Alternatives to CPAP

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Lowell
My first CPAP machine, with a nose/mouth mask, taught me to sleep on my back with my mouth closed. My last year or so with that machine I switched to a pillow mask which I found more comfortable. With my new ResMed auto machine and the same pillow mask, I am sleeping even better and longer (confirmed by my daily feedback and Fitbit :) .) You do need to use the right size pillow mask (using someone else's is definitely not recommended) and have the straps on properly and tight enough. My daily report tells me if the mask is fitted right (amount of air leakage) and number of apnea incidents. I now sleep straight thru nearly every nite.
 
I also have a ResMed auto machine.  I may have to go back to the place that fitted my machine as see if I can get a set of my own nose pillows.  Thanks for for all the comments folks.  And Tom is right about me letting my mouth open. I've tried a strap(head band) to help keep it closed but didn't have too much luck with that.
 
SleepyHead is a free program available on the internet which can be downloaded and installed to read the memory chip located in your CPAP machine. It will give you how you have sleeped. My doctor never asks for the chip, so this is a way of finding out how your CPAP system has been working.
 
Thanks Wayne. That will provide info between my sleep doc visits.
 
judway said:
SleepyHead is a free program available on the internet which can be downloaded and installed to read the memory chip located in your CPAP machine. It will give you how you have sleeped. My doctor never asks for the chip, so this is a way of finding out how your CPAP system has been working.
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Depending on the age of the CPAP
The CPAP's put out for the last few years do store the data for daily use but upload once a day though the cell towers to a company that processes and make a report to verify usage. The DME company can also send changes to the pressure setting of the CPAP as ordered by the doctor.
 
ResMed has a phone apt called MyAir that is free to download.  When you register on MyAir, you enter the SN of your device. It tells you how many hours you used the device the day before, how many times you removed the mask, if you had air leaks, and the number hour of sleep apnea/Hour you experienced the previous night and provides a history.

I can't figure out how it knows how many sleep apneas one experiences. I've stopped breathing as long as I could hold it to see if the CPAP machine would do anything but couldn't detect that it did.
 
Lowell said:
I can't figure out how it knows how many sleep apneas one experiences. I've stopped breathing as long as I could hold it to see if the CPAP machine would do anything but couldn't detect that it did.
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Lowell
It doesn't report individual apneas. It measures your breathing throughout the nite and every time you stop breathing for 10(?) seconds or more it marks an incident. When it generates a report the next morning you only get an average number of incidents/hour over the time you were wearing the mask.
 
My question is, How does the CPAP reduce the number of sleep apneas one would experience. I understand that it puts a slightly higher air pressure into your nose but how does that make one breath more often?  It obviously works its magic somehow if I've dropped from 45 sleep apneas/hr as reported by sleep lab to 2-3/hr as reported by CPAP phone apt.  I just can't figure out how.
 
Lowell, the CPAP machine doesn't make you breath more often; It delivers air at a pressure prescribed by your doc, which keeps the airway open, thus preventing apnea events.

An apnea event is when the airway closes, preventing you from breathing, until the brain says "wake up and start breathing". With 'normal breathing' restored, you fall asleep again until the airway is closed again, and the cycle repeats.
 
There was a recent discussion on that subject. Some use SoClean, some use an alternative sanitizer, and some only rinse the hose and mask. See here.
 
I saw this on Facebook today touted as an alternative to CPAP:

https://www.inspiresleep.com/what-is-inspire-therapy/how-inspire-therapy-works/
 
sad i am forced to use the C-crap device.
just because i have a fat neck. and snore. i have always been a very rough sleeper. now the feds want proof i am using it. every part of my life is under the overwatch eye of the feds.
never has improved my sleep or rest.
 
packnrat said:
now the feds want proof i am using it. every part of my life is under the overwatch eye of the feds.
never has improved my sleep or rest.
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I don't think the fed give a damn about whether you are using it except that if they are going to pay for it under Medicare they want to make sure that you are using it. If you want them to pay for it, you have to show that you are using it, if you don't want to tell the feds, pay for it yourself.
 
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