Then the cycle starts over, sometimes occurring 20 to 30 times an hour. Many people with this type of sleep apnea are unaware that their sleep is interrupted. When breathing is interrupted, the level of carbon dioxide in the blood rises, which may prompt you to wake up. Signs and symptoms of sleep apnea include excessive daytime sleepiness, loud snoring, observed episodes of breathing stoppage during sleep and a morning headache. Sleep-disorder breathing conditions are associated with underbreathing, such as asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Children can have a sleep-disorder breathing condition, too.
Snoring your way to hypertension Snoring, which is a typical sign of obstructive sleep apnea, also has been linked to increased blood pressure. These results were supported in a study out of the College of Medicine at Pennsylvania State University. This study, published in the August 2000 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, found that people who snore loudly in the absence of other risk factors for sleep-disorder breathing, such as obesity and menopause, had a 1.5 greater risk of having high blood pressure than someone who doesn't snore. Increased blood pressure Almost half of those with sleep apnea develop high blood pressure. Researchers of a large study funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute examined more than 6,000 adults over age 40 and found that middle-aged and older adults with sleep apnea have a 45 percent greater risk of hypertension than people without sleep apnea.