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A British researcher argues that sleep apnoea might be over-diagnosed and overtreated because the diagnosis is too reliant on laboratory sleep studies. About two per cent of men and one per cent of women have snoring and periods of no breathing at night which is bad enough to cause problems with sleepiness during the day. There are various causes of sleep apnoea - from an abnormally shaped face and jaw, to being overweight (which constricts the neck). Weight loss does help as do mouthpiece splints to pull the jaw forward. The mainstays though are machines that provide continuous pressure via a nose mask to keep the upper airway open. But at a recent sleep conference in Queensland, a British researcher argued that sleep apnoea might be over diagnosed and overtreated because people were being told their problem was severe enough based just on sleep studies in a laboratory. The researcher claimed that the most important criterion should be that a person's life is affected - especially during the day. He also thought that the sleep tests could be simpler than they are at the moment. The bottom line for sleep apnoeics is how much they are affected by it and how much bruising from their partner's kicks they're willing to accept. 
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