My Life and Sleep Apnea

The most common treatment for sleep apnea is using a CPAP machine where air is pushed through a tube into your throat to keep your airway open. While it sounds rather simple there are quite a few issues that are involved with this process with the biggest being the comfort of wearing a mask at night and having air forced into your throat. Not everyone can get used to the mask but many do. What does get a little tricky is how much air pressure is taken through the mask. This is called titration. If you think that you have sleep apnea your first step should be to your general practitioner who will send you on to a sleep specialist, who are typically ENTs or pulmonologists (respiratory doctors). If the sleep specialist thinks that you may have sleep apnea then they will set up a sleep study which will determine whether you have sleep apnea or not. In my case the first sleep study was just to determine if I had sleep apnea whereas some folks have a split study where the second half...

Each sleep apnea patient has their cpap setting determined usually at the sleep clinic. Its there they adjust the air pressure coming out of the cpap machine through the hose and into your mouth or nose (depending on which type of mask you have). The pressure ranges from 4 cm h20 to 20 cm h20. I know that doesn’t tell very much. But 4 cm h20 is on the low end of the scale whereas 20 cm h20 is the most powerful. This is all measured by the cpap manometer. On cpap machines, like other sleep apnea breathing machines, the air pressure is ramped up. Which means that when you first put the mask on the pressure is slight and over a period of time it gradually becomes full strength. This makes the breathing adjustment a little easier. Can you adjust the volume of air pressure at home? I was told no because the pressure has to be set by a technician who is familiar with the machine. Usually your doctor will send someone to your house and show you how to run the machine and they will set th...