Patent ID: 7697990

Claim:
A method of treating sleep disordered breathing comprising the steps of: implanting a device in a patient, determining the likelihood of said patient being asleep, delivering treatment so as to prevent airway collapse if said patient is likely to be asleep, determining the presence of an obstruction in said patient's airway, and if an obstruction is present increasing said treatment until said obstruction is no longer present, wherein said device includes a stimulator for providing electrical stimulation to afferent nerves, a postural sensor to sense said patient's postural state, a real time clock, and a detector to detect transthoracic impedance changes by 1) emitting high frequency electrical pulses to traverse the transthoracic cavity, 2) calculating instantaneous transthoracic impedance across said transthoracic cavity, and 3) comparing said instantaneous transthoracic impedance to a recent average of instantaneous transthoracic impedances, said treatment comprises operating said stimulator to apply electrical stimulation to afferent nerves, said presence of an obstruction is determined by detecting a change in transthoracic impedance, and the likelihood of said patient being asleep is determined based upon the time of day as identified by said real time clock together with the patient's postural state as sensed by said postural sensor.