Most people who have sleep apnea don’t realize it. That’s because this disorder only occurs during sleep.
Sleep apnea is when you have pauses in breathing while you’re asleep. These pauses can last from seconds to minutes. You may have difficulty breathing a few times or dozens of times an hour.
These breathing pauses can be dangerous if they cause the oxygen level in your body to drop or disturb your sleep. When oxygen drops, your brain does whatever it can to get you to resume breathing. And then you may snore, gasp, snort loudly, or make a choking sound. A family member or bed partner might be the first to notice these disruptions in your sleep….