{"id":7238,"date":"2024-12-09T23:54:30","date_gmt":"2024-12-09T23:54:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/is-a-little-sleep-debt-ok-copy\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T23:42:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T23:42:13","slug":"is-sleep-apnea-dangerous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/sleep-health\/blog\/is-sleep-apnea-dangerous\/","title":{"rendered":"Is sleep apnea dangerous?"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p>Sleep apnea occurs when you stop breathing during sleep. If left untreated, the condition can be extremely dangerous, even deadly. Because your brain needs oxygen to perform properly, any deprivation can lead to problems. Luckily, our bodies are programmed to wake us up when sleep apnea occurs, but this may be happening hundreds of times each night and you don\u2019t even know it. It\u2019s important to take sleep apnea seriously and learn how to recognize the signs and symptoms of the condition.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>If you wake up with headaches, are excessively sleepy during the day or have been told you snore loudly, you should get tested for sleep apnea. The sooner you can get tested and diagnosed, the better your chance of managing the condition effectively and reducing your risk of developing other health conditions.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-other-diseases\">Other diseases<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Untreated sleep apnea can be a contributing risk factor to high blood pressure, stroke, type 2 diabetes, depression and other conditions. If left untreated, sleep apnea puts extreme pressure on your body, such as your heart and immune system, potentially compromising those systems.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Learn about the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/sleep-health\/blog\/what-is-sleep-apnea\/\">symptoms of sleep apnea<\/a>\u00a0so you can recognize the signs of the condition and possibly save your life, or that of someone you love. Arming yourself with information can also help ensure you have an informed conversation with your health care provider about your symptoms. We can and should be the best advocates for our own health, so it\u2019s important to get involved and stay informed.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><br><em>This blog post contains general information about medical conditions and potential treatments. It is not medical advice. If you have any medical questions, please consult your doctor.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sleep apnea occurs when you stop breathing during sleep. If left untreated, the condition can be extremely dangerous, even deadly. Because your brain needs oxygen to perform properly, any deprivation can lead to problems. Luckily, our bodies are programmed to wake us up when sleep apnea occurs, but this may be happening hundreds of times [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"blog_cats":[191],"blog_tags":[157,174,176],"breadcrumb":[],"class_list":["post-7238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","blog_cats-sleep-health","blog_tags-fatigue","blog_tags-sleep-issues","blog_tags-snoring"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Is sleep apnea dangerous? | Resmed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sleep apnea occurs when you stop breathing during sleep. If left untreated, the condition can be extremely dangerous, even deadly.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/sleep-health\/blog\/is-sleep-apnea-dangerous\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is sleep apnea dangerous?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sleep apnea occurs when you stop breathing during sleep. If left untreated, the condition can be extremely dangerous, even deadly.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/sleep-health\/blog\/is-sleep-apnea-dangerous\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Resmed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-12-09T23:54:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-24T23:42:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/media.resmed.com\/20250226181253\/sleep-apnea-blog-is-sleep-apnea-dangerous.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"780\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"520\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Marie Miscioscia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Marie Miscioscia\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/sleep-health\/blog\/is-sleep-apnea-dangerous\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/sleep-health\/blog\/is-sleep-apnea-dangerous\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Marie Miscioscia\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/#\/schema\/person\/4bbd96de4dec2579e015ade61259f02d\"},\"headline\":\"Is sleep apnea dangerous?\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-12-09T23:54:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-24T23:42:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/sleep-health\/blog\/is-sleep-apnea-dangerous\/\"},\"wordCount\":281,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/sleep-health\/blog\/is-sleep-apnea-dangerous\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/media.resmed.com\/20250226181253\/sleep-apnea-blog-is-sleep-apnea-dangerous.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/sleep-health\/blog\/is-sleep-apnea-dangerous\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/sleep-health\/blog\/is-sleep-apnea-dangerous\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/sleep-health\/blog\/is-sleep-apnea-dangerous\/\",\"name\":\"Is sleep apnea dangerous? | Resmed\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/sleep-health\/blog\/is-sleep-apnea-dangerous\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/sleep-health\/blog\/is-sleep-apnea-dangerous\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/media.resmed.com\/20250226181253\/sleep-apnea-blog-is-sleep-apnea-dangerous.