Circadiance Blog

If you're reading this, then you probably know what Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is. You might have been suffering for years, recently diagnosed, and you are looking for treatment.

Using CPAP during a public health emergency like the COVID-19 pandemic means navigating potential infection risks posed through a process called AGP or aerosol generating procedure, of which CPAP is an example. To this end, we have compiled the most effective approaches that address the three scenarios of concern that are most often voiced by patients during the pandemic.

Side effects of living with CPAP can include skin irritation, nose or mouth dryness, insomnia, aerophagia, claustrophobia, and altered facial anatomy growth in children. Most of these are common problems that can be prevented by making the right choice of mask and keeping up with your follow up visits both to your provider and for follow up titration studies.

You’ve already beaten the odds. By completing your sleep apnea studies and successfully starting constant positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy, you have achieved what the undiagnosed 80% of sleep apneics, and the 50% of those remaining who can’t comply with treatment, have not: you’re in the top 10% of CPAP compliance!¹

In a previous blog, we traced the roots of sleep medicine discoveries which serve as a basis for the future of the diagnosis and treatment for sleep disorders. We mapped the landscape of subspecialties that have developed the interdisciplinary field, and highlighted the discoveries made in each. This week we will describe the most promising trends for the future.

The airtight mask seal formed by SleepWeaver CPAP masks is recognized and approved by the USPTO.

Sleep Medicine is a broadly integrative field covering much of the human body and mind including the pulmonary, endocrine, respiratory, muscular and nervous systems. This means that many specialties make up sleep medicine, including...

It's Sleep Technologist Appreciation Week and Respiratory Care Week! That means it's time to share appreciation for RT and sleep tech healthcare heroes around the world and especially those who have helped us individually. For today's blog, we decided to show our appreciation by giving techs and RTs in the care and management of patients with sleep apnea a resource center to promote patient compliance with CPAP treatment!

Standard care for Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is providing a CPAP box, hose, mask and some basic education. This is expected to jump start the gold standard treatment of CPAP therapy for a lifetime. The problem with this “one-size fits all” approach is that it mirrors interventions for an acute illness (e.g., prescribing a cast followed by physical therapy education for a broken bone), which is characterized by abrupt or rapid onset, limited duration, and a single cause (usually). But OSA is a chronic illness characterized by gradual onset of lengthy or indefinite duration, multivariate causation (which can change over time), and a focus on functional status rather than individual diagnoses; moreover, cure is unlikely and long-term management of symptoms and disease consequences necessitated a “long-view” of treatment.

SleepWeaver got its start in 2006, when David Groll, the company’s founder, first pinpointed the problems inherent in existing PAP interface designs. Having developed, manufactured and sold medical devices for over 30 years, and equipped with a formal post-secondary education in Biomedical Engineering with a Master’s degree in Manufacturing Systems Engineering, he was well versed in the needs of mask users—and he could see that the decades-old plastic technology was not really serving those needs. He noticed two problems with traditional masks: the air pressure required to seal the mask on the face compromised the blood flow to the skin, and moisture build up on the skin, both of which lead to skin discomfort and promote mask non-adherence.