If You’re Unhappy with Your Current CPAP Mask There are Plenty of AlternativesFor anyone with sleep apnea, CPAPs are a way of life. CPAP machines treat sleep apnea and allow people with sleep apnea to sleep normally. Since the CPAP machine must be used every night, it is important to have CPAP masks which are comfortable. Fortunately there are a wide variety of masks available.Full Face Masks and Nasal MasksCPAP masks comes in two major varieties. There are full face masks, which cover the nose and mouth, and there are nasal masks that only cover the nose. Which one is necessary varies on a patient to patient basis, dependent on their nighttime breathing patterns. If the patient occasionally or frequently breathes through his or her mouth while sleeping, a full face mask will probably be necessary. On the other hand, if the patient only breathes through his or her nose during sleep, then a nasal mask would probably be the best option.Full face masks and nasal masks function the same way, full face masks simply cover the patient’s mouth in addition to covering his or her nose. However, because they are smaller, nasal masks tend to be more comfortable. Given the option between a CPAP full face mask and a CPAP nasal mask, most patients would pick a nasal mask.Hard Plastic Masks and Cloth MasksWhile many CPAP masks are hard plastic, these usually aren’t the most comfortable. There are several variations available to provide CPAP users the ability to find a mask that they find comfortable. Hard plastic masks with gel pads on them are one option. The gel pads are on the part of the mask which comes into contact with the face, and this makes the mask more comfortable by dispersing some of the pressure between the mask and the user’s face.Cloth masks are another option. These masks are made of cloth instead of being made of hard plastic. Since they are made of a softer material, they are less bulky. Also they can be more comfortable for patients who sleep on their side, because of their malleability.Nasal PillowsNose pillows are a popular option among many CPAP users. Nose pillows are a type of nasal mask which involves small cloth nasal pillows which go over the user’s nose. The patient can breathe through these plugs because they are porous enough to allow air to pass through them. Because there is not an actual mask covering the nose, many people find these to be the most comfortable.There are Many Options to Chose from when Looking for a CPAP MaskWhether a patient prefers a full face mask or nasal pillows, there are plenty of options available for everyone. If you or someone you know is unhappy with their CPAP mask, check out some of the other options. You’ll be surprised what you can find.
Have you ever noticed how often snoring is used to get a laugh on TV sitcoms and cartoons? Actually, thereâ??s nothing funny about it. Snoring is a serious medical and social problem that can cause social ridicule, sleeplessness, and a host of serious health problems including obstructive sleep apnea. 25% of adults snore habitually. And without treatment, it doesnâ??t get any better. While overweight males are at the greatest risk, women are not immune, and the problem only grows worse as we age.
Why Do We Snore?
Snoring occurs when the passages at the back of the mouth and nose do not have a free flow of air. This is called â??obstructionâ?? and usually occurs when the soft tissues in that area collapse during sleep, causing the tongue to meet briefly with the soft palate (top part of your mouth in the back) and the uvula (the â??bellâ?? in the back of your throat). The vibrations are what cause the snoring sound.
Snorers may also suffer from:
· Poor oral muscle tone. Relaxed tongue and throat muscles can cut off airflow. Deep sleep, alcohol and sleep medications can contribute to poor muscle tone.
· Large tonsils and adenoids. Excess throat tissue can cause snoring. This is why children sometimes snore. Being overweight can cause excess neck tissue, which is why snoring is more common in overweight individuals. Rarely, a cyst or tumors can be the problem.
· Long uvula and/or soft palate. Individuals with a â??long palateâ?? have a narrower opening between the nose and throat that can create noise during the relaxed breathing of deep sleep. A longer than normal uvula worsens the situation.
· Nasal airway obstruction. Stuffy noses do not have a free flow of air. The extra effort it takes to breathe through a stuffed up nose creates a strong pull on floppy throat tissues, causing a snoring sound. That is why some people experience snoring only during hay fever attacks, a cold or a sinus infection.
