The following symptoms and complaints may indicate obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS):
Pathognomonic (indicative of a disease)
- Loud and irregular snoring combined with pauses in breathing (≥ 10 sec), resulting in restless sleep
Other seminal symptoms
- Daytime sleepiness (tendency to fall asleep during the day).
- Night startling from sleep
- Frequent falling asleep during the day (microsleep) with high risk of accidents and injuries
- Reduced performance
- Concentration disorders
- Forgetfulness
- Depression
- Morning headache
- Decrease in sexual desire
- Erectile dysfunction
Possible accompanying symptoms
- Cough (due to dried mucous membrane in mouth breathing) [adults].
- Impaired hearing (usually conductive hearing loss due to obstruction of the upper airway by enlarged adenoid vegetations (so-called infantile polyps)/hyperplasia of the pharyngeal tonsil (tonsilla pharyngealis), which usually occurs in infancy [children].
