If you or someone you know suffers from sleep apnea—a condition characterized by snoring during sleep, occasional pauses in breathing, daytime hypersomnolence and elevated blood pressure levels—recent advances in technology have just made treating the condition a little bit easier.

Traditional remedies for sleep apnea involve the use of “positive pressure treatment”—also commonly known as Nasal CPAP—which includes a mask that a snorer wears over his or her nose that allows unobstructed breathing and maintains oxygen levels during sleep (and it eliminates snoring!).

In August of 1998, Sleep—The Journal for Sleep and Sleep Disorders Research published the results of a study that compared Nasal CPAP devices to a new type of positive air pressure machine—an “Auto-PAP”—that automatically adjusts the amount of air pressure that a patient needs to allow him or herself to breathe comfortably during sleep. The results are significant and point unmistakeably to the next wave of treatment for sleep apnea: the Auto-PAP was just as effective in eliminating sleep disordered breathing as the traditional CPAP—but it did it at a mean pressure level which was 26% below what was required by the CPAP.

What’s it all mean? The Auto-PAP is going to be a much more comfortable machine for patients to use—in both the near and long terms—improving compliance, and also quite possibly significantly reducing the need for conventional sleep studies. For more information on this exciting new device, please contact The Dream Doctor by e-mail at autopap@dreamdoctor.com.