How does a CPAP machine work?
Continuous Positive Airway Pressure or CPAP therapy works by creating positive air pressure within the back of the throat preventing airway collapse and apnea. This positive pressure pushes out on the walls of the throat, creating an “air splint” within the airway in much the same way that air pressure within a balloon pushes out on the walls of the balloon preventing it from collapsing.

Sleep Apnea: A treatable disorder in which a person stops breathing during sleep, often hundreds of times during the night.

Sleep apnea is a common disorder that affects millions of men, women, and children but is often undiagnosed, despite the potentially serious consequences of the disorder. It is estimated that at least ten million Americans have unrecognized sleep apnea.

There are three different types of apnea: obstructive, central, or mixed (a combination of obstructive and central). Obstructive  sleep apnea is the most common.

Usually the soft tissue in the rear of the throat collapses and closes the airways so that sufferers of sleep apnea stop breathing repeatedly during sleep, as frequently as a hundred times an hour and often for a minute or longer.

Risk Factors for sleep apnea include a family history of sleep apnea, excess weight, a large neck, a recessed chin, male sex, abnormalities in the structure of the upper airway, ethnicity (African-Americans, Pacific Islanders, and Mexicans), smoking, and alcohol use. Yet sleep apnea can affect both males and females of all ages, including children, and of any weight.