We were to evaluate the correlations between the sleep apnea symptoms consisted of insomnia, excessive sleepiness during daytime, impaired cognitive functions and emotional disturbances and various parameters of sleep and respiration on polysomnography. In sixty patients with sleep apnea, sleep and respiration were examined by polysomnography of one night, and symptoms of sleep apnea were evaluated with the scales of insomnia, daytime sleepiness, emotional disturbance and cognitive impairment. We studied correlations between apnea symptoms, and various parameters of sleep and respiration such as sleep efficiency, number and severity of apnea, O2 desaturation and number of snoring. Patients with better sleep in insomnia scale showed more number of apnea, particularly more central type, and much more snoring in stage 3 sleep and mild desaturation of O2 excessive sleepiness during daytime correlated significantly with stage l sleep
and its snoring, but correlated negatively with stage 2 sleep. However, no significant correlation was found with degree of O2 desaturation. Emotional disturbance was more apparent in the patients with severe O2 desaturation and smaller amounts of stage 4 sleep. Cognitive function was more impaired in cases of more REM sleep and less apnea. Symptoms of sleep apnea may occur through different causes and processes. The evaluation of apnea symptoms may be helpful to understand in some degree the condition of sleep and respiration during sleep in clinical setting.