· Nose or nasal septum deformities, such as a deviated septum, can cause obstruction.
Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA)
Obstructive sleep apnea often begins with snoring, but can be far more serious. Obstructive sleep apnea occurs when snoring is punctuated by long absences of sound lasting ten seconds or more that can happen up to 300 times per night. This lack of sound means the individual is not breathing in between bursts of snoring. Health risks are great and include low blood oxygen levels that make the heart work much harder to bring oxygen to the blood.
Individuals affected with sleep apnea sleep lightly and cannot relax deeply enough to allow sufficient airflow to the lungs. The snorer is left with night after night of poor rest, as well as:
· Daytime sleepiness
· Increased mood swings
· Depression
· Impaired job performance
· Hazardous driving, especially if the individual operates heavy equipment
· Elevated blood pressure
· Enlargement of the heart
Have you ever noticed how often snoring is used to get a laugh on TV sitcoms and cartoons? Actually, thereâ??s nothing funny about it. Snoring is a serious medical and social problem that can cause social ridicule, sleeplessness, and a host of serious health problems including obstructive sleep apnea. 25% of adults snore habitually. And without treatment, it doesnâ??t get any better. While overweight males are at the greatest risk, women are not immune, and the problem only grows worse as we age.
Why Do We Snore?
Snoring occurs when the passages at the back of the mouth and nose do not have a free flow of air. This is called â??obstructionâ?? and usually occurs when the soft tissues in that area collapse during sleep, causing the tongue to meet briefly with the soft palate (top part of your mouth in the back) and the uvula (the â??bellâ?? in the back of your throat). The vibrations are what cause the snoring sound.
Snorers may also suffer from:
· Poor oral muscle tone. Relaxed tongue and throat muscles can cut off airflow. Deep sleep, alcohol and sleep medications can contribute to poor muscle tone.
· Large tonsils and adenoids. Excess throat tissue can cause snoring. This is why children sometimes snore. Being overweight can cause excess neck tissue, which is why snoring is more common in overweight individuals. Rarely, a cyst or tumors can be the problem.
· Long uvula and/or soft palate. Individuals with a â??long palateâ?? have a narrower opening between the nose and throat that can create noise during the relaxed breathing of deep sleep. A longer than normal uvula worsens the situation.
· Nasal airway obstruction. Stuffy noses do not have a free flow of air. The extra effort it takes to breathe through a stuffed up nose creates a strong pull on floppy throat tissues, causing a snoring sound. That is why some people experience snoring only during hay fever attacks, a cold or a sinus infection.
· Nose or nasal septum deformities, such as a deviated septum, can cause obstruction.
Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA)
Obstructive sleep apnea often begins with snoring, but can be far more serious. Obstructive sleep apnea occurs when snoring is punctuated by long absences of sound lasting ten seconds or more that can happen up to 300 times per night. This lack of sound means the individual is not breathing in between bursts of snoring. Health risks are great and include low blood oxygen levels that make the heart work much harder to bring oxygen to the blood.
Individuals affected with sleep apnea sleep lightly and cannot relax deeply enough to allow sufficient airflow to the lungs. The snorer is left with night after night of poor rest, as well as:
· Daytime sleepiness
· Increased mood swings
· Depression
· Impaired job performance
· Hazardous driving, especially if the individual operates heavy equipment
· Elevated blood pressure
· Enlargement of the heart
Snoring can be more than annoying to your bed partner. It can mean you have a serious health problem. This is because snoring may be a sign of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Millions of Americans suffer from OSA, and millions of people who snore – and those who share their bed – seek out over-the-counter medications to alleviate this problem. The problem is rarely fixed, and the suffering continues. One thing those who have OSA or snore can do is to see a dentist who can provide relief. Dental sleep medicine may be the best way to help end snoring and the dangers of OSA.
