What Is Sleep Apnoea? Symptoms, Causes and Treatment

Sleep apnoea is a common condition where your breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep. It's more than heavy snoring, and it's worth understanding properly because, left unmanaged, it can affect your health and your daily life.

What is sleep apnoea, exactly?

Sleep apnoea happens when the muscles at the back of your throat relax too much during sleep, causing your airway to narrow or close completely. Each time this happens, your breathing pauses briefly. Your brain notices the drop in oxygen and briefly wakes you, often without you knowing, so that your airway reopens and breathing resumes.

This can happen a handful of times a night for some people, or many dozens of times for others. Because the wake-ups are so brief, most people have no memory of them, they simply wake up tired without knowing why.

The most common form is obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA), caused by a physical blockage in the airway. There's also central sleep apnoea, a rarer type where the brain doesn't send the right signals to the breathing muscles, but this guide focuses on OSA, as it's the type most people mean when they ask about sleep apnoea.

What causes it

Several factors make the airway more likely to collapse during sleep. Often it's a combination rather than a single cause.

• Weight and neck size: extra tissue around the neck and throat can press on the airway.
• Age: muscle tone in the throat naturally decreases as you get older.
• Anatomy: a naturally narrow airway, a large tongue, or enlarged tonsils can all play a part.
• Alcohol and sedatives: these relax throat muscles further, making collapse more likely.
• Sleeping position: lying on your back allows the tongue and soft tissues to fall backwards more easily.
• Family history: sleep apnoea can run in families, likely linked to shared anatomy.

It's worth saying that sleep apnoea isn't caused by anything you've done wrong. It's a mechanical and physiological issue, not a lifestyle failing, though some lifestyle changes can help manage it.

Common symptoms

Because sleep apnoea happens while you're asleep, it's often a partner who notices the night-time signs first. Daytime symptoms tend to be more obvious to the person experiencing them, even if the cause isn't clear.

Night-time signs

• Loud, persistent snoring, often with pauses
• Gasping, snorting or choking sounds during sleep
• Observed pauses in breathing
• Restless sleep or frequent waking

Daytime signs

• Waking up feeling unrefreshed, even after a full night in bed
• Persistent tiredness or fatigue through the day
• Difficulty concentrating
• Morning headaches
• Irritability or low mood

For a fuller breakdown of what to look for, see our guide to sleep apnoea symptoms, night and daytime warning signs.

Is it snoring, or sleep apnoea?

Not everyone who snores has sleep apnoea, and not everyone with sleep apnoea snores loudly, though most do. The key difference tends to be the pattern of breathing rather than the volume of the snoring itself. Loud, continuous snoring is common and often harmless. Snoring that's interrupted by silences, gasping or choking is more of a concern.

If you're unsure which applies to you, our detailed comparison, snoring vs sleep apnoea, how to tell the difference, walks through the distinctions in more depth. You can also take our 60-second sleep quiz to get a sense of whether your symptoms warrant a closer look.

When to see a GP

It's sensible to speak to your GP if you or your partner notice any of the following:

• Loud snoring accompanied by gasping or choking sounds
• Witnessed pauses in breathing during sleep
• Persistent daytime exhaustion, particularly if it affects concentration or safety, such as driving
• Waking with headaches most mornings

These aren't signs to panic over, but they are worth investigating. Sleep apnoea is very manageable once identified, and getting a diagnosis is usually straightforward. Our guide on how sleep apnoea is diagnosed in the UK explains what to expect from both NHS and private routes, including home sleep studies.

How sleep apnoea is treated

Treatment depends on how severe the condition is and what's contributing to it. Common approaches include:

• Lifestyle changes: losing excess weight, reducing alcohol in the evenings, and avoiding sleeping on your back can all ease mild cases.
• CPAP therapy: a continuous positive airway pressure machine gently keeps the airway open overnight, and is the standard treatment for moderate to severe OSA.
• Mandibular advancement devices: a mouthguard-style device that holds the jaw slightly forward, used for milder cases or when CPAP isn't suitable.
• Surgery: considered occasionally where there's a clear anatomical cause, such as enlarged tonsils.

Most people manage sleep apnoea well once treatment begins, often noticing better sleep quality and more daytime energy within a fairly short time.

A practical next step

If any of this sounds familiar, the best first move is simply to pay attention, ideally with input from whoever shares your bed or bedroom. Note how often the symptoms occur and how you feel during the day. From there, our sleep apnoea hub has further reading, and your GP remains the right person to arrange a proper assessment.