Q: Is snoring a medical condition and do I need to seek medical attention? A: Snoring is a kind of sleep phenomenon that most people know. Some people mistakenly believe that snoring is a sign of “good and deep sleep” and will not affect health. In fact, it is not possible to generalize whether snoring is a disease or not. Some people are prone to transient sleep snoring due to excessive fatigue during the day or drinking alcohol and smoking before going to bed, especially when sleeping in the supine position. This kind of snoring is generally not harmful to health and does not require treatment. There are also some people who snore all year round, but the snoring is even, without intervals, and without other physical discomfort. We call it habitual simple snoring. With the increase of age, such people may develop a serious disease sleep apnea syndrome if they do not pay attention to health care. Among the people who snore, there are quite a number of people who snore like thunder during sleep, accompanied by symptoms such as apnea during sleep, breath-holding, restless sleep, abnormal movements and increased nocturnal urination, feeling sleepless in the morning, dry mouth, dizziness, headache and daytime sleepiness. These people are not simply snoring, but suffering from SAS. at this time, snoring is a danger signal of this serious disease, and the patient should be reminded to seek medical attention as soon as possible. Q: How to distinguish habitual simple snoring from SAS? A: This is a good question. Habitual simple snoring generally has a small, even snoring sound, no interval in between, no increase in nocturnal urination and abnormal movements, and no symptoms such as dry mouth, dizziness and drowsiness during the day, while SAS patients snore loudly and irregularly, with intervals and abnormal movements in between. The above symptoms appear during the daytime. In addition, patients suspected of suffering from SAS must go to a regular hospital respiratory specialist or quintuplex for nocturnal sleep polysomnography monitoring. The instrument is a non-invasive test and the patient is not in any pain. The test can clarify the size of snoring, the number and duration of apnea, the quality of sleep, whether there is hypoxemia and its severity, as well as the heart rate and the presence of arrhythmia, and other indicators. It can not only determine whether you have SAS, but also clarify the type and severity of SAS, and provide reliable objective indicators for the next step of treatment. Q: What are the risks of SAS to health? A: Due to the repeated occurrence of respiratory arrest, hypoxemia and micro-awakenings during sleep, it not only affects the quality of sleep and leads to drowsiness during the day, but more seriously, it can cause serious complications in many systems over time. The respiratory system may suffer from respiratory distress, hypoxia, chronic pulmonary heart disease, and sudden death by asphyxiation in individual patients; the cardiovascular system complications include secondary hypertension, and many persistent hypertensive diseases, especially morning hypertension, are often caused by SAS, and it is difficult to control hypertension without effective treatment of SAS; SAS is also an important cause of nocturnal angina and myocardial infarction; the neurological system includes poor concentration, memory loss, and personality. The endocrine system includes diabetes mellitus, obesity, growth retardation in children, and impotence and loss of libido in men; other complications include headache, erythrocytosis, and gastroesophageal reflux disease. In addition, many traffic accidents and accidents in other hazardous occupations may be associated with SAS-induced lack of energy and drowsiness during the day, which should be given high priority. The authors have encountered an elderly SAS patient who died of asphyxiation due to food choking into the trachea caused by sleeping during meals. It is especially worth mentioning that the health damage of SAS is chronic and long-term, unlike fever, pain, cough and other diseases that are easily noticed, resulting in many SAS patients not being diagnosed and treated reasonably for a long time, with serious consequences. Q: How is SAS treated? A: Treatment for patients with SAS includes lifestyle changes, wearing oral appliances at night, surgery and non-invasive ventilator therapy during sleep. The specific method of treatment for a patient should be decided by a specialist according to the type and severity of SAS. Simple snoring and mild obstructive SAS can be treated by lifestyle changes, such as weight loss, smoking and alcohol cessation, and sleeping in the lateral position. Some mild and moderate obstructive SAS can be treated by wearing an oral appliance at night and surgical procedures. Most patients with moderate and severe SAS require nocturnal non-invasive ventilator therapy. Due to the imperfect medical system in China, the non-invasive ventilator used for SAS treatment is not covered by public health care, some young patients are reluctant to wear non-invasive ventilator, and sometimes the ventilator parameters are not set properly and the nasal mask is not suitable, the proportion of SAS patients who are really treated effectively is still small. If SAS is not treated in a timely manner, the complications mentioned above will make the condition more complicated and difficult to treat. Improving the treatment of this disease requires not only the efforts of medical personnel, but also public awareness is very important.