Overview

Sleep Apnea is a complex disorder in which normal, healthy breathing is disturbed during sleep by physical restriction or obstruction (“blockage” or “partial blockage”) to airflow in the upper airway. The upper airway blockage can cause repetitive arousals from sleep, limit deep sleep, and can make oxygen levels in the bloodstream drop. Here in Colorado’s Front Range and Rocky Mountains, SA co-exists with varying degrees of central sleep apnea (CSA), a complicating factor that worsens with higher altitudes. Successful navigation of SA means keeping all this complexity in mind!

Health Consequences of SA

Experiencing obstructive breathing limitations while one sleeps is stressful! Remember: trying to breathe against a closed or a semi-closed airway is essentially choking. Obstructive events stimulate the sympathetic nervous system—“fight or flight”—repetitively, throughout the night. The nonspecific stress associated with sleep disruption and repetitive hypoxia lead to an increased risk for cardiovascular diseases, stroke, and cancer. Numerous health conditions are exacerbated by Sleep Apnea, and can improve when Sleep Apnea is treated.

“The Nose Rules”

An exciting emerging narrative in medicine has to do with the health benefits of habitual nasal breathing! This is another way of saying that we are learning more and more about how mouth-breathing is bad for us!

Mouth breathing tends to excite the sympathetic nervous system, which would be expected to contribute to symptoms of insomnia and anxiety. The open-mouth breathing posture predisposes to both obstructive sleep apnea and central sleep apnea. Mouth-breathing promotes periodontal disease and tooth decay. Mouth-breathing during exercise fatigues us faster. Mouth-breathing increases our vulnerability to viral infections. Mouth-breathing during childhood development contributes to cranio-facial under-development & dental malocclusion. The list goes on and on…

At Rebis, rest assured that we know The Nose Rules! All of us are passionate about helping every patient reap the benefits of healthy, effortless breathing through the nose, day and night!

The Rebis SA Treatment Approach

At Rebis, we recognize that for a complex problem like Sleep Apnea, there is no one-size-fits-all solution! The first step in exploring this complexity is to ask WHY you’re here in the first place!

See, the “WHY?” of treating Sleep Apnea is unique for each person who engages with it. Your Rebis provider will help you explore your “WHY?” using a collaborative complexity deconstruction tool called the Five Reasons to Treat, from the Empowered Sleep Apnea educational project.

Once you’ve figured out your “WHY?”, the next task is to figure out what you want to do! Here’s where it’s important to remember that SA is a complex problem, with “many moving parts”! The Rebis ecosystem is designed to allow each patient to consider the numerous options now available and make informed decisions that best meet their individual needs.

This just in: Emerging evidence suggests that CPAP at “too high for you” pressures is possibly pro-inflammatory. We call this kind of problem “Pressure Toxicity”—and we know how to solve it!! At Rebis, we’ll work with you to find the lowest effective setting for you, to keep your breathing healthy during sleep.

In the Rebis ecosystem:

• Hands-on Positive Airway Pressure (PAP) therapy clinic, staffed by licensed sleep technicians, all with a goal of finding the “lowest effective pressure”

• Virtual PAP clinic visits

• Individualized, home-based precision Positive Airway Pressure (PAP) titration with remote adherence monitoring

• Laboratory based PAP titration polysomnography testing

• Management options for treatment-emergent central sleep apnea (TECSA): low-pressure CPAP plus supplemental O2; adaptive servo-ventilation (ASV),

• Custom mandibular‑advancement devices (also known as “oral appliance therapy”)

• Airway‑focused dentistry & myofunctional therapy

• Integrative medicine approaches to anti‑inflammatory nutrition and weight‑optimization

• Supine position-avoidance therapy

• Nasal breathing rehabilitation and optimization

Benefits of Treatment

The potential benefits of treating Sleep Apnea can be mapped to each of your Five Reasons to Treat, allowing you and your provider to determine if what we’re doing to address your “WHY?” is actually working! Not satisfied with your experience yet? This structured review will help you and your provider focus on the issues that matter most to you!