Talk:sleep apnea

Deletion debate

The following information passed a request for deletion.

This discussion is no longer live and is left here as an archive. Please do not modify this conversation, but feel free to discuss its conclusions.

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sleep apnea

"Apnea during sleep". If this goes the alternative spelling sleep apnoea should go too. Mglovesfun (talk) 15:05, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

Keep: Rather than posting deletion +tags, why don't you improve the definitions? A much more satisfying and productive use of your time. WritersCramp 15:10, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

Because now matter how much I improve them, they'll still not be dictionary material. But you're right, your definition are poor. Mglovesfun (talk) 15:16, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

You've consistently been aggressive about these debates since your first edits in 2005. Stop focussing on me and focus on the entries in question. So answer me this, how does this meet our criteria for inclusion? Mglovesfun (talk) 15:24, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

Who is being aggressive the editor that nominates a definition for deletion or the editor trying to save a definition? WritersCramp 15:33, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

Because the individual words say nothing about the disease. A bit like Asperger syndrome, how do I guess from the word Asperger that it's an autism spectrum disorder? But with sleep apnea, it's the most obvious meaning of the two words involved - sleep + apnea. Mglovesfun (talk) 15:27, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

There you go! You have advised us what you feel is wrong with the definition by writing a full paragraph, so simply add the change you want and move on to the next definition. That is called a collaborative effort, a fundamental principle in wikiland -:) WritersCramp 15:32, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

Do you have any comment on sleep apnea? Mglovesfun (talk) 15:35, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

keep: it's the name of a disease, just like flu. The standard name of this disease is not nocturnal apnea or anything of the kind. This reason is good enough. It's as much a word as flu. The French translation is apnée du sommeil. Lmaltier 19:45, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

Keep. Ƿidsiþ 20:34, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

Comment. This is a nomination under the sum-of-parts heading (WT:CFI#Idiomaticity). The name indeed looks a bit sum-of-partish, unlike, say, Parkinson's disease, in which the part terms "Parkinson" and "disease" point in no way to the meaning of "Parkinson's disease". OTOH the term is a taxonomic unit in medical taxonomy, a recognized cluster of symptoms (an extra-CFI consideration). I am not fully confident that the term is truly some-of-parts, that is, that "sleep apnea" is really just an apnea that occurs during sleep. Some terms and definitions:

• "apnea" - The cessation of breathing.
• "sleep apnea" - Brief interruptions of breathing during sleep.
• WP:"apnea" - Suspension of external breathing. During apneaduring which there is no movement of the muscles of respiration and the volume of the lungs initially remains unchanged.
• WP:"sleep apnea" - A sleep disorder characterized by abnormal pauses in breathing or instances of abnormally low breathing, during sleep.

The Wiktionary definition of "apnea" seems wrong: "cessation" is not a "brief interruption". Working off tentative definitions, it is hard to form a firm and reliable judgment. In any case, "sleep apnea" is nowhere as clear sum-of-parts as "white dog". --Dan Polansky 09:01, 30 September 2010 (UTC)

Keep; looking at books.google.com apnea -"sleep apnea" shows that this is never written as "nocturnal apnea" or "slumbering apnea" or "night apnea"; it's always "sleep apnea". (Okay, so I just found one exception "slumber apnea" from 1913[1].) Apnea without "sleep apnea" mostly occurs when talking about infants, and functionally sleep apnea doesn't seem to get lumped in with other types of apnea. It's almost like panda versus giant panda, or at least fox versus red fox.--Prosfilaes 10:10, 30 September 2010 (UTC)

But bear in mind that sleep doesn't always take place at night! Equinox ◑ 16:20, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

Well, it does seem obvious from its parts, but this is also the "set phrase" for the condition in medical usage, as pointed out above. Hmm. Equinox ◑ 00:08, 2 October 2010 (UTC)

Weak delete per other people's comments. I can't imagine this failing. Mglovesfun (talk) 22:09, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

Keep. This is a medical term. There seem to be two main types of sleep apnea mentioned in the literature. "Central sleep apnea" and "Obstructive sleep apnea". I think that this means it meets CFI as it is a term used in the medical literature and understood to mean something quite specific. -- ALGRIF talk 15:05, 8 October 2010 (UTC)

Kept, clear majority. Mglovesfun (talk) 22:48, 8 October 2010 (UTC)