Forgive me for a loooong answer for Evil Captor, but IAACPAPU. (I am a CPAP user)
CPAP stands for Continuous Positive Air Pressure. Think of a small machine, maybe twice the thickness of a waffle iron, that is a quiet, high quality air pump. It pumps room air under pressure through a one inch tube up to a mask that fits over your nose like a fighter pilot’s oxygen mask. You also wear a simple elastic band that holds your jaw closed. The air is pumped in through your nose and keeps your throat from collapsing when you fall asleep.
That’s the real problem with sleep apnea. Often we sufferers are overweight and when we fall into the really deep sleep our muscles relax so much that the airway closes. That wakes us up partway — enough to tighten the muscles again — and we drift back to deeper sleep where the muscles relax again, and the cycle repeats. As a result, we never get really deep, satisfying sleep and often find ourselves sleepy during the day. In extreme cases, apnea sufferers have been known to fall asleep while driving or other dangerous situations. Or, in really, really serious cases, never wake up enough to retighten the airway and die in our sleep.
WARNING: The above is horribly simplified. But my wife noticed that I would sometimes stop breathing in my sleep for up to 20 or 30 seconds and then start up again with a snort. I also, apparently, snored ferociously.
Not sure about everybody’s experience with a sleep test. Lillith Fair, when I had mine four years ago, I had various sensors glued to my skin, but no tubes in my nose, thank goodness. As always, the medics where you are may run things differently.
I was found to have a fairly mild form of sleep apnea, but enough to warrent a CPAP machine. It’s a spendy little bugger — mine cost about $1300 — but insurance covered most of that. I was out a couple hundred bucks, max. The special sleep test cost about the same and was also paid by insuracne. On the plus side, it has needed not one bit of maintenance other than changing the soft spongy filter every once in a while. I still haven’t used up all the filters that came with the machine.
I have replaced the headgear once, with a new style that has two soft pieces that fit in the end of my nostrils and don’t cover the entire nose area. That seems to work better in getting a seal because I have a moustache, which is a bit of a problem with the cover-the-nose pilot’s style.
The headgear, by the way, looks sort of like the liner to a hard hat. It’s made of much softer stuff, with lots of velcro to adjust for maximum comfort. The whole unit plus hose plus headgear fits in a smallish travel bag that came with it. I have taken it to a number of hotels and never failed to find a plugin handy by the bedside (I usually unplug the bedside clock radio).
One hint: pay the extra few bucks for a humidifier attachment. It’s a reservoir filled with distilled water that the air rushes over before it gets to your nose, and keep you from drying out. A 99¢ gallon of distilled water will last me a month.
And, yes, the first time I put the thing on I felt like a total fool. If my wife had laughed, that would have been it. BUT once I’d slept with it a couple of times and felt a really good night’s sleep for the first time in who knows how many years, I knew i would never go back to being without one.
Thanks for your patience. If anyone would like to know more, my e-mail is in my profile. I’m so happy with my CPAP, I have even appeared in a booth at the local health fair, wearing and demonstrating it, helping to talk other shy apnea sufferers into giving it a try.
