My husband and I both have sleep apnea. We also both have depression, or at least he does, and I have bipolar disorder with a pretty hefty depressive bent.
Sleep apnea is a medical condition in which a person stops breathing multiple times a night. The body responds to this by resuming breathing after a second or two, but sleep disruption has already occurred.
For my husband, this occurs up to 60 times a night, while it happens to me more like six times. Technically, my version is called “hypopnea” (hypo+pnea – low+breath; apnea, a+pnea – no+breath.) The body depends on breathing, of course, for oxygen, but it also depends on sleep – which is disrupted in sleep apnea – for proper functioning.
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