What is Sleep Apnea and How Can CPAP Machines Help?

Brian Acton

Sleep apnea is a common disorder that restricts your breathing while you sleep, affecting the quality of your sleep and alertness while awake. It can also lead to more serious consequences, increasing your risk of developing other health conditions.

What is Sleep Apnea?

Types of Sleep Apnea

Sleep apnea is a condition in which breathing is interrupted while you sleep, rather than continuing normally. There are two main types of sleep apnea:

• Obstructive sleep apnea, the most common form, occurs when the upper airway becomes blocked as you sleep, restricting your airflow or cutting it off completely.
• Central sleep apnea occurs when your brain doesn’t send signals to the muscles that initiate breathing.

With obstructive sleep apnea, your throat muscles relax and cause your airway to narrow or close when you breathe. Your body can’t get enough air and the oxygen levels in your blood lower. When your brain detects you aren’t breathing, it will wake you up to reopen your airway, but you might not know anything happened. This may cause you to choke, gasp, or snort several times an hour and prevent you from reaching the most restful stages of sleep.

With central sleep apnea, the brain fails to send signals to your muscles to breathe, meaning your body won’t attempt to breathe for a short period of time. You may awaken with shortness of breath or have difficulty falling and staying asleep.

Symptoms

Common symptoms of sleep apnea include morning headaches or dry mouth, chronic fatigue, lack of focus, irritability, and loud snoring.

Risk Factors

There are many factors that increase your risk of developing obstructive sleep apnea. These include being older, male, overweight, having high blood pressure, having a narrow throat, alcohol use, smoking, nasal congestion, and other medical conditions.

Factors that increase the risk of central sleep apnea include being older, male, having a heart disorder, using narcotic medications, and having had a stroke.

Complications

Sleep apnea can make your waking hours unpleasant, as a lack of quality sleep can cause constant tiredness, affect your ability to focus, and increase irritability. But sleep apnea can also contribute to several serious health conditions.

Sleep apnea can increase your risk for developing asthma, certain types of cancer, kidney disease, cognitive disorders, heart disease, eye disorders, metabolic disorders, and pregnancy complications.

Diagnosis

Your doctor may diagnose you with sleep apnea based on your symptoms, but you’ll probably be referred to a sleep specialist or sleep center for a sleep study. Sleep studies can be conducted on location at a sleep center or at home. They monitor your breathing, blood oxygen levels, and brain and heart activity overnight to determine if you have sleep apnea.

How CPAP Machines Treat Sleep Apnea

There are many treatments your doctor may prescribe for sleep apnea. These include healthy lifestyle changes, a breathing device such as a CPAP machine, a mouthpiece or implant. CPAP machines are the most commonly recommended treatment.

How CPAP Machines Work

CPAP machines use small motors to draw in room temperature air, pressurize it and deliver it to your airway via a hose and mask. This pressurized air creates a cushion that prevents your throat muscles from closing. Your breathing will normalize, your oxygen levels will remain steady, and you will get better sleep.

In the long term, CPAP machines can improve your sleep quality and decrease your risk of developing further negative health outcomes. But in the short term, getting used to a CPAP machine can be difficult, especially if you’re used to sleeping in a certain position or with a favorite pillow that doesn’t work so well with the machine.

Core Products offers specialized pillows that can help CPAP users get a comfortable night’s rest:

• The Core CPAP Pillow helps improve CPAP compliance by preventing air leaks and soreness at mask pressure points. The shape of the pillow allows the mask and hose to hang over the edge when the wearer sleeps on their side.
• The Tri-Core Ultimate Cervical Pillow is shaped like a traditional pillow, but has a distinct edge that allows the mask and hose to hang over the edge when the wearer sleeps on their side.

Sources:

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/sleep-apnea/symptoms-causes/syc-20377631

https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health-topics/sleep-apnea