Sleep apnea is the repeated cessation of breathing during sleep, sometimes hundreds of times during the night and often for a minute or longer. If left untreated, sleep apnea may cause high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, memory, and weight problems. The resulting lack of restful sleep may also be responsible for job impairment and motor vehicle accidents.

A main treatment option is the use of a Positive Airway Pressure (PAP) machine. The patient wears a mask that uses pressure to send air flowing through the nasal passages so they don’t collapse and cause breathing to cease. There are three main categories of PAPs (in order of complexity/cost):

• CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) provides a constant pressure to the patient. This positive pressure keeps the throat from collapsing during sleep and allows the patient to breathe freely without worry of episodes of non-breathing.
• Auto-PAP (Automatic Positive Airway Pressure) measures the resistance in a patient’s breathing. The amount of continuous pressure delivered to the patient is then automatically tuned to the minimum required to maintain an unobstructed airway on a breath-by-breath basis.
• Bilevel-PAP (Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure) provides two levels of pressure: IPAP (Inspiratory Positive Airway Pressure) and a lower EPAP (Expiratory Positive Airway Pressure).