Handbook of Sleep-Related Breathing Disorders

J R Stradling Oxford University Press, £40, pp 296 ISBN 0-19-261834-2 The Handbook of Sleep-Related Breathing Disorders is primarily an account of the sleep apnoea/hypopnoea syndrome, also known as the obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome. Starting with an excellent review of sleep physiology - which confirms how little is known about why we sleep - and of the effect of sleep on breathing in normal subjects, it then discusses mechanisms, clinical features, diagnosis, and treatment of the sleep apnoea/hypopnoea syndrome. The balance between pharyngeal dilator muscle action …