Coping With Sleep Apnoea

My Weekly’s favourite GP Dr Sarah Jarvis from TV and radio writes for you

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You may never have heard of sleep apnoea, also known as obstructive sleep apnoea, or OSA, but there's a good chance you know someone who has it. It affects as many as 1 in 25 middle-aged men and 1 in 50 women. If you're kept awake by your husband's snoring, there's a good chance he's one of them. It can lead to constant tiredness, irritability and poor concentration. If you ignore it, the consequences could be more severe than nodding off over breakfast.

Apnoea means episodes where you stop breathing-and sleep apnoea, fairly obviously, means it happens in bed. When you sleep, your muscles relax - and this includes the muscles in your throat and tongue. If these close off your airways in part, the result is snoring, but if they get too floppy, they can block off your airway completely, stopping any oxygen getting to your lungs.