I got mine four years ago but have not had an additional night at the sleep lab since then. Is this something that needs to be periodically monitored or should I just let sleeping (snoring?) dogs lie?

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Tags: after, anyone, apnea, cpap, machine, sleep, still, tired, Using

Many patients use a CPAP device. This device includes a breathing mask, a machine, and tubes. CPAP, which stands for continuous positive airflow pressure, will help you to breathe. The CPAP device helps push air down your throat when you inhale. This is a very common treatment for people who suffer from sever sleep apnea.

The CPAP device only concentrates on the inhale, and in the case of patients who also have heart trouble, this may not be enough. Another sleep apnea breathing machine is the BiPAP machine. This machine will help your body inhale air like the CPAP machine, but it will also aid your body in exhaling. This is very important if you offer suffer from a heart condition.

You might be thinking that wearing these masks will make it even harder for you to sleep. That might be the case if there were not medically designed pillows to assist these machines.

The sleep disease pillow is designed to work in conjunction with a sleep apnea breathing machine. The pillow will take the stress off of your face from wearing the mask. This can make using these machines comfortable.

Sleep apnea can be a very dangerous condition if it isn’t treated immediately. With the use of these machines, however, you can rest easy all night long.

For more CPAP info, go to http://sleepapnea-infoblog.com/wp/

Tags: apnea, Breathing, Choosing, machine, sleep

Was it hard to get used to using the machine?

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Tags: after, apnea, cpap, machine, oral, safe, sleep, Surgery

During the day, muscles in the region keep the passage open and clear; but since there’s no bone or cartilage in this area to hold the airway open, when a person with Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) falls asleep, the muscles relax and the airway collapses.

Besides interrupting sleep and causing disorientation and “fogginess” during the waking hours, the dangers to overall health are many.

The primary risk factors for OSA are:

Excessive Weight – The accumulation of fat on the sides of the upper airway cause it to become narrow and predisposed to closure when the muscles relax.

Age – Loss of muscle mass is a common consequence of the aging process, leaving the airway narrow and soft. Men have a greater risk for OSA.

Male Hormones – Testosterone can cause structural changes in the upper airway.

Other risk factors include: A receding chin… Enlarged tonsils and adenoids… Use of drugs that affect the Central Nervous System (CNS) such as alcohol, tranquilizers, etc. … Smoking … Chronic nasal congestion… and several syndromes such as hypothyroidism, post-polio syndrome, neuromuscular disorders, Marfan’s syndrome, and Down syndrome, to name a few. Although to date there is no hard data to confirm this theory, it’s also believed that there’s a genetic factor involved.

The signs and symptoms of OSA are many and varied and many are not overtly medical. (For example, non-restorative sleep leads to such things as car accidents, bad moods, memory problems, depression and even impotence.)

Some common signs that you may have OSA are:

Loud Snoring – This is perhaps the most common sign that a person’s airway is obstructed, and the complaint that initially brings many undiagnosed OSA patients to their doctors for help. Not everyone who snores has sleep apnea, but if other signs are present, as well, it’s a distinct possibility.

Excessive Daytime Sleepiness – Some people with OSA fall asleep while reading or watching TV. Others experience powerful urges to doze off even in a stimulating environment, such as while driving or during business meetings – even while having sex!

Unrefreshing Sleep – Many OSA patients complain of waking up feeling as if they had been awake all night (usually, they have been, in fact). Then, if they try to refresh themselves with a nap, they usually feel worse after napping than they did before.

Drowsiness While Driving – Statistics show that many car accidents are caused by drivers either nodding off at the wheel or else being too sleepy to be alert.

Morning Headaches – Frequent, unexplained headaches are a common sign of OSA.

Frequent Nighttime Urination – Getting up to use the bathroom several times a night may be caused by an apneic event.

If your doctor does diagnose OSA, then you’ll be relieved to know that a CPAP sleep apnea machine will give you relief and protection as soon as you start using it.

Tags: apnea, Common, cpap, machine, Most, sleep, Treatment

More rarely what happens is the breathing signal is not sent from the brain to the diaphragm.

It is a treatable condition, with several options open to patients. The simplest and most common treatment is the use of a sleep apnea machine known as a CPAP sleep apnea machine. (CPAP is an abbreviation for Constant Positive Airway Pressure.)

Although not directly life-threatening, sleep apnea is a serious condition which has the potential to significantly affect a sufferer’s quality of life.

In normal human sleeping patterns, a person progresses through five stages of sleep, eventually going into “deep sleep.” Deep sleep is when dreaming and REM (rapid eye movement) occur and when most restorative functions happen. And you return to almost wakefulness approximately every ninety minutes. Thus, people who wake two or three times in a night are probably actually getting good quality sleep.

In cases of sleep apnea, the sufferer effectively falls unconscious in their sleep, immediately before the brain rouses the body in response to the blocked airway. One with this condition without realizing it could be going through a cycle of passing out and waking every few minutes all night long. This affects the quality of sleep in two ways.

First, oxygen deprivation is harmful to the brain at any time and makes it impossible for sleep to be restful.

Second, because the sufferer may be going through a cycle of waking and going back to sleep every few minutes, they have little opportunity for the most restful, deep sleep.

Symptoms can include snoring, a tendency to fall asleep during the day during any idle period, feeling very tired upon waking, possibly in conjunction with a morning headache, and secondary effects from the reduced quality of sleep, such as depression and anxiety, along with the associated symptoms of those conditions.

Diagnosis for sleep apnea used to be complicated, requiring a specialist’s attention, and possibly a night or two in a sleep laboratory. Fortunately, as awareness of this somewhat common condition becomes more widespread, so too have diagnosis and treatment options.

Upon consultation with a physician, you can get a sleep apnea machine that monitors your body’s vital signs during sleep by use of simple apparatus worn on the arm, allowing you to sleep in your own bed.

Because you are probably more comfortable in familiar surroundings, and the monitoring is done in the same environment you normally sleep in, the results obtained from such analysis can be more valuable to your sleep specialist or doctor.

If sleep apnea is diagnosed, there are a number of treatment options available. The most basic, if applicable, is to lose weight, as obesity is a known cause of this condition. Unfortunately, this may only lower the severity of the problem in many patients, and is not the only cause.

In any acute case, further intervention is required. One option is surgery, but again, this will not work for everyone and is an expensive and undesirable option for many people.

This leaves the most common treatment, which is the use of a sleep apnea machine known as a CPAP. A CPAP sleep apnea machine (Constant Positive Airway Pressure) is a device which has a tube worn in the mouth during sleep which provides a slight positive pressure but otherwise, allows the wearer to breathe normally.

This has the effect of keeping the airway open at all times during sleep, making for more restful, better quality sleep, and better quality of life.

There are various models of CPAP machines available. Some offer more advanced features, such as a reduction of pressure while exhaling, so you are not breathing against the flow of air so much.

Also, offered are more advanced monitoring of use, options for upgradeable firmware to keep the device current with the latest technology, and the ability to link the sleep apnea machine to your PC.

Obviously, less expensive, more basic models are available, and can be completely autonomous, requiring little further configuration by the user.

Tags: apnea, Helps, machine, sleep, well

So if he can make the CPAP thing work better without having to tell the docs, it will help his health and checking account. Anybody know about this?

Thanks =D

Tags: apnea, cpap, docs', help, improve, machine, performance, sleep, Without

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