About 1/3 of a person’s life is spent in sleep, and the quality of sleep not only affects a person’s mental state, but also affects his or her physical health. In recent years, a disease called sleep apnea syndrome has gradually attracted widespread attention from the international medical community. Sleep apnea syndrome is a disease with a high incidence and greater risk. Although the disease was officially reported in 1965, the development of the disease is a chronic and gradual process, and the clinical symptoms are not very typical, so the problem has long been ignored or missed or misdiagnosed by hospitals. It is only in recent years that the medical community has gained a more in-depth understanding of the disease. Now the medical profession believes that if the respiratory arrest lasts for more than 10 seconds during nighttime sleep is considered apnea, when the oxygen in the blood is reduced and the body is in a state of oxygen deprivation. If this apnea occurs frequently, more than 5 times per hour or cumulatively more than 30 times during 7 hours of sleep, it can be diagnosed as sleep apnea syndrome. If this disease is not effectively treated for a long time, day after day, year after year, not only will the patient feel that he or she has never had a good sleep, but he or she will also suffer from a series of serious pathologies that endanger all systems of the body due to interruption of respiratory airflow, lack of oxygen and repeated awakening from sleep. The clinical manifestations of sleep apnea syndrome are diverse, and one of the most common and typical symptoms at night is snoring. Generally speaking, the louder the snoring is, the more obvious the airway narrowing is, but the snoring of patients with sleep apnea syndrome is different from that of ordinary snorers. The snoring of these patients is loud and irregular, intermittent, and the sound is high and low; in serious cases, they snore loudly whether in the side-lying or supine position, even during meetings and car rides. In addition, patients with frequent apnea at night are accompanied by abnormal sleep movements, insomnia, excessive dreaming, nightmares, polyuria and enuresis. During the daytime, the common manifestation of sleep apnea syndrome is drowsiness, that is, uncontrollable dozing during the day regardless of time and place, and even involuntarily going to dreamland during meetings, reading and listening to lectures, and those with serious conditions will unconsciously fall soundly asleep when talking with others. Since the quality of sleep is so poor in these patients, about 2/3 of them will have different degrees of excessive sleep, and some of them often sleep for more than 10 hours, or even stay awake all day. Patients will also feel fatigue, memory loss, decreased academic performance, and agitation and irritability. Occasional sleep apnea does not cause any harm to human health, but if this kind of apnea occurs repeatedly for a long time, the harm is not to be underestimated. Studies have shown that sleep apnea is an important risk factor for ischemic heart disease, angina pectoris, and myocardial infarction, as well as various cardiac arrhythmias, pulmonary hypertension, pulmonary heart disease, and hypertension. In an analysis of 460 sudden death patients, sleep apnea was found to be one of the culprits causing sudden death at night. Strokes and other cerebrovascular mostly occur at night, and studies have found that snoring and apnea during sleep can increase the morbidity and mortality of cerebrovascular disease. More than 53% of male patients with cerebrovascular disease have a history of long-term habitual snoring, and 35% of patients with cerebrovascular accidents occurring during sleep are closely related to snoring and apnea. There is now growing evidence that snoring and apnea are an independent risk factor for cerebrovascular disease. Sleep apnea syndrome not only directly endangers the physical health of patients, but also causes a series of social problems and endangers the lives of others. For example, drivers suffering from sleep apnea syndrome have reduced reaction and judgment ability and poor concentration. Accident statistics show that the accident rate of such drivers is twice as high as that of non-sleep apnea syndrome drivers, and up to 13 times higher especially when driving alone. In addition to traffic accidents, the occurrence of other operational accidents, such as tower cranes and flying, is also closely related to sleep. Many people with sleep apnea syndrome have reduced social skills, strained relationships between family members, and can even cause marital failure. In addition Sleep apnea syndrome is also an important cause of diabetes, obesity, growth retardation in children, impotence, loss of libido, and gastroesophageal reflux disease. What causes sleep apnea syndrome? The etiology of sleep apnea syndrome is complex and closely related to the respiratory system, cardiovascular system, neurological system and otorhinolaryngology. However, the key is obstruction and collapse of the upper airway, such as nasal polyps, low hanging soft palate, thickening or growth of the uvula, hypertrophy of the tonsils, and hypertrophy and fatty deposits in the soft tissues of the pharynx. The onset of sleep apnea syndrome is a gradual process, often the result of a combination of etiologies, especially obesity, upper respiratory tract infections, heart disease, alcohol consumption and the increasing age of the elderly will make the condition significantly worse. Obese and overweight people should pay special attention because fatty deposits in the neck of fat people narrow the inner diameter of the upper airway, and the airway is more likely to collapse and become obstructed. Fat deposition in the chest and abdomen of obese patients causes increased respiratory load and decreased respiratory efficiency. Obesity and sleep apnea interact with each other and aggravate each other, forming a vicious circle. With the increasing understanding of sleep apnea syndrome, people began to seek various methods to alleviate and treat this disease, with the aim of releasing the narrowed or collapsed airway and making the patient breathe more freely during sleep. Currently, the preferred treatment for sleep apnea is non-invasive positive airway pressure ventilation, which is based on the principle that since the key to sleep apnea is upper airway obstruction, its collapse can be prevented by applying an appropriate local pressure to the upper airway, and in addition, the stimulation of some local reflexes in the upper airway by high-speed airflow can increase the muscle’s ability to expand the airway to some extent. The ability to expand the airway can be increased to some extent by stimulating some local reflexes in the upper airway with high speed airflow. Clinical practice proves that the use of positive airway pressure ventilators can eliminate nocturnal breathing disorders in patients with sleep apnea syndrome and improve their sleep structure, thus playing an effective role in the treatment of the organism damage and complications caused by sleep apnea. The biggest advantage of positive airway pressure ventilation is that patients can use it at home under the guidance of a physician and only during nighttime sleep, without interfering with their work and studies during the day, but many patients cannot adapt to sleep with this one mask for a long time. In view of the fact that sleep apnea is caused by the obstruction of the upper airway during sleep, it is possible to keep the upper airway open by completely removing the soft tissues that block the upper airway through surgery, and currently there are minimally invasive nasal endoscopic surgery to solve the blockage of the nasal cavity, low-temperature plasma penduloplasty to solve the blockage of the soft palate tonsils in the oropharynx, and chin-forming lingual suspension to solve the congestion of the tongue root in the laryngopharynx. These procedures can effectively improve the ventilation of the upper airway and improve the patient’s nighttime sleep quality. Sleep apnea syndrome is a serious health hazard and can even be life-threatening. Although there are a variety of treatment options available, a healthy lifestyle and early and proper diagnosis are the keys to preventing and reducing the occurrence of sleep apnea.