Apnea

Apnea, apnoea, or apnœa (Greek: ἄπνοια, from ἀ-, privative, πνέειν, to breathe) is a term for suspension of external breathing. During apnea, there is no movement of the muscles of inhalation and the volume of the lungs initially remains unchanged. Depending on how blocked the airways are (patency), there may or may not be a flow of gas between the lungs and the environment; gas exchange within the lungs and cellular respiration is not affected.

Cause

Apnea can be voluntarily achieved, drug-induced (such as opiate toxicity or tryptamine toxicity), mechanically induced (for example, by strangulation or choking), or it can occur as a consequence of neurological disease or trauma. During sleep in patients who are suffering from sleep apnea, these events will occur up to 20–30 times per hour, every night.

Apnea can also be observed during periods of heightened emotion, such as during crying or accompanied by the Valsalva maneuver when a person laughs..

Voluntary apnea can be achieved by closing the vocal cords, simultaneously keeping the mouth closed and blocking the nasal vestibule, or constantly activating expiratory muscles.

Sleep apnea

Sleep apnea, also spelled sleep apnoea, is a sleep disorder characterized by pauses in breathing or instances of shallow breathing during sleep. Each pause in breathing, called apnea, can last for several seconds to several minutes. By definition, more than five episodes an hour must occur. Similarly, each abnormally shallow breathing event is called a hypopnea. Sleep apnea is classified as a dyssomnia. When breathing is paused, carbon dioxide builds up in the bloodstream. Chemoreceptors in the blood stream note the high carbon dioxide levels. The brain is signaled to wake the person sleeping and breathe in air. Breathing normally will restore oxygen levels and the person will fall asleep again. Sleep apnea is often diagnosed with an overnight sleep test called a polysomnogram, or "sleep study".

There are three forms of sleep apnea: central (CSA), obstructive (OSA), and complex or mixed sleep apnea (i.e. a combination of central and obstructive) constituting 0.4%, 84%, and 15% of cases, respectively. In CSA, breathing is interrupted by a lack of respiratory effort; in OSA, breathing is interrupted by a physical block to airflow despite respiratory effort, and snoring is common. About 12 million Americans have OSA. There are more cases of sleep apnea still because people either do not report the condition or do not know they have sleep apnea.

Ricardo Arjona

Edgar Ricardo Arjona Morales (born 19 January 1964), known as Ricardo Arjona (Spanish pronunciation: [riˈkaɾðo arˈxona]), is a Guatemalan singer-songwriter and former basketball player and school teacher. Arjona is one of the most successful Latin American artists of all time, with more than 20 million albums sold. He is often called El Animal Nocturno (The Nocturnal Animal), thanks to his breakthrough success with his fourth studio album which bears the same name. His music ranges from ballads to Latin pop, rock, pop rock, Cuban music, and more recently a cappella performances and a mixture of Tejano music and Norteño music, and other Afro-American and Latin sounds. Arjona is noted for his lyrical style, and often addresses topics such as love, sexuality, violence, racism and immigration.

As of 2014, Arjona had released fourteen studio albums, one live album, nine compilation albums and forty-three singles. Four Arjona albums reached number one on the Billboard Top Latin Albums, and ten reached number one in Argentina. Four albums had charted on the Billboard 200. Four singles had reached number one on the Billboard Latin Songs chart and seven had done the same on Latin Pop Songs. His work earned him numerous awards and accolades, including one Grammy Award, one Latin Grammy Award, the "Latin Heritage" Award as well as awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers; a silver and golden torch and two silver seagulls from the 2010 Viña del Mar International Song Festival, two Billboard Latin Music Awards, and a "Latin Trajectory of the Year" Award at the Orgullosamente Latino Awards of 2010.