Sleep Apnea

Sleep apnea is a sleeping disorder which is characterised by pauses in breathing during sleep. It occurs when enough air cannot move into your lungs while you are sleeping. Sometimes this common disorder can be very serious. In sleep apnea, your breathing stops or gets very shallow while you are sleeping. Each pause in breathing typically lasts 10 to 20 seconds or more. These short stops in breathing can happen up to 400 times every night. If you have sleep apnea, the periods of not breathing may  wake you up from a deep sleep. But it is so brief that you may not be aware that your sleep was interrupted.