Who gets sleep apnoea?
The sort of person we see most commonly with heavy snoring and sleep apnoea is a middle aged man, usually taking a size 17 collar or more. However, there are many patients with sleep apnoea who are not particularly overweight. In some patients we simply do not understand why they have sleep apnoea. In children the commonest cause is enlarged tonsils. Nowadays sleep apnoea is a common reason for recommending that a young child has a tonsillectomy. Sleep apnoea and heavy snoring, severe enough to interfere with sleep quality, is probably much more common than is realised. At least three in every thousand men have severe sleep apnoea.
