Understanding Sleep Apnea: Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment Options

Over 80 million adults in the U.S. have sleep apnea, which means they wake up tired every day, even after getting a full night’s sleep. Almost 80% of the time, this condition takes away energy and focus without anyone knowing it. As mental health professionals, we know that sleep apnea can make anxiety, depression, and ADHD worse. The good news is that targeted care can break this cycle and help you feel better emotionally. This guide goes over the most important signs of sleep apnea, what causes it, and how to tell if you have it.

What Is Sleep Apnea?

Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder that can be dangerous because it makes breathing stop and start over and over again. These breaks in oxygen flow can last for 10 seconds or longer and happen dozens of times a night. Sleep apnea stops deep, restorative sleep in about 1 in 15 adults around the world.

Signs of Sleep Apnea vs. Snoring

Sleep apnea is different from regular snoring because it includes breathing stops that are often followed by gasping or choking sounds. If a partner sees these signs, it’s very important to see a professional for a diagnosis.

Key Symptoms and Health Risks

• Frequent Breathing Pauses: Breathing interrupts 5 to 30 times an hour or more.

• Chronic Fatigue: Not getting enough sleep all at once makes you tired all the time, irritable, and unable to focus.

• Mental Health Impact: The condition makes it hard to control mood and cognitive skills, and it often looks like anxiety or depression.
• Treatable Condition: Sleep apnea is a very treatable condition, but it is often overlooked during mental health check-ups.

Types of Sleep Apnea

You need to know the different kinds of sleep apnea so you can find it and treat it correctly.

1. Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA): OSA is the most common type, accounting for about 84% of all diagnoses. If the muscles in your throat relax too much while you sleep, they can block the airway and make it hard to breathe.
2. Central Sleep Apnea (CSA): This kind isn’t caused by a physical blockage, like OSA. When the brain doesn’t send the right signals to the muscles that control breathing, that’s called CSA. It is frequently associated with issues about the heart or brain.
3. Complex Sleep Apnea Syndrome: People who are being treated for OSA (often with a CPAP machine) can get this condition, which is also called Treatment-Emergent Central Sleep Apnea. Patients can get very angry about this issue, which shows how important it is for them to get mental health support to stay with their therapy.

Emerging Research: Mixed Apnea and PTSD
New research from 2025 shows that people with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are more likely to have mixed apnea. Studies show that these patients may have lower arousal thresholds, which could make their episodes worse. This is a major focus of integrated care models right now.

Common Symptoms of Sleep Apnea

Some signs that you might have sleep apnea are being very tired during the day, having headaches in the morning, or having trouble concentrating. These symptoms can look like ADHD or depression. At night, loud snoring, gasping for air, or pauses in breathing (which a partner often notices) are all signs.

Dry mouth when you wake up, irritability, or mood changes are other signs that your anxiety may be getting worse. Patients with high-risk obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) are 40% more likely to have poor mental health.

• Effects on adults: Being tired makes it harder to do your job and raises the risk of things like driving while drowsy.
• Gender differences: Women who have gone through menopause often say they have insomnia-like symptoms instead of classic snoring.

• Mental health link: It’s important to screen for both conditions early on because their symptoms can be similar.

Causes and Risk Factors of Sleep Apnea

• Primary Causes: Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) occurs due to relaxed pharyngeal muscles or structural anomalies, including hypertrophied tonsils. Central Sleep Apnea (CSA) occurs when signals in the brain are disrupted. This is often because of heart failure or opioid use.

• Key Risk Factors: The biggest risks are being overweight (a BMI over 30 raises the risk by 14–55%), getting older (the risk is highest in the 60s and 70s), being male, smoking, and drinking alcohol.
• Mental & Physical Health: Chronic stress and PTSD are linked to apnea in both directions, making airway constriction worse. Diabetes, stroke, and thyroid problems are other important triggers.

