As airflow stops during a sleep apnea episode, the oxygen level in your blood drops. Your brain responds by briefly disturbing your sleep enough to kick start breathing-which often resumes with a gasp or a choking sound. If you have obstructive sleep apnea, you probably won’t remember these awakenings. Most of the time, you’ll stir just enough to tighten your throat muscles and open your windpipe. In central sleep apnea, you may be conscious of your awakenings. Following are the symptoms and signs of sleep apnea syndrome in TCM.
1. Lung spleen deficiency:
Symptoms: loud snoring, sudden awakenings with a sensation of gasping or choking, dry mouth, cough with yellow sticky sputum, constipation, heavy sweat, fatigue, yellow and greasy coating.

2. Lung and stomach deficiency:
Symptoms: loud snoring, dry mouth, morning headache, choking sensation in chest, poor memory, shortness of breath, fatigue, etc.

3. Heart and kidney deficiency:
Symptoms: not deep sleep, lethargy, fatigue, aversion to cold, frequent urination, poor memory, chest tightness, sexual dysfunction, weak waist.