CPAP and Apnea

Okay, for those of you that are curious in the CPAP and sleep apnea I've gathered some information from the web for you. Basically (so you don't have to read the whole thing) sleep apnea is what happens when I wake up constantly because my muscles relax so much I don't breathe anymore. To correct this I use a CPAP. CPAP stands for "continuous positive airway pressure." Basically it's a machine that pushes a constant passage of air through your system (nose). The American Sleep Apnea Association (ASAA) recomends the use of a CPAP machine for people with sleep apnea so that their airway can't collapse.
From here on out, it's web information so read when you have time:

CPAP is a treatment that uses slightly pressurized air throughout the breathing cycle. This makes it easier to breathe and get more air. CPAP can be used by mouth, by nose, or through ventilation tubes. Nasal CPAP is given through a mask that is placed and secured over the person's nose or nose and mouth. Slight positive pressure is used to increase the amount of air breathed in without increasing the work of breathing.
Sleep apnea: A temporary suspension of breathing occurring repeatedly during sleep that often affects overweight people or those having an obstruction in the breathing tract, an abnormally small throat opening, or a neurological disorder.
Symptoms of central sleep apnea include cessation of breathing during sleep, often causing frequent awakenings and complaints of insomnia. In central sleep apnea, breathing patterns may also be disrupted during wakefulness. Other symptoms may relate to the underlying neurological condition affecting the brainstem, and may include difficulty swallowing, change in voice, or limb weakness and numbness.
Normally, muscles in the upper throat keep this part of the airway open, allowing air to enter the lungs. Although these muscles relax somewhat during sleep, they retain enough tone to keep the passage open. If the passage is narrow, relaxation of throat muscles during sleep can obstruct, or block, the passage and hinder or prevent air from flowing into the lungs.
Individuals with obstructive sleep apnea may have airway obstruction because of excessive relaxation of throat muscles or because of an already narrowed passage.
Because many patients with obstructive sleep apnea have no major structural defects in the airway and are not obese, other factors such as disordered control of ventilation and changes in lung volume during sleep may play a role in causing the condition.
Soon after falling asleep, the patient with obstructive sleep apnea typically begins snoring heavily. The snoring continues for some time and may become louder before the apnea, during which breathing stops for 10–60 seconds. A loud snort or gasp ends the apnea, followed by more snoring in a recurrent pattern. Decreased oxygen level in the blood during the apneas may cause decreased alertness and other symptoms, while disturbance of the sleep pattern at night may cause daytime drowsiness.