[18] A systemic disorder, sleep apnea is associated with a wide array of effects, including increased risk of car accidents, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, myocardial infarction, stroke, atrial fibrillation, insulin resistance, higher incidence of cancer, and neurodegeneration.

[19] Further research is being conducted on the potential of using biomarkers to understand which chronic diseases are associated with sleep apnea on an individual basis.

[19] Due to this wide range in clinical presentation, some people are not aware that they have sleep apnea and are either misdiagnosed or ignore the symptoms altogether.

[29] A current area requiring further study involves identifying different subtypes of sleep apnea based on patients who tend to present with different clusters or groupings of particular symptoms.

[19] If OSA is not treated it results in excessive daytime sleepiness and oxidative stress from the repeated drops in oxygen saturation, people are at increased risk of other systemic health problems, such as diabetes, hypertension or cardiovascular disease.

[19] Subtle manifestations of sleep apnea may include treatment refractory hypertension and cardiac arrhythmias and over time as the disease progresses, more obvious symptoms may become apparent.

[35] This carbon dioxide build-up may be due to the decrease of output of the brainstem regulating the chest wall or pharyngeal muscles, which causes the pharynx to collapse.

[36] Central sleep apnea There are two main mechanism that drive the disease process of CSA, sleep-related hypoventilation and post-hyperventilation hypocapnia.

[18] The underlying cause of the loss of the wakefulness drive to breathe encompasses a broad set of diseases from strokes to severe kyphoscoliosis.

[37] Other complications include hypertension, congestive heart failure, atrial fibrillation, coronary artery disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.

[37] Daytime fatigue and sleepiness, a common symptom of sleep apnea, is also an important public health concern regarding transportation crashes caused by drowsiness.

[49] In a systematic review of published evidence, the United States Preventive Services Task Force in 2017 concluded that there was uncertainty about the accuracy or clinical utility of all potential screening tools for OSA,[50] and recommended that evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of screening for OSA in asymptomatic adults.

[51] The diagnosis of OSA syndrome is made when the patient shows recurrent episodes of partial or complete collapse of the upper airway during sleep resulting in apneas or hypopneas, respectively.

[54] The OSA syndrome is thus diagnosed if the AHI is > 5 episodes per hour and results in daytime sleepiness and fatigue or when the RDI is ≥ 15 independently of the symptoms.

[55] According to the American Association of Sleep Medicine, daytime sleepiness is determined as mild, moderate and severe depending on its impact on social life.

The last criterion revolved around medical issues as hypertension, coronary artery disease, stroke, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, type 2 diabetes mellitus, mood disorder or cognitive impairment.

[18] The degree of respiratory effort, measured by esophageal pressure or displacement of the thoracic or abdominal cavity, is an important distinguishing factor between OSA and CSA.

[18] The exact mechanism of the loss of central respiratory drive during sleep in OSA is unknown but is most likely related to incorrect settings of the CPAP treatment and other medical conditions the person has.

Many people are told to avoid alcohol, sleeping pills, and other sedatives, which can relax throat muscles, contributing to the collapse of the airway at night.

The person typically wears a plastic facial mask, which is connected by a flexible tube to a small bedside CPAP machine.

[10] Other surgery options may attempt to shrink or stiffen excess tissue in the mouth or throat, procedures done at either a doctor's office or a hospital.

[67] Maxillomandibular advancement (MMA) is considered the most effective surgery for people with sleep apnea, because it increases the posterior airway space (PAS).

Many drugs and agents used during surgery to relieve pain and to depress consciousness remain in the body at low amounts for hours or even days afterwards.

In an individual with either central, obstructive or mixed sleep apnea, these low doses may be enough to cause life-threatening irregularities in breathing or collapses in a patient's airways.

Even when the surgical procedure is designed to improve the airway, such as tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy or tongue reduction, swelling may negate some of the effects in the immediate postoperative period.

[98][99][100] In December 2024, the FDA approved tirzepatide, an anti-diabetic and weight loss medication, as a component in the combination treatment of adults with obesity suffering from moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea.

[111] Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the scientists discovered that people with sleep apnea have mammillary bodies that are about 20% smaller, particularly on the left side.

In adults with coronary artery disease, a severe drop in blood oxygen level can cause angina, arrhythmias, or heart attacks (myocardial infarction).

The description of Joe, "the fat boy" in Dickens's novel The Pickwick Papers, is an accurate clinical picture of an adult with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome.

[medical citation needed] The management of obstructive sleep apnea was improved with the introduction of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), first described in 1981 by Colin Sullivan and associates in Sydney, Australia.