Symptoms
People with sleep apnea usually do not remember waking up during the night.
Symptoms in Adults
Symptoms may include:
- Excessive daytime sleepiness
- Morning headaches
- Irritability and impaired mental or emotional functioning
- Snoring (bed partners may report very loud and interrupted snoring)
- Heartburn (acid back-up that causes heartburn may be responsible for some cases of sleep apnea)
Symptoms in Children
Sleep apnea occurs in about 2% of children. They may have symptoms that differ from adults, including:
- Longer total sleep time than normal in some children, especially obese children or those with severe apnea.
- Snoring. (An estimated 3 - 12% of all children snore. However, not all of them have sleep apnea.)
- More effort in breathing (flaring nostrils, heaving chests, sweating). The chest may have an inward motion during sleep.
- Behavioral difficulties without any obvious cause, such as hyperactivity and inattention. (Some patients may even be misdiagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.)
- Irritability
- Bed-wetting
- Morning headaches
- Failure to grow and gain weight
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