Treating Apnea Patients With A CPAP Or Sleep Apnea Machine

Choosing to buy a sleep apnea machine is likely the first thing you begin to think of when you’re diagnosed with this condition. Before you go rushing into the medical supplies store to buy the first machine that you see, it would be good to learn some things about the condition first. This may help you make a better choice with your selection of a sleep apnea CPAP machine.

Sleep apnea disorder is a very frequently found condition which millions of people all around the world have. You’ll find three types of this disorder, with the most common being the obstructive sleep apnea; a condition where the airway collapses when a person is sleeping. The second type is central sleep apnea, which occurs when the brain is unable to send the proper signal to the body to breathe. Most of the time, this is a type of sleep apnea that is found in people who have had a stroke or heart attack. Sleep apnea treatment for this form is much different than the treatment which is most often used with obstructive sleep apnea. The third kind of sleep apnea is actually a combination of the first two kinds and it’s very rare and treatments are different.

Different CPAP Machines

There are many different types of sleep apnea machines available but these are mostly used to help manage only the first type of sleep apnea, which is the obstructive sleep apnea. The most commonly recommended sleep apnea machine is called the Respironics or Resmed. There has been a new model released called the Resmed S9 Elite CPAP machine. A continuous positive airway pressure machine, such as these, comes with a mask that the patient wears, where the pressure is exerted to keep the airways open throughout the night.

Continuous positive airway pressure simply means that the pressure of the air you breathe is higher than the normal air. This should be effective in keeping the airways open and free from obstructions which might keep you from breathing properly. This works well as long as you are able to keep the mask in place while you sleep. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that this will happen, especially if the individual happens to move a lot while sleeping.

A more sophisticated variety of the CPAP sleep apnea machine uses varying levels of pressure, depending on whether the person is breathing in or breathing out. In theory, this will work better and it’s much more comfortable to use. However, the problems remain the same in that there is still no guarantee that the mask will stay in place the entire time that the person is sleeping. There are CPAP pillows to help make this more comfortable for the patient.