Sleep Apnea
What Really Causes Obstructive Sleep Apnea?
Last Updated: 10 December 2022.
When I asked the sleep specialist who diagnosed me with severe obstructive sleep apnea what the cause of my condition was, he said that the muscles in my airway collapse during sleep. The Mayo Clinic, WebMD and Healthline all agree, but in my mind this doesn’t really identify the root cause. So I asked why my airway was too small to tolerate the collapse of the muscles in it, and he replied with: genetics.
I thought that sounded a bit odd given that neither of my parents suffered from obstructive sleep apnea, and as far as I was aware we had no family history of it. One of my siblings has since been diagnosed with it, at least one cousin has it, and I’m pretty sure my mother had it before she died but I wasn’t successful in getting her tested. Nevertheless, at the time I was determined to take my root cause analysis further because I thought that knowing the underlying cause would better inform me as to what the best treatment for the condition might be.