For over 18 million people, sleep doesn't always come easy. Most of us get to lay our heads down on our comfy pillows and drift off to sleep without any problems; but for some, being comfortable is not an option. Most people have heard about sleep apnea and the fact that it is caused by the soft palate collapsing, which can cause a person to stop breathing. What most people don't know about however is the lack of comfortable treatment methods for those who have the condition.
It is helpful to know a little bit more about this sleep condition so that the treatments can fully be understood. As noted, people who have sleep apnea often stop breathing in their sleep when the soft palate collapses. A person can go several years without even realizing they have sleep apnea, especially if they live alone. This is because the number one sign that a person could possibly have sleep apnea aside from momentarily not breathing is excessive and loud snoring. Unless you live with another person who vocalizes how loud and disturbing the snoring is, a person might not ever realize that their snoring is that bad. It has been found out that sleep apnea tends to affect those more who are either obese, getting up there in age or a combination of both. Medical professionals expect that as the current generation of adults start to age, that they are going to continue to see a steady rise of patients who develop sleep apnea.
The current and most common treatment for the sleep disorder seems to be the use of CPAP, which stands for "continuous positive airway pressure". The unfortunate side to this treatment is that it requires wearing a large and uncomfortable mask to bed every night. Patients seem to agree that the mask is so bulky and uncomfortable that only around half of people who are prescribed one actually use it as they are supposed to. Diagnosis of the disorder is commonly made by admitting a person to a hospital or sleep study center overnight and observing their sleeping patterns and their breathing. Luckily, most insurance companies cover sleep apnea testing these days, but it was found out that if you have to pay out of pocket, the test can run around $1,000.00.
While new medical advances are constantly being made, there has not been much done in the way of new treatments for sleep apnea. The one thing that is being done however is that companies who make the masks are trying to come up with ones that fit more comfortably so that patients will have no problems wearing them. That is the only apnea treatment trend that seems to be in the works and reasonable. For more on advances in sleep apnea and treatments for other health conditions, see http://www.theinternettimemachine.com.