More than 100 million Americans of all ages regularly fail to get a good night's sleep. At least 84 disorders of sleeping and waking interfere with the quality of life and personal health and endanger public safety because of their role in traffic and industrial accidents.
Some sleep disorders can be potentially fatal.
Sleep Apnea Sleep Apnea is defined as a breathing disorder characterized by brief interruptions of breathing during sleep. This can lead to excessive daytime sleepiness and can trigger high blood pressure, heart failure, heart attack and stroke. These breathing pauses are almost always accompanied by snoring between apnea episodes. In some people, apnea occurs when the throat muscles and tongue relax during sleep and partially block the opening of the airway. In others, the muscles of the soft palate at the base of the tongue and the uvula relax and sag, blocking the airway and making breathing labored and noisy, possibly stopping it all together.