Central sleep apnea causes

Central sleep apnea causes can be considerably different than the causes of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). As we frequently discuss, OSA causes tend to be physical, including obesity, diabetes, tobacco use, lack of exercise, and similar causes.

However, central sleep apnea (CSA), is fundamentally a different type of condition than obstructive sleep apnea. As opposed to being caused by physical elements, central sleep apnea is often caused by neurological elements — in effect, it’s caused by your brain not properly telling your body when to breathe.

With that in mind, then, let’s explore the multiple types of central sleep apnea causes in more detail.

Five major types of central sleep apnea causes

The Mayo Clinic breaks down the primary, medically accepted central sleep apnea causes into five specific types:

Cheyne-Stokes respiration (CSR). This form of central sleep apnea is thought to be connected with more serious illness, including “congestive heart failure or stroke.” Basically, Cheyne-Stokes respiration is a condition that causes people to experience “a gradual increase and then decrease in breathing effort and airflow.” This includes periods where a complete lack of airflow may be experienced.

The Mayo Clinic guide defines that period where the airflow completely stops as central sleep apnea. But, as MD and PhD Virend K. Somers points out in another Mayo Clinic report, Cheyne-Stokes respiration and central sleep apnea are sometimes used to describe the same condition. Admittedly, this can get a little confusing —but for the purposes of this article, we’ll treat Cheyne-Stokes as a separate condition that isn’t exactly the same as CSA, but rather serves as a central sleep apnea cause. And we’ll get more specific about the exact nature of Cheyne-Stokes respiration in an upcoming blog post.

Drug induced. Central sleep apnea can be caused by certain medications. The Mayo Clinic lists morphine sulfates, oxycodone (including Oxycodone HCL and Oxycontin) and codeine sulfate as types of drugs that “may cause your breathing to become irregular, to increase and decrease in a regular pattern, or to temporarily stop completely.”

High altitudes. Irregular breathing such as that attributed to Cheyne-Stokes can also be caused by high altitudes and less oxygen. The low oxygen levels found at high altitude is well known to cause alternating rapid breathing (hyperventilation) and “under breathing” (hypoventilation), and is thought to also be a cause for central sleep apnea.

Complex sleep apnea. When someone has symptoms of both central sleep apnea and obstructive sleep apnea, this is referred to as complex sleep apnea (or, sometimes, mixed sleep apnea). It’s believed that complex sleep apnea can be caused by the use of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) to treat OSA, blurring the lines between the two types of sleep apnea even further.

Idiopathic (primary) central sleep apnea. Basically, this covers all remaining types of CSA that don’t fall into the above categories. In other words, the cause of this type of CSA is unknown, although it has the same effects (repeated pauses in breathing effort and airflow) as the other types of central sleep apnea causes outlined above.

So, it’s clear that there isn’t one single or even most common central sleep apnea cause. It may be helpful, then, to explore some of the symptoms caused by CSA. We’ll discuss symptoms next week.