Snoring is to obstructive sleep apnea as thunder is to lightning. They may, but not always, appear together. Snoring may be just an annoyance, but apnea may be serious trouble.
With obstructive sleep apnea, muscles of the soft palate at the base of the tongue and the uvula (the fleshy structure that dangles from the roof of the mouth back into the throat) relax and sag, obstructing the airway, making breathing labored and noisy. Collapse of the airway walls blocks breathing entirely. When breathing periodically stops, a listener hears the snoring broken by pauses. As pressure to breathe builds, muscles of the diaphragm work harder. Sleep is then temporarily interrupted, sometimes only for seconds. This, in turn, activates throat muscles and "un-corks" the airway. The listener hears deep gasping as breathing starts. With each gasp, the sleeper awakens, but so briefly and incompletely that he does not remember doing so in the morning. Someone with obstructive sleep apnea may stop breathing for ten seconds or longer - dozens, even hundreds of times each night.
Each time breathing stops, oxygen in the blood stream falls and the heart must work harder to circulate blood. Blood pressure rises and over time may stay elevated after breathing restarts. The heart sometimes beats irregularly and may even pause for several seconds. This may account for some deaths during sleep of people who went to bed in apparent good health.
Most people with sleep apnea benefit from both general measures and specific treatments.
When symptoms are more severe, and these measures don't solve the problem, other treatment options include: