Snoring is the punchline to many jokes about marriage, but it can be symptom of a serious, and even life-threatening, disease. In fact, breathing problems during sleep such as snoring, sudden "snorting," and waking up gasping for air are common symptoms for several breathing-related sleep disorders. These symptoms may also be due to non-sleep-related conditions such as asthma.
Excessive Snoring
Heavy snoring causes the sufferer to wake up many times during the night. Often this snoring is a symptom of obstructive sleep apnea, the most common condition that causes breathing problems at night. Although most of these awakenings are not remembered, the disrupted sleep patterns cause daytime tiredness and listlessness. In many cases, as reported by the National Institutes of Health, the cause of extreme snoring is related to obesity, as extra tissues in the throat and at the base of the tongue obstruct the airflow when relaxed. In other cases, sleep apnea can be an indicator of a life-threatening heart condition.
Gasping for Air
Central apnea is a less common sleep disorder that is characterized by waking up gasping for air. Researchers have discovered that this condition is caused by the brain essentially "forgetting" to send a signal to the diaphragm to take a breath. This condition is more common with older individuals and often goes undiagnosed despite the debilitating effects on sleep and wakefulness cycles. Central apnea may also be combined with obstructive sleep apnea, so that interruptions in breathing are followed by obstructive sleep apnea and its telltale excessive snoring.
Early diagnosis of all kinds of sleep apnea is important, as apnea can affect proper growth and development. In 2004, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported that apnea is associated with lower scores on intelligence tests in children. Home sleep monitors, simple devices the size of cellphones, have made diagnosing this condition much easier in the last 20 years.
Wheezing and coughing
Wheezing and coughing during sleep, when repetitive and nightly, may not be a symptom of a sleep disorder, but rather a respiratory disorder that flares up after the sun goes down. Asthma attacks, for example, are well known to occur mostly at night. The wheezing, congestion and coughing are not related to a specific sleep stage but rather to the drop in peak airflow that occurs when we sleep. In a 1995 article published in the journal "Thorax," researcher P.M. Calverly notes that neurotransmitters may also play a role in the nighttime intensification of asthma and other chronic breathing disorders. Another condition known to worsen at night is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Undiagnosed individuals may think they are suffering from recurrent bronchitis because of this worsening of nighttime wheezing and coughing, which may be completely absent during the day.
References
- National Institutes of Health: Breathing disorders during sleep.
- US Department of Health and Human Services: Breathing Problems During Sleep May Affect Mental Development in Infants and Young Children
- "Sleep and breathing problems in general medicine," Thorax; PM Cavelrey; 1995; v.50.
