Today, researchers know that snoring, while often joked about, also has a much more serious side, especially if the snoring is related to sleep apnea. Sufferers of this disorder literally stop breathing in their sleep many times a night, depriving their bodies and brains of oxygen for about 15 seconds every few minutes.
an important aspect of sleep apnea at the molecular, genetic, cellular, and
organ system levels: low oxygen episodes called chronic intermittent hypoxia
(CIH), which also plays a role in sudden infant death syndrome in premature
infants.
Could the trigger that causes the body to startle awake for that breath be more
critical than the hypoxia itself? Prabhakar speculates that the sudden release
for a breath may cause oxidative stress, which is an overabundance of oxygen
free radicals in the body
clipped from: www.case.edu