Sleep Apnea CPAP Machine

When you breathe through your mouth your throat collapses more easily, and your tongue sometimes obstructs the airway as well.

The CPAP machine increases air pressure in your throat so that your airway does not collapse when you breathe in and forces you to breathe through your nose.

The CPAP consists of a plastic hose from an air pump, feeding air under pressure into the nose through a mask fitted onto the face.

Rubber straps around your head hold the mask in place to stop air leaking out around your face. The straps need to be tight enough to hold the mask in place but loose enough to be comfortable.

Getting used to using sleep apnea CPAP machines can be difficult. Particularly during the first few days of use.

This situation is quite understandable since sleeping with a mask and straps around the head is awkward.

This is an unnatural setup, and you can feel quite claustrophobic until you do get used to it.

If you open your mouth while the pump is on you get air forced down your throat, not nice. You swallow small amounts of air anyway, leading to some bloating and gas.

It’s a nuisance to be attached by the hose to the machine, as there is not much leeway for natural movement to change position - the body rolls to re-distribute blood that pools when we lie still.

You are restricted and that is uncomfortable. To solve this problem you can hang the hose from a wall hook to allow movement without dislodging the mask.

The machine works by starting the pressure gently and ‘ramping’ up in intensity over a specified interval to reach the pressure your doctor or sleep technician has decided is right for you, though you can experiment for yourself.

I found a slow ramp-up from low pressure suits me better, too strong a pressure to start off with is just too much.

I have also found that I sleep so deeply with the machine on that I stay in the same position for 4-7 hours, and wake up with backache unless I have a pillow under my knees. I also have a tendency to cough on waking.

The sleep apnea CPAP machine is the most effective non-surgical treatment for obstructive sleep apnea.

It is the first treatment choice and the most widely used to treat people who have moderate to severe sleep apnea and coronary artery disease (CAD) or heart failure.

Research shows that continuous positive airway pressure (cpap) decreases daytime sleepiness, especially in those with moderate to severe sleep apnea, and using CPAP machine lowers blood pressure during both the day and the night.

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