Snoring is not just annoying but could indicate a serious health problem. Many deaths among people in their 40s and older, attributed to heart diseases or road traffic accidents may actually be related to unseen epidemic of snoring and sleep apnoea. If the sleep is disturbed repeatedly by loud snoring, choking in breathing and the person experiences excessive day time tiredness and sleepiness, and then one might be suffering from “Obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSA)” and there could be a danger of losing one’s health, years of productivity and may be life also.

Most patients of OSA are overweight and have a short thick neck and small receding jaw. Because these patients are unaware of repeated arousals during sleep, this condition remains largely undiagnosed. It is a cause of severe cardiovascular morbidity including angina, MI, stroke, arrhythmias and sudden death. Polysomnography is a gold standard for diagnosing this condition. Treatment includes lifestyle changes (weight reduction), CPAP, dental devices that modify position of tongue and jaw and surgical procedures in selected patients. CPAP treatment has proved to be most effective for OSA.