Most people breathe normally during sleep. But some people actually stop breathing while asleep. This disorder is called sleep apnea, and there are two types with the symptoms of sleep apnea being similar. Obstructive sleep apnea is caused by the physical obstruction of airflow in your throat, while central sleep apnea is caused by a neurological problem.

Sleep apnea is a deceivingly unnoticeable disorder, as up to 90% of people with symptoms of sleep apnea do not even realize they are gasping for breath or waking up to restart their breathing multiple times every night. But any one of the many times each night that they stop breathing, they can stop breathing for good.

Most people can't remember waking up or not breathing. Being unable to tell they are not breathing while asleep, most people only ever think to be checked out when their bed partner either gets annoyed at their loud snoring, or gets worried by the silence from lack of breathing, or both.

Loud snoring or sudden silence are two common symptoms of sleep apnea, there are others such as gasping for breath, waking up suddenly, and being tired after a full night's sleep. If the bed partner manages to convince the sufferer to get it checked out, the diagnosis is usually easily made following an overnight stay at a sleep clinic.

My father, for example, used to snore so loudly my mother was known to come into my room at night just to get some sleep. A room and a corridor away, we could still hear him faintly. Finally, after decades of nagging, my mother finally got my father to go in to a sleep clinic to see if anything could be done. One night in the clinic later, he was diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea, which is much more common as well as more easily fixed than central sleep apnea. The doctor recommended an operation to remove his tonsils, which were blocking his airway causing both the snoring and the cessation of breath, and I don't think he has snored loudly since.

Unlike obstructive sleep apnea, central sleep apnea sufferers do not have a physical obstruction of their airway, therefore they tend not to snore. They have a neurological problem causing the brain to delay the signal to breathe while they are asleep.

Whether you suffer from obstructive sleep apnea or the more deadly central sleep apnea, the symptoms of sleep apnea and the net result of either disorder is oxygen deprivation due to the lack of breathing, and poor quality sleep due to the repeated episodes of awakening to restart breathing, resulting in daytime tiredness.