Central Sleep Apnea
One of the identified processes that leads to sleep apnea involves the level of brain activation that occurs when a human falls asleep. Specifically, this process involves the brain's ability to monitor things going on inside and outside of the body. If a person has sleep apnea, when they fall asleep, the body fails to correctly monitor oxygen levels in the blood. Basically, these people stop breathing every time they fall asleep because of a lack of respiratory effort. This cycle of falling asleep, not breathing, and waking up is called Central Sleep Apnea (Hobson, 1995).
Some of the consequences of this type of sleep apnea include insomnia, sleep disturbances, and numerous awakenings while sleeping. It is actually very difficult to distinguish central sleep apnea from insomnia because they share many of the same symptoms. However, when patients wake up in the middle of the night gasping for air, this is generally a clear indication of Central Sleep Apnea. There are a few different types of treatment for this type of sleep apnea which include mechanical ventilation, oxygen administration, and prescription of medication (Pallesen, 2001).