Thursday is sleep apnea awareness day.

That's the condition that, as many of you probably remember, contributed to the death of Packers legend Reggie White.

And there's a good chance that you or someone you know is suffering from the disease.

"Sleep apnea is very common in adult populations," said Dr. Paul Peppard, UW medical school.

The UW's Paul Peppard says one in four men, and one in 10 women have some form of sleep apnea.

One in 10 men and one in 25 women have severe sleep apnea that can result in the patient waking up as much as 100 times in one hour.

Peppard says an obvious symptom of this type of sleep apnea is feeling tired, since the person is waking up hundreds of times in the night.

But there also are other symptoms that people around the patient might notice.

"Loud sort of snoring, pauses in breathing," said Peppard. "Some people with sleep apnea can have sort of thunderous snoring and then gasping."

Peppard says sleep apnea often occurs in overweight individuals, which makes treating it easy ... have the patient lose weight.

But he says there are also many other causes and they are also treatable with machines, mouth pieces or other devices.

The important thing is getting checked out if you think you have a problem.

That way you can start treating the problem and prevent any serious complications from happening later on.