Oral Appliance Therapy
You have probably seen oral appliance devices sold in the store or advertised in magazines and on TV that promise relief from snoring. They may have the basic concept down: Put this mouth guard in and your snoring will end. However, the problem is that these are usually one-size-fits-all, and may increase the chance for damage to your teeth or jaw. An effective oral appliance is custom-made so that it can address your individual needs, and fit comfortably. Custom-made oral appliances can help when you sleep by:
· Holding the tongue in position
· Pushing the jaw forward
· Tightening the soft tissue to keep your airway open
· Increasing muscle tone
Behavioral Therapy
Many people who snore or have OSA may find their symptoms alleviated by simply changing aspects of their life. People who drink alcohol regularly can cut down on the amount they drink or avoid drinking three hours prior to bedtime. People who smoke can, and should, stop. The effects of smoke on the throat and lungs create problems that can worsen snoring or sleep apnea. Individuals who are overweight or obese often suffer the most severe cases of OSA or snoring. By losing weight, the occurrence of breathing difficulties is reduced. Other behavioral modifications that will help include:
· Avoiding eating heavy meals close to bedtime
· Going to bed at a reasonable hour
· Avoiding antihistamines close to bedtime
· Reducing allergens in the home
Medication
Over-the-counter medications may target those who have trouble falling asleep, but not those who snore or have OSA. Dental sleep medicine targets these issues by prescribing supplements such as anti-snoring pills to be taken before bed. These pills contain different herbs and plant enzymes that reduce congestion and swelling of the tissue in the nose and throat. There are also certain nasal sprays or nose drops that may be beneficial.
Due to the dangerous health problems, such as heart attack or stroke that can arise from OSA you should see a specialist with dental sleep medicine experience.
If your sleep patterns have been disrupted by snoring or believe you may have obstructive sleep apnea, please contact Dr. Ira L. Shapira or visit ihatecpap.com to schedule an initial consultation.
Layne Melzer awoke around 8 a.m. Jan. 6 and looked at his 6-week-old son, Shane, beside him. Most mornings, it was the baby who roused him at dawn with lusty yells for food, so Melzer was surprised to find Shane still asleep. Then he took a closer look. Shane’s skin was dusky, and he did not seem to be breathing. Melzer jiggled him tentatively, but the baby did not rouse. His color was darker now. Bluish.
Yelling to his wife to call 911, Melzer grabbed Shane and shook him — hard this time. The baby’s eyes opened at one point, but his gaze was blank.
Frantically trying to recall resuscitation techniques, Melzer put his mouth over Shane’s and puffed twice. Then he turned the baby over and slapped him on the back. He slapped him again, and then a third time. Suddenly Shane gulped for air and began to cry. A moment later, the rescue squad arrived.
The crisis, though, was far from over. By noon, Shane was admitted to Childrens Hospital of Orange County with a tentative diagnosis of severe apnea.
The term apnea comes from the Latin words a and pneuma, which means without air. Medically, it refers to pauses in breathing.
The main consequence of apnea is damage to the brain and heart because of repeated periods of inadequate oxygen. A baby with untreated apnea can, in later years, exhibit learning and behavioral problems, even cerebral palsy, associated with brain damage.
Shane Melzer’s problem was central apnea, exacerbated by a viral infection.
Shane’s breathing pauses were found to be frequent, long and responsible for repeated episodes of bradycardia — the medical term for an abnormally slow heart rate. He met all the criteria for a diagnosis of severe apnea. Two days after being admitted to CHOC, he was transferred to the intensive care unit.
He just got worse. At 3:30 the morning following his transfer, the Melzers were awakened by a call from a doctor in the unit. Shane’s apnea was so bad that he now required the assistance of a respirator to survive, the doctor told them. But Shane was fortunate to be in a hospital with expertise in the treatment of apnea.
Shane’s apnea has caused no more trouble. His breathing pauses have never been severe enough to trigger the monitor, his parents report, and in every other respect, he is thriving.
Are SIDS And Sleep Apnea Related?
