Is your partner's loud snoring keeping you awake at night? Do their frequent pauses in breathing and gasping for air when they start again making you afraid for their health? If so, it may be time to talk to your bed-partner about getting treatment for their snoring.

Approximately 20 million American adults suffer from sleep apnea, so it may not be much of a stretch to believe that your loved one may be one of them.

"There are naive questions, tedious questions, ill-phrased questions, questions put after inadequate self-criticism. But every question is a cry to understand the world. There is no such thing as a dumb question." – Carl Sagan.

When it comes to proper treatment for any health condition, patient education is often the most crucial aspect in compliance with therapy. Patients that are uninformed about their disorder and treatment options are among the first to quickly abandon therapy. It's sad to see patients go through the process of exploring their symptoms, seeking diagnosis, and getting set-up with treatment, only to discontinue treatment after a short time. And one of the biggest factors for patients quitting treatment is a lack of quality education from medical professionals about the necessity of continued therapy.

For a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine to be effective, it needs two things from you:

 

TRAVELING WITH SLEEP APNEA

With the annual Spring Break vacations right around the corner, the staff at the Alaska Sleep Clinic sees an influx of patients coming in asking questions such as “how do I travel when I have sleep apnea?”

We want to thank you for being a valued customer  of the Alaska Sleep Clinic. We work to supply and care for your CPAP and Sleep Therapy needs. The latest way Alaska Sleep Clinic is making sleep therapy easier for all of our patients is with a new customer support program we are now using for DME supplies. This service is free to the Alaska Sleep Customers.

How does it work?
You will be contacted by a “Sleep Coach” either by telephone, email, or text. The Sleep Coach will provide you with a reminder on when you are eligible to receive new CPAP equipment or supplies.

Alaska Sleep Clinic is proud to offer you our patients the latest way to power their CPAP machines off the grid...The Venture Volt Walkabout Lithium Battery Banks.

EXPION360 Power Bank

The most powerful portable battery bank, You'll never need anything else.

The EXPION360 Power Bank offers more portable power for its size than other devices on the market today for CPAP use. Imagine using your computer, charging your tablet, charging your smartphone, powering your sleep apnea machine,  communications equipment, ham radios, charging your drone, charging cameras, anywhere! In fact, the Venture Volt power bank has a cigarette lighter style 12v power port and can power just about anything with a 12v male power plug.  

Many people fear being able to sleep with a bulky CPAP mask and loud CPAP device, but this fear is unfounded. With the latest CPAP advancements, sleeping is not as bad as you may be imagining.

Unlike sleep disorders that are easier to diagnose and understand, central sleep apnea (CSA) can be baffling. CSA patients might not snore, may be at their ideal weight, and may have not had a history of sleep disorders yet still find themselves with the condition characterized by pauses in breathing many times during the night. Central sleep apnea is a neurological condition—in other words, the brain is not sending the correct signals to the respiratory system to keep breathing while the patient sleeps. Sometimes another medical condition causes CSA; sometimes, pain medication can lead to it; and sometimes, the apnea occurs for no known reason. Whatever the cause, treatments are available for central sleep apnea. Here five of the most effective ways to help the CSA patient:

Central Sleep Apnea Treatments

1. Treating the medical condition that is also causing central sleep apnea. Congestive heart failure or the aftermath of a stroke can interfere with night-time breathing and lead to CSA. The solution here is simple: Treat the heart failure or the stroke and the apnea will likely subside.
2. Cutting back or eliminating the use of opiods. Studies have proved that more powerful pain medications such as morphine, codeine and oxycodone can cause central sleep apnea. Reducing the dosage or not taking them altogether can help, but discussing this option with your doctor and with a sleep specialist is important. Pain medications do just that—help with pain, and trying to fix the apnea might not be worth additional suffering when you are awake.
3. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). More commonly associated with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a CPAP device can also help CSA sufferers, particularly those who are recovering from heart failure. With this treatment, the patient wears a mask that continuously delivers a constant pressure of air to the lungs, thus countering any inclination the body might have to pause breathing.
4. Bilevel positive airway pressure (BPAP). This is another treatment used for OSA sufferers that can be effective for central sleep apnea patients. Similar to a CPAP mask, a BPAP device adjusts the amount of air delivered to the lungs depending on whether the patient is inhaling or exhaling.
5. Adaptive servo-ventilation (ASV). Yet another device that uses a mask, ASV goes one step further by continuously detecting and adjusting to the patient’s breathing needs and delivering the correct amount of oxygen. If the user is breathing fine, the device reduces the air it provides. It the patient’s breathing begins to pause, ASV increases the oxygen.
6. Phrenic Nerve Stimulation.  Phrenic Nerve Stimulation is a new FDA-approved therapy for moderate to severe central sleep apnea in adult patients.  Phrenic nerve stimulation is delivered by a pacemaker-like implantable device that stimulates a nerve in the chest (phrenic nerve) to send signals to the diaphragm to control breathing.  It monitors respiratory signals while you sleep and helps restore normal breathing patterns. Because the device is implantable and turns on automatically during sleep, it does not require wearing a mask.

   
   

   Phrenic nerve stimulation allows normal breathing to resume by stabilizing carbon dioxide, preventing apneic events and the subsequent period of rapid breathing.

   
   

    

   
   

   Of course, the most effective treatment will vary from patient to patient, so discussing these options with a sleep specialist is crucial in determining how best to alleviate central sleep apnea.

  A new pregnancy is exciting and brings with it the classic discussions about morning sickness, food cravings, and having that "special glow."