The exact cause of OSA remains unclear. Generally, sleep apnea happens when enough air cannot move into your lungs while you are sleeping. When you are awake, and normally during sleep, your throat muscles keep your throat open so that air can flow into your lungs. However, with obstructive sleep apnea, the throat briefly collapses, causing pauses in your breathing. With pauses in breathing, your oxygen level in your blood may drop.

Apnea literally means "no breath". Obstructive sleep apnea is a syndrome characterized by an obstruction of the upper airway repeatedly throughout sleep. It is serious, potentially life altering, and life threatening. It is both easily identified and effectively treated.

OSAS may affect as many as 20 million Americans. Some studies have suggested it is as common as adult asthma and approximately 80-90% of the population remains undiagnosed and untreated.

During sleep the muscles located at the back of the throat relax. In some people, these muscles relax to the point that the wall of the throat collapses; therefore, as they try to breathe, air cannot get in. Eventually, the effort of breathing wakes them up for a short period of time, and this may happen repeatedly throughout sleep, more than 100 times per hour (or hundreds of times each night).

A blockage or narrowing of the airways in your nose, mouth, or throat generally causes obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). This usually occurs when the throat muscles and tongue relax during sleep and partially block the airway. When you stop breathing or have slowed breathing during your sleep, it may result in less oxygen in your blood. Obstructive sleep apnea can also occur if you have bone deformities or enlarged tissues in your nose, mouth, or throat. For example, you may have enlarged tonsils.

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is a debilitating sleep and breathing disorder defined as the cessation of breathing for 10 seconds or more (an apnea) at least five times per hour of sleep. During sleep, the body's muscles relax, which can cause excess tissue to collapse into the upper airway (back of the mouth, nose and throat) and block breathing. When breathing is interrupted by an obstruction in the airway, the body reacts by waking enough to start breathing again.

Twenty-four percent of adult men and nine percent of adult women, or more than 20 million Americans, are estimated to have some degree of obstructive sleep apnea. Of these, six million are estimated to have cases severe enough to warrant immediate therapeutic intervention.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a debilitating and often life-threatening condition that affects 18 million people in the U.S. alone. OSA occurs when tissue in the upper airways blocks the breathing passages. There are three types of sleep apnea-obstructive, central, and mixed, however, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is the most common.

Risk factors for OSA include obesity, family history of OSA or snoring; and having a small upper airway (large tongue, large uvula, recessed chin, excess tissue in the throat and/or soft palate). Aging may be a prominent risk factor, as the loss of muscle mass is a common consequence of the aging process. Additionally, men appear to be at greater risk.

According to the American Sleep Disorder Association, it is estimated that 75 to 90 percent of all cases of sleep apnea are never diagnosed. This is often because OSA sufferers are unaware of whether or not their symptoms are a sign of a serious breathing disorder. As such, family members, especially spouses, most frequently witness the periods of apnea. Symptoms include:

Diagnosis of OSA should be made by a primary care physician, pulmonologist, neurologist or other physician with specialty training in sleep disorders. Diagnosis is not simple because there can be many different reasons for disturbed sleep. In addition to a complete medical history and physical examination, diagnostic procedures for obstructive sleep apnea may include a sleep history and evaluation of the upper airway.

Airway dilators (also referred to as dental devices or oral appliances), originally developed to correct occlusal disorders, have been approved by the FDA to treat sleep-disordered breathing. These devices are inserted intraorally at night to anteriorly displace the mandible and tongue, enlarging the retroglossal space and reducing upper airway obstruction. The airway dilator can be constructed in a laboratory from impressions prepared in a dental office.

OSA is a serious medical condition. Untreated OSA substantially increases a person's risk of heart attack, high blood pressure, stroke, and motor vehicle accident. This is in addition to the chronic fatigue and sleepiness which are the hallmarks of the disorder and which can severely impair the quality of a person's life. Fortunately, OSA can be treated and controlled.

Obstructive sleep apnea has a profound impact on an individual's health. Excessive daytime sleepiness caused by disruption of normal sleep patterns leads to a significant increase in the rate of accidents for obstructive sleep apnea patients, including a sevenfold increase in automobile accidents.

Traditional therapy for obstructive sleep apnea includes nightly use of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). During sleep, CPAP patients wear a face mask connected to a pump that forces air into the nasal passages at pressures high enough to overcome obstructions in the airway and stimulate normal breathing. CPAP is effective, but many patients find the mask uncomfortable, claustrophobic or embarrassing.

Many people, including doctors and sleep professionals use the terms interchangeably. Technically, sleep apnea means a cessation of breathing while a person is asleep. Obstructive sleep apnea is a specific type of sleep apnea and the most common.