A study suggests that sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) might be more common in families that suffer from the adult sleeping disorder sleep apnea
Though the cause of SIDS remains mysterious, new evidence supports the idea that both disorders are caused by a narrowed upper airway resulting from the way the skull is formed, a characteristic that is inherited.
The study compared the number of SIDS cases in 29 families with sleep apnea and 35 families without sleep apnea. Researchers had families fill out questionnaires about the incidence of infant death. Subjects provided data from four generations of each family so that 352 sleep apnea family members and 408 control family members were covered.
The families prone to sleep apnea — in which breathing stops for short periods during sleep and can lead to snoring or disturbed sleep — reported eight unexplained infant deaths. The control families reported no unexplained, unexpected infant deaths, although one infant had died of mother-child blood-type incompatibility. Two of the sleep apnea families reported more than one SIDS death. In one case, a pair of twins had died without explanation. When researchers examined the facial structure of four of the six families that reported SIDS death, they found the shapes were significantly different from the normal families.
The results suggest that SIDS and adult sleep apnea are associated and that both could result from obstructive apnea due to facial structure narrowing the upper airway.
Sleep apnea runs in families. Other work has suggested that certain families may be at higher risk for SIDS, although like most things about SIDS, this remains debated. It is a thorny issue. The idea has been that sleep apnea may be the final common pathway of SIDS, but not necessarily the cause. The problem with SIDS research is that no one has ever witnessed a SIDS death.
In children who often appear tired or have trouble staying awake in school, check for potential obstructive apnea caused by abnormally large adenoids or tonsils.
Another study that found that babies considered at high risk of SIDS — those who had stopped breathing and were by chance found and resuscitated — had a higher chance of having a father with sleep apnea-like symptoms. This could support the idea that sleep apnea is related to SIDS. But how they are related and whether it is causative is another question.
A sleep lab patient, Pasadena resident William H. Chapman, was tested after his wife wrote his doctor to express concern about his restless sleep. Chapman, 61, has been a heavy snorer for decades.
“The descriptions of my snoring went from something like a growling bear to a machine that was going to knock down the house,” he said. When he and his son went camping in southern Utah last year, his son asked him to sleep in the truck.
He felt bone-tired during the day, what he describes as “30 years struggling against this weariness that you feel perpetually. No alertness. No get-up-and-go.”
Finally, Chapman spent a night at Torrance Memorial, plugged into the polysomnograph. The test results were startling: He was holding his breath as many as 57 times an hour, each time for 10 to 40 seconds. He would wake repeatedly as he held his breath, meaning that he unknowingly was sleeping only four or five hours a night.
A federal report concluded that while 60 million Americans suffer from apnea, narcolepsy and other chronic sleep problems, the majority are undiagnosed and untreated. Despite its pervasiveness and impact upon the society, sleep-related problems are not recognized as a public health issue.
The most common and severe form, called obstructive sleep apnea, features extremely loud snoring interrupted by pauses and gasps. Breathing stops for 10 seconds or longer, sometimes dozens or even hundreds of times each night.
Most frequently, the airway becomes blocked during sleep due to excessive relaxation of throat muscles. In children, sleep apnea is often the result of enlarged tonsils and adenoids.
People with sleep apnea may show signs of anxiety, depression, irritability, forgetfulness and fatigue during the day. Recent studies have found that sleep apnea sufferers have two to five times as many automobile accidents as people in the general population.
Treatment includes weight reduction (most people with severe sleep apnea are overweight); avoiding alcohol within two hours of bedtime and sleeping drugs; surgery to remove excess tissue at the back of the throat or enlarged tonsils and adenoids; use of a special mask that improves flow of air through nasal passages.
Undergoing surgery or sleeping with a mask clamped to your face may seem like extreme measures just to silence snoring. But if you have sleep apnea, those treatments could save your life.
As awareness of apnea mounts, suspected sufferers are spending their nights under an infrared camera’s watchful eye in hundreds of so-called “sleep labs” across America, sensors dotting their skin and scalp.
