Having sleep apnea puts your health in jeopardy in several ways. When you stop breathing, your body actually wakes itself up-without you consciously knowing it. One huge detrimental effect of this is that you can never get into a deep sleep, so your body never gets the rejuvenating effect of deep sleep.

Your body needs two things during the night (three, if you count back massages). It needs REM (rapid eye movement) sleep and it needs slow-wave sleep. To get into REM sleep, you need about 90 minutes of consistent sleep. So if you're waking up 10 times an hour, which is typical for people with sleep apnea, you're never getting into REM and won't wake up refreshed.

In the early stages of sleep apnea, there's no real damage to your body, except for occasional low periods of oxygen, which can kill some brain cells. But as the condition progresses, it leads to more serious issues, including hypertension.

The breathing stoppages cause your lungs to retain some carbon dioxide, which is what leads to the high blood pressure. You'll also be faced with excessive fatigue throughout the day, memory loss, and morning headaches.

Over time, sleep apnea can also increase your risk of stroke. In some cases, it can even trigger abnormal heartbeats and other cardiovascular events that cause death. « Collapse