breathing cannot occur.
If normal breathing doesn't occur, then there is little or no air flowing through the airway that can exert enough pressure on the muscles of the airway to help keep it open. The airway quickly collapses further, and air can no longer reach the lungs. Blood oxygen levels begin to drop.
The brain continues to signal the lungs to breathe, but air cannot make it through the collapsed airway. Eventually the brain senses that it is not receiving enough oxygen. When this happens, the brain alerts the body by awakening the individual just enough to restore muscle tone in the airway and allow normal breathing. (Some sleep apnea sufferers may "snort awake" when this happens, but others do not.)
Once the individual resumes breathing and oxygen to the brain is restored, he or she again falls into a deeper stage of sleep, causing the muscles of the airway to collapse, and the cycle begins all over again.
Researchers believe that this cycle causes a pattern of consistently fragmented sleep, and explains the many side effects associated with sleep apnea. The body needs a certain amount of deep REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep every day to feel rested. Yet the sleep apnea patient's airway collapses over and over during sleep, so the brain has to repeatedly arouse the individual from a deeper level of sleep to a lighter level of sleep.
Every time this happens, certain hormones or chemicals are released in the body that increase heart rate and blood pressure. This is why, over time, untreated sleep apnea can place a considerable strain upon the body's cardiovascular system and have serious repercussions.
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Version 2.1.0 This webpage was first published on September 07, 2005, and was last updated on August 31, 2007.
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