How to Reprogram a BiPAP

Everything truly is better with a good night's sleep. Each year brings new medical revelations as to how a restorative sleep is essential in maintaining good health. But for millions of people, finding that night's sleep requires mechanical help through the use of sleep machines.



While these machines, which deliver pressurized air through a breathing tube and facial mask, are prescribed for a number of aliments that interfere with quality sleep cycles, their most common use is in treating sleep apnea, characterized by numerous episodes where the muscles in the back of the throat relax and close throughout the night, obstructing airway flow.



With a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine, pressurized air keeps the back of the throat open during the night. However, some patients who need a high CPAP pressure find they have difficulty exhaling against a steady pressure. "BiPaP "stands for BiLevel Positive Airway Pressure. BiPAP machines are also called BiLevel and VPAP machines, these machines can be set to one pressure for inhaling and another for exhaling. The greater pressure on the incoming breath will help the breathing process but patients will not suffer the discomfort--and disturbance in sleep--from having to exhale against the same setting. The machines can also benefit other lung conditions that cause breathing difficulties, such as asthma and pulmonary inefficiency.



The ultimate goal with CPAP and BiPap therapy is to create sound sleep with fewer than five sleep apnea events per hour. This is dependent on the amount of air pressure going into the tube, but that need can be deceiving since optimal pressure needs depend on all sorts of factors--everything from a heavy meal to whether or not it is allergy season or if you have gained or lost a few pounds--that can affect how a person reacts to his or her VPAP. When a person has a sleep study, those variables are taken into account and a sleep technician writes a prescription for setting a range of pressures that will work in an ideal way.



Many people need more than one sleep study to adjust the machine for optimal comfort. But, if for any number of reasons, from convenience to financial, another sleep study is not in the cards, it is possible to make modest changes to a BiPAP machine.

Things You'll Need

• notebook and pen

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Instructions

• 1

  Flip the cover, if there is one, to reveal the device's display and controls.

• 2

  Find the machine's "clinician" or "set-up" menu. For some machines, this means turning the power on while simultaneously pressing both the + and -- keys or by holding the "right" and "left" arrows. For others, a special button is already highlighted.

• 3

  Change only one variable at a time. Do not increase or decrease air pressure more than 0.5 cm/H2O at any one time. Other options may be to change the therapeutic time the machine is on or the amount of moisture a heated unit provides.

• 4

  Give each adjustment at least one week to see how it affects your overall quality of sleep.

• 5

  Keep a written sleep log of how you feel each morning, afternoon and evening. Note if you have a sense of increased or decreased daytime sleepiness, changes in energy level or mental alertness.