Snoring and Sleep Apnea.

Snoring and Sleep Apnea are common terms that help to describe parts of the continuum of sleep-disordered breathing. This spectrum ranges from slight vibration of tissues at its mildest to death from asphyxiation at its severe extreme. Between these two lay (pathologic) snoring, partial closure (hypopnea) or complete closure (apnea) of the airway resulting in increased airway resistance or complete and partial cessation of breathing.

Treatment:

Depending on the diagnosis (pathologic snoring, upper airway resistance syndrome, mild, moderate or severe sleep apnea) and other clinical findings there are several options for treatment modalities. The most common advice is weight loss and increased physical fitness; obesity is highly associated with SDB. Secondly changing sleep position; some patients show a remarkably decrease of snoring and apneic events when they are sleeping on their side instead of their back. The gold standard of treatment options is the use of CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure); this is a device that blows air into the airway through a mask, maintaining patency of the airway allowing the patient to breathe.