The Link Between Sleep Apnea and Mental Health

The connection between sleep apnea and mental health is very important, but it is often ignored. If you don’t treat Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), it can cause low oxygen levels and broken sleep, which can make you anxious, depressed, and moody. In extreme cases, it can make PTSD symptoms worse, make brain fog that comes with dementia worse, or raise the risk of suicide.

Key Sleep Apnea and Mental Health Connections:

• Anxiety: Gasping for air while sleeping can feel like having a panic attack.
• Depression: Not getting enough deep sleep throws off the balance of serotonin.
• ADHD & Bipolar: Both have symptoms like trouble concentrating, so both need to be screened.

How Is Sleep Apnea Diagnosed?

The first thing a doctor does to figure out if you have sleep apnea is a physical exam and the STOP-BANG questionnaire. To make sure the diagnosis is correct, polysomnography in the lab is conducted, or a sleep test at home, to check your Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI). AHI scores can be low (5 to 15 events per hour) or high (30 or more). Mental health screenings and asking partners for feedback to make sure we have all the information we need.

Be ready: Write down your symptoms and don’t drink alcohol before the test.

Next, we make a treatment plan just for you based on what we find.

Effective Treatment Options for Sleep Apnea

Different levels of severity of sleep apnea respond better to different treatments. If your case is mild, you should lose weight, sleep on your side, or wear a mouthguard that moves your jaw.

The best machines are still CPAP and BiPAP, but only about half of the people who use them keep using them. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) can help with issues like being afraid of small spaces.

Surgery can involve taking out tissue or stimulating the hypoglossal nerve. Both of these things can cut down on apnea events by 68%. Try tongue exercises or putting pillows in the right place.

Complications and Long-Term Effects of Untreated Sleep Apnea

If you don’t get treatment for sleep apnea, it can be not good for your mental and physical health. It makes you more likely to get heart disease, high blood pressure, a stroke, type 2 diabetes, and liver problems. It is linked to depression, cognitive decline, and mood disorders, which can make life shorter.

Key Health Impacts:

• Cardiovascular Issues: When blood oxygen levels drop, the cardiovascular system gets stressed, which can cause irregular heartbeats.
• Dementia Risk: Studies show that sleep apnea can speed up cognitive decline and cause dementia because it cuts off oxygen.
• Family Impact: Sleep problems affect partners, and being irritable makes relationships harder. Support groups could be helpful.

Lifestyle Changes and Prevention Tips for Sleep Apnea

Stay at a healthy weight (losing 10% can help), exercise for 30 minutes every day, and stop drinking 4–6 hours before bed. Make sure you go to bed at the same time every night, sleep on your side, and don’t smoke. Prevent by dealing with risks early, like checking kids’ tonsils for family history.

• For partners: Earplugs or separate rooms for a while.
• Mental benefit: Mindfulness lowers stress, which makes it worse.

Sleep Apnea in Children and Families

One to five percent of kids have sleep apnea, and it usually happens because their tonsils are too big. Bedwetting and hyperactivity are two symptoms that are similar to ADHD. If you snore, it means something is wrong. Early treatment, such as surgery on the adenoids, can stop behavior problems from getting worse.

• Important signs: breathing through the mouth and not growing very fast.
• Help: Contact our team for help with therapy.

Conclusion

Learn about the signs, causes, and treatment options for sleep apnea so you can get better sleep and feel better mentally. You can improve your mood, energy, and relationships with the right care. Treasure Behavioral Health can help you get the help you need for your sleep problem. Contact our team for a full evaluation and begin your journey to restful sleep right away.

FAQs

Is snoring a sign of sleep apnea?

Not all the time. But if you stop breathing while snoring, you should get tested right away.

Can sleep apnea be cured?

It can be handled. In some cases, losing weight or having surgery can completely fix the problem.

How does sleep apnea affect mental health?

It makes you more likely to be anxious and depressed. Good treatment makes a big difference in mental health.