Sleep apnea

[klmama]

If you have sleep apnea and use a C-pap or auto-pap machine, in what position do you sleep best?  

Do you have a special bed?  Pillow?  Use a recliner?

What about when you have a cold and can't breathe well to begin with?

Thanks for any comments.  

[itsheresomewhere]

DH uses a regular pillow as he hated the special ones.  He swears that when he has a cold, the machine helps him clear the crud out faster.  

Auto- pap is very nice as it adjusts to your needs better.  But he says the regular cpap is fine too. 

[Laura Corin]

Husband uses a normal pillow and mostly sleeps on his side. I suspect he will drop the CPAP for a few days when he has a cold.

[Lecka]

My husband sleeps on his back or side.  
 

Sometimes if he roles on his side the mask will leave an imprint on the side of his face and he hopes it wear off before he gets to work.  I don’t think it’s very noticeable.

He had trouble falling asleep at first but his sleep improved and he quit waking up in the night like he used to, so that was a net positive from the first night.

He had a lot of trouble with it at his sleep study and was worried he wouldn’t be able to sleep with it, but it turned out better than he expected based on the sleep study. 
 

Edit:  I didn’t know there were special pillows — if anyone says they are good maybe I will get him one 😉. 

Edited November 15, 2019 by Lecka

[Jaybee]

I sleep on my side--always have. No special bed, pillow, etc. When I have a cold, the moisturized air usually clears me up enough to sleep, even when I am stuffy during the day, though I may add an additional pillow to help put my head higher than my body. There have been a few occasions when I was so congested I couldn't use it. At those times, I slept on the couch (because I was coughing a lot), and propped my head up higher, which helped some. But overall, the Cpap helps me sleep better through a cold than I did pre-Cpap days.

[Garga]

Hubby has it: sleeps on side/regular pillow/will skip using it if his nose is totally blocked if he has a cold.

[TravelingChris]

Are the machines noisy?  Are they drying?

[itsheresomewhere]

24 minutes ago, TravelingChris said:

Are the machines noisy?  Are they drying?

The new machines are not noisy at all.  I barely notice DH’s.  His old one was much louder. They come with the option of a humidifier so it is not drying.