• In the obstructive form of the condition, your breathing stops because the soft tissues of the throat relax, blocking the air passages and preventing air from flowing into the lungs.
• In the central form, the part of the brain that usually signals the muscles responsible for breathing fails to send the required signals, thus stopping your breathing.
CPAP/BIPAP apnea machines are highly effective at treating both these forms of the condition.
With both types of sleep apnea, your sleep cycle gets disrupted. The lack of oxygen eventually causes your brain to bring you out of deep sleep and resume breathing. While it may not fully awaken you, it does affect the amount of sleep you get. The body requires a certain amount of uninterrupted deep sleep each night in order to function properly. With this condition, that deep sleep is constantly being interrupted, and this adversely affects your body.
The exact mechanism by which each type of this condition affects your breathing plays a role in determining the way each is treated.
CPAP
When it comes to the obstructive form of the condition, one of the key identifying symptoms is loud snoring accompanied by occasional chokes and gasps. This is because the muscles controlling the soft tissue surrounding the throat have relaxed, blocking the passage of air and also causing the snoring. CPAP, otherwise known as Continuous Positive Airway Pressure, describes the method of keeping the air pressure outside your airway higher than it is inside of it, thus helping to drive air past the obstruction in your throat.
CPAP equipment consists of a small unit containing a motor. The motor takes in the surrounding air and pushes it through a tube to a mask that you wear, generating the higher pressure necessary for the treatment to be effective. While it may sound like this machine will take up a lot of space, many of the newer models are even smaller than your regular kitchen toaster. You will need to set the machine to generate the appropriate amount of pressure, and this differs from individual to individual. Some of the more advanced models also allow for a timed pressure increase, so that you can fall asleep with a lower pressure that is more comfortable and the machine will slowly ramp up the pressure to the level that you require as you fall into a deeper sleep.
BIPAP
BIPAP treatments are targeted towards the central type of this condition. It functions in almost exactly the same way as a CPAP machine does, except that it does not keep up a stead pressure. Instead, the machine varies the pressure according to whether you are inhaling or exhaling, lowering the pressure when you are exhaling to make it easier and more natural to do so.
Effective Treatment
No matter whether you have the obstructive or central form of sleep apnea, CPAP/BIPAP sleep treatment machines can help to alleviate the symptoms, allowing you to get the rest that your body requires to function properly.
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