Eleven o’clock is “lights out.” At 11:02 sharp, Navarro yawns. A needle swings wildly on a monitor humming softly in the next room. At 11:10 p.m., Navarro turns onto his left side, and a half-dozen needles jerk in response.
This night will be like no other for Navarro, a 32-year-old computer programmer. For the next seven hours, his every breath, movement and heartbeat will be recorded as he spends the night in a sleep disorders laboratory.
He is here because doctors think he suffers from sleep apnea, a disorder marked by loud snoring and interrupted breathing. Once considered relatively obscure, sleep apnea is stirring increased concern among physicians because it can cause severe daytime fatigue, high blood pressure, stroke and heart problems; serious cases can be life-threatening.
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that sleep apnea is more common than once believed. The study found that 9% of women and 24% of men had sleep-disordered breathing; 2% of women and 4% of men in the middle-aged work force met the criteria for sleep apnea. That would make undiagnosed sleep apnea a major public health burden.
Depending on the severity of the apnea, treatment can include use of a night time face mask or even surgery. There’s a less high-tech approach for those who snore or suffer apnea only while on their backs: sewing a tennis ball in the back of their pajamas tops so they will sleep on their sides instead.
Not surprisingly, roommates and spouses are often the first to spot potential apnea victims. Navarro is a longtime snorer; he can remember his college roommates waking him to request that he tone it down. His wife, Christine, grew worried when she noticed that he sometimes stopped breathing briefly during the night. She learned about sleep apnea from her doctor and urged her husband to get tested.
A video screen shows Navarro dozing peacefully. Pink computer paper moves steadily through the polysomnograph, a machine with 12 needles that records everything from his eye movements to heart contractions.
All night, monitors will record the needles’ black tracks, paying special attention to those measuring Navarro’s breathing. Sleep apnea victims have been known to stop breathing hundreds of times each night.
Sleep apnea and one of its most common treatment options, Continuous Positive Airway Pressure or CPAP, contain an array of questions and answers for those with obstructive sleep apnea. This provides you with an overview and helps you find further information.
What is sleep apnea?
During sleep, some peoples’ breathing briefly stops many times throughout the night. Obstructive sleep apnea is caused by the soft tissue at the back of the throat collapsing and blocking the airway. Central sleep apnea occurs when air cannot flow into or out of the person’s nose or mouth through efforts to resume breathing because of confused signals from the brain to the diaphragm.
What causes sleep apnea?
Mechanical and structural problems in the airway interrupt breathing during sleep. The throat muscles and tongue relax too much during sleep, blocking the airway.
Am I at risk for sleep apnea?
This can affect anyone, however, it’s more prevalent in men. Loud snoring, weight problems and high blood pressure are risk signs. If you never feel rested, suffer from being overweight, smoke, or notice behavioral changes, such as depression, see an experienced sleep apnea specialist. Snoring is also a sign of sleep apnea, but isn’t the only indicator.
Does obstructive sleep apnea require surgery?
Oral appliance therapy is an alternative to surgery. Therapeutically, they reposition the lower jaw and tongue to reduce apneic occurrences.
If I use a CPAP do I still need surgery?
By correctly adhering to treatment, Continuous Positive Airway Pressure, or CPAP, can be very successful. However, studies also show only 23-45% of patients attain success. CPAP is a commitment, those who think they can’t devote themselves to the program should look into oral appliance therapy. Surgery is a last resort.
For many, CPAP is uncomfortable. Less cumbersome methods use simpler mouthpieces that properly align the jaw for safer sleep. These mouthpieces resemble sports mouth guards and helps patients breathe through the nose and mouth. If CPAP is uncomfortable, look into the alternate treatment options.
Why should I seek treatment for sleep apnea?
Quality sleep is essential to wellness. Sleep apnea creates lack of energy, inhibits concentration and slows metabolism. Even worse, lost sleep increases chances for high blood pressure and heart attacks.
