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Sleep apnea: when breathing stops in your sleep
For anyone who snores, gasps or stops breathing at night, who is worn out all day and does not know why, or who has been told they have sleep apnea, and for the people who sleep beside them. This page passes on, by name, what the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), MedlinePlus, Medicare and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) say: the signs asleep and awake, getting a sleep study, every treatment, getting used to a PAP machine and keeping it clean, driving and surgery, women, pregnancy and children, and what Medicare covers. It builds the questions to ask at a visit. Take only what you need today.
A word with a dotted line under it, like this, opens its official definition, quoted from a U.S. government glossary.
Right now
- Sleepy and about to drive? NHLBI says untreated sleep apnea can make it difficult to pay attention and make decisions while you drive. Its words: do not drive if you feel tired or sleepy.
- Someone has stopped breathing and does not start again, or cannot be woken? Call 911.
- Using a PAP machine and you have stomach discomfort or bloating? NHLBI says you should stop using your PAP machine and contact your healthcare provider.
- Surgery or a procedure coming up? NHLBI says to tell your healthcare provider that you have sleep apnea, so they can take extra steps to keep your airway open.
- Thinking about ending your life? Call or text 988, at any hour.
The second line is ours. This page is not for emergencies: for chest pain, trouble breathing while awake, signs of a stroke, or anything that frightens you, call 911.
More help
- Your nights, for the provider: Sleep diary.
- Awake at 3 a.m.: Can’t sleep?
- The heart: High blood pressure, Atrial fibrillation, Heart failure and Stroke.
- Equipment you cannot afford: When you can’t afford medical equipment.
- No insurance: When you need a doctor and can’t pay.
- Smoking and drinking: When you want to quit smoking and Drinking or drugs.
- Before a visit: Get ready for your appointment.
- Pregnancy and menopause: Pregnant, or with a new baby and Menopause and the years around it.
- All our free tools.
This page and its wording were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). No doctor, nurse or sleep specialist has reviewed it. The facts were read on October 9, 2026 on four government websites: the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s eight Sleep Apnea pages (last updated January 9, February 4 and February 12, 2025), read in English and in Spanish; MedlinePlus’s Sleep Apnea summary (September 28, 2025), in English and Spanish; Medicare.gov’s Sleep studies and CPAP therapy pages, in English and Spanish; and the Food and Drug Administration’s page on devices that claim to clean a CPAP machine (current as of August 26, 2024), in English. The page says whose words it is passing on, and what is marked “ours” is our own. The institute’s Spanish treatment page is older (November 15, 2023) than its English one, so the Spanish guide marks what it took from the English page. What we left out or did not read: the name of every medicine and every brand of machine, mask or cleaner; a recall of one maker’s machines that FDA’s page mentions (ask your supplier whether your machine is affected); pressure settings; what the numbers on a sleep study report mean, and what counts as mild, moderate or severe; what Medicare’s four types of sleep test are, and the conditions it sets after the 12-week trial (its pages do not say); what other insurance or Medicaid pays; any state’s rules about driving or a commercial licence; and most of the institute’s detail on central sleep apnea. We called no number. It saves nothing and loads no tracking.