Types of Sleep Apnea

There are two basic types of Sleep Apnea, Obstructive Sleep Apnea or OSA, and Central Sleep Apnea or CSA. OSA is far more common than CSA.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea occurs when the airway closes off or collapses. The lungs are still trying to breath in, but can't get any air through the collapsed airway. Often this will cause acid reflux as the stomach acid gets sucked up into the esophagus. With no oxygen getting into the bloodstream, the brain will eventually wake up in order to breath. A person will often wake up so briefly that he or she doesn't remember. It might seem to be simply restless sleep.

Central Sleep Apnea occurs when the lungs don't get the signal to breath. Either the brain stops telling the lungs to breath, or the signal is lost before getting to the lungs. Breathing can stop completely or just slow down or the breaths get more shallow. If the breathing stops entirely that's an apnea. If it just slows down or gets too shallow that's called a hypopnea. A hypopnea is usually defined as an abnormal reduction in airflow of 50% or more.

Some people will often have a mixture of OSA and CSA with OSA usually being the more predominant.

Here's a video showing Obstructive Sleep Apnea.