what causes central and obstructive sleep apnea?
Patient: My husband has central and obstructive sleep apnea and uses a V-Pap machine. He still thrashes around at night (kicks and punches) and gets headaches and has episodes of confusion. He has had his heart checked...no congestive heart failure and his brain CAT scanned....no reason can be found for the apnea (idiopathic). Is there anything else that can help him? Doctor: His settings may not yet be optimized.  You should communicate with the doctor responsible for ordering the settings so they can be readjusted. He may need another sleep study if it's been a while. Central sleep apnea results from some form of damage to the central control mechanism for sleep following stroke, traumatic brain injury, intracranial brain bleeds, infections, hydrocephalus, etc. Obstructive sleep apnea refers to anything within the physical airway that blocks the natural and unimpeded flow of air into or out of the system. Usually these can be easily found and corrected either by surgery, weight loss or other simple maneuvers. Fixing central controls, however, remains extremely challenging.