"The last five years have been exhausting for Andrea Turner. Lights out for the yearold meant sleeping for a couple of hours before being jolted awake in the middle of the night and lying there electrified. I was exhausted all the time from the time I woke to the time I went to bed says Turner. It was like how can I make it through this day because I am so tired I thought since Im older so thats what it is. It wasnt until a motherdaughter vacation that Turners daughter noticed something interesting when her mother slept. Turner would make little gasping sounds throughout the night. This discovery and the unrelenting exhaustion led Turner to Stanford University where she underwent a sleep study. The doctors measured everything from brainwaves to breathing  what they found surprised Turner. It was  times per hour that I would stop breathing says Turner. And then the doctors looked piece by piece and realized that what I have is sleep apnea. Turners nightly interrupted breathing increased her chances of heart attack or stroke by three to four times according to Dr. Robson Capasso associate professor of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery at Stanford University. Roughly  million Americans suffer from sleep apnea  http as many as  percent are undiagnosed because gasps and choking sounds arent always so severe http they wake someone up. The condition more commonly affects men as well as people who are overweight over  and have large necks. Women with sleep apnea may suffer poorer heart health than men http according to a recent study. Obstructive sleep apnea occurs when the soft tissues of the mouth and airway especially the tongue block air flow into the lungs. This causes breathing to stop multiple times throughout the night and oxygen levels in the body to fall which was happening to Turner. The drop in oxygen while sleeping is a significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease say experts. After being diagnosed Turner tried an external continuous positive airway pressure CPAP machine which proved too cumbersome for her continued use. Whats more a recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that the bulky CPAP machines  standard treatment for many patients with sleep apnea  doesnt help prevent heart attacks or stroke although it does help patients sleep better and improve mood. Instead Turner underwent a relatively new procedure implanting a pacemakerlike device called Inspire for obstructive sleep apnea. Approved by the Food and Drug Administration in  the device is a remotecontrolled chest implant plus two thin wires that runs under the skin monitoring a patients breath delivering a mild electric current at night. A clinical trial of Inspire therapy found a  percent reduction in the number of sleep apnea events per hour for patients.  This is definitely an interesting solution for a good number of people said Capasso. Inspire is an invasive procedure so it is not recommended as a firstline treatment and not everyone is a candidate. The price tag for the Inspire device is  with surgery costing extra. Insurance companies are reviewing requests on a casebycase basis. Ideal candidates for Inspire  should be over the age of   have a diagnosis of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea  be unable to use or get consistent benefit from CPAP  not be significantly overweight Dr. Sanjeev Kothare professor of neurology at NYU Langone Medical Center cautions about using Inspire unless sleep apnea patients meet the requirements for the procedure. For Kothare the outofpocket expense for the device the risks of surgery plus the potential for the mechanism which moves the tongue forward  to break doesnt make it a viable option for everyone. The main side effect from the device is that people can wake up with a sore tongue. But for Turner thats a small price to pay for a goodnights sleep. Before Id be awake constantly but when I sleep now I am asleep. Im not waking up. Signs of sleep apnea according to the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute include  Morning headaches  Feeling irritable or depressed mood swings  Waking up frequently to urinate  Memory or learning problems difficulty concentrating  Dry mouth or sore throat when you wake up"