Snoring may seem like a mere annoyance to most people. But sometimes, snoring is a symptom of sleep apnea, a serious medical condition that affects over 20 million Americans and drastically reduces their quality of life. In extreme cases, it can lead to death.
The word “apnea” is derived from a Greek word that means “want of breath.” In order to be diagnosed with sleep apnea, one must experience stoppage of breathing for a period of at least ten seconds more than five times in one hour. All of this counteracts the healing, restorative effects that nourishing deep sleep is meant to provide. Sleep is critical to health, just as important as a healthy diet and physical activity.
If it goes untreated for lengths of time, obstructive sleep apnea leads to hypertension, strokes, muscle pain, heart attacks, morning headaches and excessive daytime drowsiness. Many who have mild sleep apnea know that they snore while they sleep. At the same time, they may not link this and their daytime fatigue to the potentially life-threatening larger problems that could eventually make themselves known.
Symptoms
Sleep apnea makes its presence known in a variety of ways. And with the wide array of symptoms, different people may experience widely different combinations of the following:
If you notice you’re experiencing any of these, please keep in mind that they could be indicators of sleep apnea. Ignoring them could potentially result in major health risks, not to mention the diminished day-to-day concentration, which affects things like your job and being an active member of society. One potentially disastrous after-effect to keep in mind is experiencing drowsiness while driving, too. In children, academic underachievement and substandard mental development have been linked to sleep apnea.
Sleep Apnea is part of the spectrum of what is called “Sleep Disordered Breathing” or “SDB.” The condition Sleep Apnea is commonly broken into three main categories. The three main categories of Sleep Apnea are as follows:
Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA)
Central Sleep Apnea (CSA)
Mixed Sleep Apnea (MSA)
The three main categories, or types, of Sleep Apnea will be discussed in more detail below. Sleep Apnea is commonly and effectively treated with CPAP therapy (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure). Keep in mind that this is not a comprehensive treatment on the subject of Sleep Apnea. For more information please reference the citations at the end of the article or speak with your doctor.
Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA)With Obstructive Sleep Apnea, the soft tissue of the upper airway collapses during the night and slows air intake, eventually eliminating air intake altogether. When oxygen intake is reduced or eliminated and blood oxygen levels fall significantly, the brain sends an emergency signal to wake up and resume a normal breathing pattern. This process can happen as many as a few hundred times a night for some people with severe OSA. The use of a CPAP machine either drastically reduces these “apneic” events or eliminates them altogether. This results in the restoration of a normal breathing pattern and the CPAP user is able to achieve deep, REM(3) sleep, allowing the body to do routine maintenance and restore many healthful functions in the body.Central Sleep Apnea (CSA)Central Sleep Apnea is similar to OSA in its final effect on the sufferer, however, the mechanism of oxygen reduction is different. The principal mechanism of oxygen reduction in CSA is due to a failure of the brain to send a proper breathing “signal” to the muscles that control the breathing process. This type of Sleep Apnea is more rare than OSA and according to the Mayo Clinic accounts “for less than 5 percent of sleep apneas.”(4) Even though CSA is different in function than OSA, the outcome for the sufferer is the same–reduced oxygen intake through out the night, failure to reach deep sleep cycles and general fatigue throughout the day. Fortunately, in most cases, CSA can be treated with the same equipment that is used for those that suffer with OSA. Most CPAP, BiPAP and APAP machines have sophisticated circuitry which allows for the detection of different types of apneas, allowing the machine to adjust to the needs of the user throughout the night.Mixed Sleep Apnea (or Complex Apnea)According to the National Institutes of Health, Mixed Sleep Apnea is defined as a combination of both Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Central Sleep Apnea. The technical explanation for Mixed Sleep Apnea according to the NIH is as follows: “intervals of ten seconds or longer during which there was a complete cessation of airflow accompanied by an absence of respiratory effort in the early part of the apneic episode and a resumption of respiratory effort in the latter part.” Basically, this means that a CSA-related apneic event occurs, followed by an OSA-related apneic event. Interestingly, according to the study by the NIH, the sequence of events is always from CSA to OSA and never in reverse. In other words, the brain fails to send a signal to breath, resulting in an apneic event, followed by a collapse of the airway that further impedes oxygen flow. This makes sense, as it would not seem vary likely that an airway collapse related to an OSA-type event would cause the brain to misfire a breathing signal, however, a misfire by the brain would include the muscles involved in breathing and may lead to a loss of good muscle tone in the upper airway.
