What Is Sleep Apnea?

While patient or individuals are sleeping the anatomy of their airway compromises itself and collapses upon itself. So despite what is called respiratory effort, that is the attempting to breath, there is a lack of airflow. So when you are asleep airflow in and out of your lungs maintain the transfer of gas placing oxygen into your blood and the blowing of carbon-dioxide that is taken out of your blood by your lungs. In order for this process to occur it requires that air passes in and out of your lungs. The tube between your lungs and the outside, also known as the trachea, is a ringed cartilaginous structure which cannot collapse. But at the top of the trachea it joins up with the esophagus and the back of the throat meets the back of the nose and the back of the mouth because a portion of this tubes is shared by the stomach and the lungs. The difference between whether or not something in your mouth goes into your stomach or whether it goes into your lungs depends on what the structure or the substance is when you swallow. So the act of swallowing causes a small flap of tissue to coverup your airway protecting it from fluids or food or other things and directs that material in your mouth down the back of your throat into your stomach. When you inhale that flap of tissue covers the esophagus and opens the trachea. So, because the top or the back of your throat is a shared structure it is soft and moldable. If you consider all the different sizes and shapes that one can swallow, you understand how soft and moldable that region must be.

That softness and moldability is a weakness in some patients where when they are asleep and breathing that's soft tissue above the trachea can collapse upon itself during what's called inhalation. The part of breathing where you are taking at breath inward