What is the difference between upper airway resistance syndrome and sleep apnea?
Children with upper airway resistance syndrome sometimes wake up because of the resistance in the airway, or because their snoring is loud, or because the snoring requires so much effort. But there are no changes in the oxygen levels or the carbon dioxide levels within the blood or in the tissues in the child. In sleep apnea, the airway sometimes collapses and doesn’t open, and the child struggles to breathe and can’t get any air in. As a result, the carbon dioxide goes up, the oxygen goes down, and then finally the child has to wake himself or herself up in order to catch his or her breath. We’ve seen children with 500 and 600 awakenings in the night just to be able to catch their breath and go back to sleep. Is chronic snoring in children ever harmless? We don’t know. Snoring is not normal, but that doesn’t mean that it always needs to be treated. Clearly, if a child wakes up because of the snoring—that is, if they have upper airway resistance syndrome or sleep apnea—they need to be
