When you think of people with sleep apnea, maybe you picture loud, cartoonish snoring, or assume you’d know something was wrong because you’d wake up feeling completely wiped out every morning. But clinically, sleep apnea is more complex (and easier to miss) than most of us realize.
At its core, “sleep apnea refers to a stoppage of breathing during sleep — reduced or no breathing for 10 seconds or longer,” says Jordan Weiner, MD, a board-certified otolaryngologist and president of Valley ENT in Scottsdale, Arizona. Those pauses can happen dozens of times throughout the night, often without the sleeper having any memory of them.
