subject: Info On How A Bipap Machine Works [print this page] In the 1980s the Continuous Positive Airway Pressure machine was the most popular machine to use for those people who were said to have sleep apnea. It was used to help people breath in their sleep. The BiPAP machine or Bi level Positive Airway Pressure machine was created to help sleep apnea patients through a noninvasive manner.
The machine is one that does not invade the body with tubes that go into the body via the nasal passage or down through the throat. The pressure of the air going into the lungs will increase when the person is suppose to breath in and when it is time to exhale the pressure will decrease. This is a very useful machine for those who have severe sleep apnea.
The BiPAP has the ability to set different pressures for inhaling and exhaling. It can do this itself because it will monitor the breathing of the person sleeping. It will calculate how many breaths a person takes each minute. When it notices that a breath has been missed the machine will then start up and increase the air pressure to force the person to breath.
The machine will monitor the sleeping person extremely close and will know immediately when they have missed a single breath and when it catches the missed breath it will force the person to breath.
When the sleeping person has taken their breath on their own the machine will then decrease the amount of pressure so that it will be easier for the person to do their exhaling from their lungs. All people of course differ and have their own breathing pattern, which at times is not the same each and every night. The machine has been programmed to easily adjust to the person and their breathing by adjusting the pressure. This procedure also helps a person to have a deeper nights sleep.
The BiPAP is a machine that runs very softly so as not to keep the person awake and is small enough to sit on a table by the bed of the person that is using it. This makes the experience completely noninvasive.
The machines can also come with humidifiers that are heated or not heated and will work along with the air pressure and the cycles the machine goes through. The patient can also choose to use a nasal pillow mask or a mask that covers most of the face. A person can get them with or without support for their chin as well.
If a person thinks they may need one of these machines it will normally mean that they first will need to be referred for a sleep study, the reason for this is that the doctor wants to make sure that it is sleep apnea that is keeping their patient awake. If the sleep study verifies it then the doctor will prescribe a BiPAP machine for their patient.
Even if the person thinks they might have sleep apnea their doctor is still going to want to perform a couple of tests on them before they suggest they join a sleep study. The will first perform a respiratory test that will gauge how large a capacity their lungs have and the other test called Forced Vital Capacity test will tell the doctor how deep of a breath their patient can take.
