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Concept
Apnea
Summary
Apnea, BrE: apnoea, is the temporal cessation of breathing. During apnea, there is no movement of the muscles of inhalation, and the volume of the lungs initially remains unchanged. Depending on how blocked the airways are (patency), there may or may not be a flow of gas between the lungs and the environment. If there is sufficient flow, gas exchange within the lungs and cellular respiration would not be severely affected. Voluntarily doing this is called holding one's breath.
Apnea may first be diagnosed in childhood, and it is recommended to consult an ENT specialist, allergist or sleep physician to discuss symptoms when noticed; malformation and/or malfunctioning of the upper airways may be observed by an orthodontist.
Apnea can be involuntary—for example, drug-induced (such as by opiate toxicity), mechanically / physiologically induced (for example, by strangulation or choking), or a consequence of neurological disease or trauma. During sleep, people with severe sleep apnea can have over thirty episodes of intermittent apnea per hour every night.
Apnea can also be observed during periods of heightened emotion, such as during crying or accompanied by the Valsalva maneuver when a person laughs. Apnea is a common feature of sobbing while crying, characterised by slow but deep and erratic breathing followed by brief periods of breath holding when crying.
Another example of apnea are breath-holding spells; these are sometimes emotional in cause and are usually observed in children as a result of frustration, emotional stress and other psychological extremes.
Voluntary apnea can be achieved by closing the vocal cords, simultaneously keeping the mouth closed and blocking the nasal vestibule, or constantly activating expiratory muscles, not allowing any inspiration.
Under normal conditions, humans cannot store much oxygen in the body. Prolonged apnea leads to severe lack of oxygen in the blood circulation, leading to dysfunction of organ systems.
Official source
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