(1)http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/sleep-apnea/sleep-apnea(2)http://www.sleepapnea.org/info/index.html(3)http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/guide/sleep-101(4)http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/central-sleep-apnea/DS00995
People who suffer from sleep apnea may seek many different remedies to alleviate their daytime discomforts and nighttime arousal. The best cure on the market for people suffering from this sleeping disorder is CPAP machines. These machines are connected to a sleep apnea mask that the sleeper must wear during the night. In many cases, these machines and masks are only available by prescription after an overnight stay at a sleep lab. These light and compact machines can then be purchased for home use and reimbursed by insurance companies or Medicare. It is important that the sleep apnea mask fits the mouth and nose of the sleeper appropriately, and the sleeper should know what a tight fit feels and sounds like, incase of malfunction, and comfortable breathing may take some getting used to. Nonetheless, with the right fit and a better understanding of how the sleep apnea masks work, the sleeper can expect a great night sleep.
These machines are generally available by prescription only. This is not necessarily due to the risk of abuse, but due to the risk of improper use. Generally, a patient will need to stay overnight in a sleep lab under careful observation by a doctor. The doctor is usually trained in sleep medicine, respiratory medicine, and sometimes otolaryngology. The doctor will then look at the test results and may have a follow up sleep study or test. The follow up test will be used to adjust the settings on the apparatus. Over the course of the second test, the doctor will adjust the CPAP machine pressure until the appropriate pressure for the individual sleeper is reached. In some cases, the machine can be purchased from the doctor or the doctor may know of a supplier. In other cases, the sleeper may want to purchase the machine and sleep apnea mask themselves. In this case, the patient is responsible for handling the insurance or Medicare reimbursement.
This piece of equipment is a small and lightweight box with a long hose and sleep apnea mask attached. The box is slightly thinner than a shoebox and slightly wider. The box is small enough to fit comfortably on a nightstand. The hose can be various lengths but connects the box to the sleep apnea mask. The hose is about as round as a paper towel holder and is clear or white plastic. The sleep apnea mask is at the other end of the hose, and is available in a variety of models. Typically, the mask is large enough to fit around the mouth and the nose of the sleeping person. The mask has an elastic head strap attached. Lining the perimeter of the mask is comfort-fit padding.
It is important to find the perfect fit when using the sleep apnea mask. Before the machine is on or connected, the patient should place the mask around their nose and mouth. The patient should then press firmly to ensure a tight seal. Then, the elastic head straps should be placed around the head and tightened for optimal fit. Much like a pair of swimming goggles, the fit should be tight and firm, but not too tight. Once the desired fit has been reached, the person wearing the mask should shake their head from side to side vigorously. If the fit is correct, the mask should stay firmly in place. Finally, the wearer should turn the machine on to finalize the fit. The CPAP machine will begin pressurizing air, and the wearer should breathe normally. At this point, the wearer should listen carefully for any sounds of air escaping the mouth and nose piece. For comparison, lift on the sleep apnea mask while it is on and listen to the sound. Then, fit the mask again and listen.
Sleeping with a sleep apnea mask may take an adjustment period, but having the perfect fit should alleviate some of the problems. Prospective buyers should consult with their doctors about the right fit and any problems that may occur with the CPAP machine and sleep apnea mask. The machine is designed to give the sleeper a good night sleep, and anything less than that should be handled accordingly.