Do you keep someone awake at night with your snoring? Are you experiencing fatigue, sleeplessness, and even breathlessness? These could be warning signs that abnormal breathing is not taking place during sleep. Of course, lack of sleep affects those around us due to the loud noise snorers make and loved ones endure.

There are many dental and medical conditions that lead to snoring, including being overweight, having a small retruded jaw, using sedatives, allergies, consuming alcohol before retiring, or having airway obstruction such conditions as enlarged tonsils or adenoids. However, studies show that many times snoring can be a serious disorder called sleep apnea.

Sleep apnea is a condition in which your breathing stops periodically during sleep, as many as 20 to 30 times per hour. Each time you stop breathing in your sleep, the resulting lack of oxygen alerts your brain, which temporarily wakes you up to restart proper breathing. Since the time spent awake is so brief, most people with sleep apnea don’t remember it, and many believe they are getting a good night’s sleep when, in fact, they are not. The constant wake-sleep, wake-sleep cycle prevents those with sleep apnea from achieving deep sleep, resulting in a constant drowsy feeling during the day.