Sleep disorders are problems associated with sleeping, including difficulty falling or staying asleep through the night, feeling sleepy during the day, or waking up feeling exhausted. Sleep apnoea is a common sleep disorder in which breathing stops or gets very shallow during sleep. These breathing pauses last between 10 to 20 seconds or more. Apnoea causes sleep disruption as a result of reduced oxygen level in the blood.
Your doctor will diagnose sleep apnoea based on your signs and symptoms, your medical and family histories, a physical examination, and test results from sleep studies.
Sleep studies are tests that monitor what happens to your breathing while you sleep.