Sleep Apnea as a Resonance Disorder — A Universal Resonance Model Interpretation of Breathing Instability and Systemic Collapse

This paper presents a systems-based interpretation of sleep apnea using the Universal Resonance Model (URM). Rather than viewing sleep apnea as a purely mechanical or neurological disorder, the work conceptualizes it as a resonance instability arising from loss of phase coherence between respiratory, autonomic, metabolic, and neural regulatory systems. The framework explains characteristic features of sleep apnea—cyclic collapse, arousal instability, cardiovascular comorbidity, and treatment resistance—as manifestations of systemic desynchronization. The paper is theoretical in nature and intended to support future empirical testing of resonance-based disease dynamics. This work forms part of the URM Validation Series and explores sleep apnea as a clinical instantiation of resonance-based system instability within the Universal Resonance Model framework. This work is part of the Universal Resonance Model (URM) framework (see: DOI 10.5281/zenodo.17883469).