Sleep Apnea
Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder where breathing stops and starts repeatedly. Some symptoms of sleep apnea include snoring, fatigue even after a full night of sleep, restlessness during sleep, trouble concentrating, and waking up from sleep often. Sleep apnea is not fatal but is linked to high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. The most common treatment for this disease is continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), which uses air to keep the patient’s airways open throughout the night.
Currently, sleep apnea is diagnosed by doing a sleep study in a lab. The sleep study consists of multiple sensors wired to the patient at the same time. These sensors are bulky and uncomfortable. Additionally, sleep studies are expensive and may not be representative of the patient’s actual sleep patterns because they are in a foreign environment.