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-12-09T23:54:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-24T23:42:13+00:00\",\"description\":\"Sleep apnea occurs when you stop breathing during sleep. If left untreated, the condition can be extremely dangerous, even deadly.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/sleep-health\/blog\/is-sleep-apnea-dangerous\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/sleep-health\/blog\/is-sleep-apnea-dangerous\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/media.resmed.com\/20250226181253\/sleep-apnea-blog-is-sleep-apnea-dangerous.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/media.resmed.com\/20250226181253\/sleep-apnea-blog-is-sleep-apnea-dangerous.jpg\",\"width\":780,\"height\":520,\"caption\":\"Man yawns while sitting in his car\"},[],[],[],{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/#\/schema\/person\/4bbd96de4dec2579e015ade61259f02d\",\"name\":\"Marie Miscioscia\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ade435cad2b91c1c69db8086afa3b04afe9baf0b9658addb7395ecac0d44e214?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ade435cad2b91c1c69db8086afa3b04afe9baf0b9658addb7395ecac0d44e214?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Marie Miscioscia\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Is sleep apnea dangerous? | Resmed","description":"Sleep apnea occurs when you stop breathing during sleep. If left untreated, the condition can be extremely dangerous, even deadly.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/sleep-health\/blog\/is-sleep-apnea-dangerous\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Is sleep apnea dangerous?","og_description":"Sleep apnea occurs when you stop breathing during sleep. If left untreated, the condition can be extremely dangerous, even deadly.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/sleep-health\/blog\/is-sleep-apnea-dangerous\/","og_site_name":"Resmed","article_published_time":"2024-12-09T23:54:30+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-11-24T23:42:13+00:00","og_image":[{"width":780,"height":520,"url":"https:\/\/media.resmed.com\/20250226181253\/sleep-apnea-blog-is-sleep-apnea-dangerous.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Marie Miscioscia","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Marie Miscioscia","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/sleep-health\/blog\/is-sleep-apnea-dangerous\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/sleep-health\/blog\/is-sleep-apnea-dangerous\/"},"author":{"name":"Marie Miscioscia","@id":"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/#\/schema\/person\/4bbd96de4dec2579e015ade61259f02d"},"headline":"Is sleep apnea dangerous?","datePublished":"2024-12-09T23:54:30+00:00","dateModified":"2025-11-24T23:42:13+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/sleep-health\/blog\/is-sleep-apnea-dangerous\/"},"wordCount":281,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/sleep-health\/blog\/is-sleep-apnea-dangerous\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/media.resmed.com\/20250226181253\/sleep-apnea-blog-is-sleep-apnea-dangerous.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/sleep-health\/blog\/is-sleep-apnea-dangerous\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/sleep-health\/blog\/is-sleep-apnea-dangerous\/","url":"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/sleep-health\/blog\/is-sleep-apnea-dangerous\/","name":"Is sleep apnea dangerous? | Resmed","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/sleep-health\/blog\/is-sleep-apnea-dangerous\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/sleep-health\/blog\/is-sleep-apnea-dangerous\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/media.resmed.com\/20250226181253\/sleep-apnea-blog-is-sleep-apnea-dangerous.jpg","datePublished":"2024-12-09T23:54:30+00:00","dateModified":"2025-11-24T23:42:13+00:00","description":"Sleep apnea occurs when you stop breathing during sleep. If left untreated, the condition can be extremely dangerous, even deadly.","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/sleep-health\/blog\/is-sleep-apnea-dangerous\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/sleep-health\/blog\/is-sleep-apnea-dangerous\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/media.resmed.com\/20250226181253\/sleep-apnea-blog-is-sleep-apnea-dangerous.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/media.resmed.com\/20250226181253\/sleep-apnea-blog-is-sleep-apnea-dangerous.jpg","width":780,"height":520,"caption":"Man yawns while sitting in his car"},[],[],[],{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/#\/schema\/person\/4bbd96de4dec2579e015ade61259f02d","name":"Marie Miscioscia","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ade435cad2b91c1c69db8086afa3b04afe9baf0b9658addb7395ecac0d44e214?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ade435cad2b91c1c69db8086afa3b04afe9baf0b9658addb7395ecac0d44e214?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Marie Miscioscia"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"blog_cats","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog_cats?post=7238"},{"taxonomy":"blog_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog_tags?post=7238"},{"taxonomy":"breadcrumb","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resmed.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/breadcrumb?post=7238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}