Sleep Apnea Treatment Home > Apnea Treatment

The Most Asked Apnea Treatment Question

What You Should Know About Apnea Therapy Devices

Isaac DeMers said "Sitting on the exam table, I could hear the doctor explaining my choices for apnea treatment. From what I could tell it came down to a machine, a mouthpiece or a knife."

"In my mind I was asking 'Isn't there another way of treating apnea?' as none of those sounded like a trip to Disneyland."

You can understand Isaac's dilemma can't you? Yet sleep apnea is not a condition to be taken lightly. When your body is experiencing an acute lack of oxygen due to breathing lapses of 10 seconds of longer you need to do something about it. Even if none of the proposed apnea treatments sound like a day at the beach.

In most cases, treating obstructive sleep apnea will involve a prescription for a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure or Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure machine.

What's the difference?

Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure or BPAP for short delivers one level of air pressure for breathing in and little or no pressure when exhaling. While the more common Continuous Positive Airway Pressure or CPAP blows air at a constant rate.

Since there really isn't an apnea cure, comfort is the key for the long haul. Besides if you aren't comfortable with your apnea treatment option you probably won't stick with it. You just won't persist with either type of machine long enough to adjust to wearing the mask at night.

Did You Know? During the day when you're awake the muscles in your neck hold the airways open so you can breathe. However after you fall asleep those muscles relax. Your throat closes in which can cause snoring as the tissue vibrates. Should the throat close up, now you're talking apnea. Oxygen levels in the body falls. The brain fires up and send out the alarm. The stress hormone adrenaline is pumped into your blood stream. You wake up momentarily, gulp down a breath and go back to sleep. Or not.

Finally if you go with a Bilevel machine, you should be aware it uses about 50% more electricity since the motor is alternating between a slower speed when you're exhaling and a faster speed as you inhale. Not that this is likely to affect your choice of equipment used for sleep apnea treatment. But it is something to keep in mind.

» Stop Snoring

» Snoring Treatment

» Apnea Treatment

» CPAP Machine

» CPAP Mask

» Sleep Apnea