Sometimes snoring is more that just annoying, it may be a symptom of obstructive sleep apnea.

A sleep lab, which diagnoses the disorder, recently opened at Austin Medical Center.

Obstructive sleep apnea causes a person to stop breathing repeatedly during sleep, sometimes up to 100 times a night, said Dr. Steven Kubas, director of the sleep lab.

"When the airway closes, the brain wakes them up," Kubas said. "Arousal is so brief they don't remember it."

Previously the nearest sleep lab was in Rochester. Since the sleep lab opened in October, at least 60 people have been studied, Kubas said.

"Sleep medicine is really new," Kubas said.

If a person has sleep apnea, the back of his or her throat becomes blocked while sleeping. The cause of this blockage is not the same in all people. It can be caused by being overweight or having abnormalities in the structure of the upper airway, Kubas said.

At the Sleep Lab at AMC, patients set up an appointment for 7 or 8 p.m. Monitoring equipment is attached to them and the patients sleep while the sensors monitor their breathing habits. The patients also are videotaped.

In another room, technicians observe how many times the patient stops breathing and wakes up.

"The sleep technicians are monitoring to see if they are closing or obstructing the airway and the frequency of that," Kubas said.

Halfway through the night, the patient is wakened and hooked up to a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure device, or CPAP. The device provides a steady stream of air through a tube that is attached to a mask, which fits on the patient's nose. Then the technicians monitor how much air is need to keep the patient's airway open.

Every time the patient stops breathing, he or she wakes up. Because of this the patient is often tired, sluggish and falls asleep easily during the day, Kubas said.

When the patient stops breathing, the sympathetic nervous system starts working, which puts stress on the body, Kubas said. Blood pressure also tends to rise when a person is not getting enough oxygen, he added.

Kubas showed an example of a test readings from a person who has severe sleep apnea. The patient stopped breathing four times in two minutes.

If a person has sleep apnea, a doctor will prescribe CPAP. The patient then wears the mask while sleeping. The disorder is treatable, but not curable, Kubas said. Sometimes, weight loss can make the sleep apnea less severe, he said.

CPAP is covered by most insurance companies and the device costs anywhere between $700 and $1,000.

Kubas has follow-up appointments with the patients and many say they feel better than they've felt in years, he said.

Cari Quam can be reached at 434-2235 or by e-mail at :mailto:cari.quam@austindailyherald.com