Sixty percent of sleep apnea patients show a positional effect i.e., have tow or more times the rate of apneic events per hour of sleep when supine decubitus as when lateral. There are two non- invasive treatments that have been shown to be effective for the positional patient: a sleep position monitor and alarm which emits and auditory signal when the patient remains in supine sleep for more than 15 seconds and a mechanical device that hold the tongue in a forward position by suction to prevent its retrolapse during supine sleep, (The Tongue Retaining Device, TRD) The aim of this study is to test the effectiveness of these two treatments singly and in combination for positional sleep apneic patients in a randomly assigned four group design with the fourth being a Good Health Habits Control Group. Morbidity measure being tracked over an eight week treatment program include blood pressure, weight, excessive daytime sleepiness by self and spouse report, depressive mood, marital satisfaction and snoring as well as frequency of apneic and hypopneic events by polysomnography, average length of apneic events, sleep efficiency index, number and duration of denaturation episodes, number of episodes below 85% SaO2 and cumulative sleep time in denaturation with and without treatment in place.
| Cartwright, R D; Diaz, F; Lloyd, S (1991) The effects of sleep posture and sleep stage on apnea frequency. Sleep 14:351-3 |
| Cartwright, R; Ristanovic, R; Diaz, F et al. (1991) A comparative study of treatments for positional sleep apnea. Sleep 14:546-52 |
