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If you are familiar with sleep apnea, you should know that sleep apnea is generally classified into three types: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), Central sleep apnea (CSA), and Complex sleep apnea (CompSA). Regardless of the variations, they all share one thing in common, disrupting your ability to get a proper quality sleep. Read to find out more about how the different sleep apnea types that can be treated with the use of a CPAP Machine.

If sleep apnea sounds foreign to you, it is a sleep disorder whereby breathing becomes abnormal during sleep, preventing a quality sleep. Regardless of the amount of sleep that people with sleep apnea get, they tend to still feel tired as their body might not have reach stages of deep sleep to refresh the body. This is similar and can be compared to long naps during a long flight, where passengers are likely to still feel tired afterwards.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Obstructive sleep apnea is known to be the most common type of sleep apnea. It is a sleep disorder whereby soft tissues within the mouth and throat expands and relaxes during sleep. This causes relaxed muscles which block the airway, lowering blood oxygen in the body. Throughout the night, people who experience obstructive sleep apnea tend to wake up several times gasping for air, thus affecting their quality of sleep. One common symptom observed include loud snoring that can be heard from another room.

Central Sleep Apnea

Central sleep apnea is a type of sleep apnea that is less common, and most often caused by medical conditions that directly affects the brain. Central sleep apnea also stems from a lack of oxygen in the body. However, the lack of oxygen is not caused by relaxed muscles like its OSA counterpart. Instead, in CSA, the brain fails to send signals to breathe to the body. As such, people who experience CSA often experience waking up with a shortness of breath that goes away after being in a sitting position.

Complex Sleep Apnea

Complex sleep apnea was only discovered in 2006, after researchers found that CPAP therapy for what they thought was OSA patients were not completely effective. Complex sleep apnea is actually a combination of both OSA and CSA, and treatment options available are still at experimental and developmental stages.

CPAP Therapy

CPAP therapy is most common and effective treatment for patients experiencing OSA. CPAP machines work by introducing a constant amount of airflow from machine into your mask, which helps to keep airways open and thus maintain a normal blood oxygen level.

Although CSA treatment options slightly differ from OSA, CPAP therapy is also still the most common treatment for patients.

As for CompSA patients, most doctors today use CPAP machines at low settings for treatment to prevent too much stress on their system.

Whether you are looking for CPAP machines, CPAP cleaners and sanitizers or other medical equipment, Patient Solutions is here for you. Visit our page to find out more.