The obesity-linked serious sleep disorder - sleep apnoea - is apparently becoming quite an alarm for doctors in Scotland --- with the NHS reportedly struggling to handle the "tidal wave" of patients suffering from the disorder!

It seemingly is the worrying increase in the overweight population that has brought sleep apnoea - a disorder which causes the sufferers to stop breathing while they are asleep - to the forefront; more so as the disorder is largely associated with obesity.

Going by the figures projected by the doctors, the last three years have witnessed a 25 percent increase in the number of people being referred for sleep problems in Scotland --- and, unsurprisingly, nearly 80 percent of these people are overweight.

With estimated revealing that 2 percent of the population in the country has sleep apnoea, health campaigners are calling for action to deal with the increasing numbers of sleep disorders as well as make the people aware of the risks from sleep apnoea.

Though sleep disorder-related figures for rest of the UK have yet to come in, doctors at the Scottish sleep clinics feel that the situation is equally disquieting in other parts of the UK too --- more so as the British Lung Foundation
(BLF) has already made sleep disorders one of its priorities for action.

Pointing to evidence that reveals a strong connection between weight and obstructive sleep apnoea, Dr James Cant - the BLF's head of Scotland - said that it is "crucial" for people to understand that "anyone can be affected" by the sleep disorder!