Shabbat & CPAP

I’m a Sleep Medicine physician and have a lot of religious patients. Many of them are Shomer Shabbat and refrain from electronics, including a CPAP machine, on Shabbat. As a physician, I understand that saving a life is permissible on Shabbat and though treating Sleep Apnea is important and has real life expectancy influences, I wouldn’t say that missing it one day a week is so bad as long as this was not a rare case of VERY severe issues.

My question, however is that a typical person with untreated Sleep Apnea of a fairly standard variety, will gasp and have bouts of respiratory distress several times an hour. Most of the episodes are not consciously recognized by the sufferer, but untreated Sleep Apnea causes the body to work much harder at night. Blood testing confirms elevated cortisol levels (the stress hormone) and blood pressure and heart rate go up during such events. Therefore, wouldn’t untreated Sleep Apnea on Shabbat be like making the body work considerably on the day of rest? Isn’t the operation of electronics a small sacrifice to putting the body under significant duress?

Thanks