Answered: What is Sleep Apnea and The Symptoms it Causes?
When my patients ask me, “what is sleep apnea and the symptoms it causes?” I always use the analogy of trying to drink a smoothie through a collapsing straw—that’s obstructive sleep apnea in a nutshell (or OSA, as we call it).
It’s estimated this common sleep disorder impacts over 900 million people globally and only 20% of cases here in the US are diagnosed. It’s more than just loud snoring—OSA hurts your heart, weight, metabolism, and overall health (Faria A, et al, 2021).
It’s also totally treatable and in some cases can be reversed or even cured, depending on the root cause and severity.
Read on to learn more!
“My patients tend to think they have sleep sleep apnea because of their weight but almost none of them realize sleep apnea actually makes weight gain even worse.”
So, what is obstructive sleep apnea and the symptoms it causes?
OSA occurs when the muscles in the back of your throat relax too much during sleep. This relaxation causes the airway to narrow or completely close, making it difficult to breathe. Sometimes you’ll stop breathing hundreds of times per night, leaving your sleep fragmented and your body stressed before you’ve even gotten up to take on the day, putting you at a disadvantage.
What Causes OSA?
In short, there’s three main causes I like to tell my patients.
Genetics: the shape and width of your jawline, tonsils, throat.
Aging: things sag when you get older. Including your airway.
Weight: excess weight puts pressure on your airway, and when you’re asleep and relaxed, it’s more prone to collapsing.
Related: I actually wrote a deep dive article recently about the potential cure to the third type of sleep apnea not involving CPAP, caused specifically by excess weight.
How do we measure severity?
An apnea is a pause in breathing that lasts at least 10 seconds during sleep. This is what causes you to stop breathing in your sleep.
The Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI) measures how often these breathing interruptions occur per hour of sleep. Apneas are complete pauses in breathing, while hypopneas are partial blockages that reduce airflow. AHI is used to diagnose and classify the severity of sleep apnea:
Mild: 5–14 events per hour
Moderate: 15–29 events per hour
Severe: 30 or more events per hour
The higher the AHI, the more frequent the breathing disruptions are, the worse your sleep is.
What Does OSA Do To Your Health?
OSA isn’t just disruptive—it’s dangerous. Here’s how it can affect your body:
(1.) Sleep deprivation
Frequent awakenings prevent deep, restorative sleep, leaving you groggy, forgetful, and moody during the day. But especially hungrier. This can affect everything from your driving to your ability to hold down your role at work.
(2.) Weight and appetite
My patients tend to think they have sleep sleep apnea because of their weight but almost none of them realize having sleep apnea causes them to gain even more weight. Poor sleep wreaks havoc on hormones like ghrelin and leptin, driving hunger, cravings, and fat storage.
People with OSA often consume an extra 300-900 calories daily, which is like eating 50 extra days a year. All of this is due to hormonal imbalances caused by sleep deprivation (Greer et al., 2013)
Slipping into the grips of sleep apnea can trigger a vicious cycle that’s hard to escape, where sleep deprivation drives more weight gain and thus worse sleep apnea (check out my other post about breaking the cycle of weight gain and sleep apnea).
Heart health
Repeated oxygen drops increase strain on your cardiovascular system, raising your risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke.
Studies show that untreated OSA increases your risk of cardiovascular disease by 2-3 times!
Systemic inflammation
The repetitive oxygen deprivation leads to increased inflammation, which can worsen conditions like diabetes and metabolic syndrome.
Summary
OSA is sneaky and can slowly get worse for years. Many people feel constantly tired despite getting a "full night" of sleep in terms of hours, they wake up feeling exhausted. Left untreated, the condition can shorten your lifespan, worsen chronic illness, and diminish your quality of life.
You Can Break The Cycle—Our Mission Is To Show You How
The best first step: get screened!
If you snore, feel exhausted during the day, or experience frequent awakenings, don’t lose sleep over it—get screened and treated! Don’t let that collapsing straw ruin your nights and days! An at home sleep test or lab-based polysomnography can confirm the diagnosis. And, here at WakeWell, that’s our bread and butter. We are here to help and we do it 100% online.
Simply book an appointment to get matched with your sleep doctor then explore how our different programs can help you sleep better and lose weight.
Book An Appointment (Step 1 of 3)
Start the new patient signup process by having a quick chat with WakeWell AI, your virtual sleep coach and wellness orchestrator.
References:
Faria A, Hirsch Allen AJ, Fox N, Ayas N, Laher I. The public health burden of obstructive sleep apnea. Sleep Sci. 2021;14(3):257–265.
Gottlieb DJ, Punjabi NM. “Diagnosis and Management of Obstructive Sleep Apnea: A Review.” JAMA. 2020;323(14):1389-1400.
Greer SM, Goldstein AN, Walker MP. The impact of sleep deprivation on food desire in the human brain. Nat Commun. 2013;4:2259.