Sleep Apnea Sleep Apnea is a disorder where a person stops breathing several times while asleep.
Some patients stop breathing for more than a minute at a time.
Sleep apnea can have detrimental effects on sleep and daytime functioning. The person often awakens in the morning feeling tired or unrefreshed. Sleep apnea can also result in cardiac arrhythmias. Most often, the heart slows while the person stops breathing, and increases when the apneic episode ends. This is a sinus arrhythmia called bradytachycardia.