apnea

…total cessation of breathing (apnea).

The condition, called sleep apnea, occurs most commonly in the elderly, in the newborn, in males, and in the obese. Because arousal is often associated with the termination of episodes of obstruction, sleep is of poor quality, and complaints of excessive daytime drowsiness are common. Snoring and disturbed behaviour…

…also a brain-stem function, and apnea (respiratory paralysis) is a crucial manifestation of a nonfunctioning lower brain stem. Alone, of course, it does not imply death; patients with bulbar poliomyelitis, who may have apnea of brain-stem origin, are clearly not dead. Although irreversible apnea has no strictly philosophical dimension, it…

Sleep apnea, which sometimes involves upper airway obstruction, is characterized by cessation of breathing for up to a minute and by a marked fall in blood oxygen levels, thus arousing an affected individual from sleep. Sleep apnea affects approximately 3 to 7 percent of adults. It…