Sleep Disordered Breathing (SDB) refers to a family of pathologies linked to a partial or complete obstruction of the upper airways during sleep. This obstruction, also called pharyngeal collapse, occurs mostly at the oro-pharyngeal level – behind the base of the tongue as shown on the diagram below.
SDB ranges from snoring and flow limitations - requiring compensatory inspiratory effort - to Sleep Apnoea. SDB and its many serious co-morbidities.
Snoring
- More than a third of the adult male population, in western countries, snore regularly. Women are also subject to this problem, especially after menopause.1
- The snoring sound is generated by the vibration of soft tissue (pharyngeal walls, soft palate, base of the tongue) created by the air forcing its way through the narrow airway when inhaled