The relationship between the apneustic area of the brain and sleep apnea has to do with damage to the brain’s upper medulla due to a stroke or trauma. Upper medulla damage leads to apneustic respiration, which is an abnormal breathing pattern.

If you have apneustic breathing patterns, you take a deep, gasping breath, pause at full inhalation, and then exhale briefly but insufficiently. You take this lack of comfort from waking to sleeping hours. This means that you will have sleep apnea and accompanying problems, such as insomnia.

The relationship between apneustic area of brain and sleep apnea is also noted when the apnea is triggered by such drugs as ketamine. But unlike apnea due to some neuro damage, this condition is temporary and will usually disappear if you stop taking the medication.

Central Sleep Apnea
The relationship between apneustic area of brain and sleep apnea is also displayed in the less common type of sleep apnea called CSA (Central Sleep Apnea). If you have CSA, the message to breathe that your mind sends to your body is delayed.

You get this kind of damage to your central nervous system by an injury or disease that affects your brainstem (e.g., stroke, viral brain infection, brain tumor) or a severe respiratory disease.

Relationships Between Your Brain and Breathing
When a sleeper stops breathing, an oxygen-CO2 imbalance in the person’s blood occurs, which stimulates brain activity to start the body breathing again.

If this happens to you, your brain will wake you up so that you can increase your airway size by moving your tongue and the muscles in your throat. This allows you to release CO2 and inhale a fresh supply of oxygen.

That is why you wake up. It is your body’s defense mechanism; it’s way of saving your life! It is also the reason why you end up sleep deprived.

Oxygen (and sleep) deprivation can cause more serious problems, including the following:

• Migraine, headaches
• Fast weight gain, obesity
• Depression
• Sexual dysfunction
• Problems with attention span, learning, memory
• Hypertension or high blood pressure, other cardiovascular conditions
• Type II diabetes
• Heart disease/abnormalities (e.g., arrhythmia or irregular heart beats)/failure

When a relationship between apneustic area of brain and sleep apnea is diagnosed, the prognosis may be poor. The symptoms will also be more complicated, such as:

• Dilated, fixed pupils
• Losing gag reflex
• Doll’s eye
• Negative eye-brain reflexes
• Losing corneal reflexes
• Severe stupor
• Coma

Where to Go for Help

A medical professional can give you a correct diagnosis and can help you explore your options. If you are dissatisfied you can always get a second opinion from another doctor.

You may also want to try online research or forum interaction with people who share your problem. One such place on the Internet is called A.P.N.E.A. NET, which was transferred to a bigger online forum at http://www.apneasupport.org/ (check the “apneanet” board).

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