Do you suffer from sleep apnea and use a CPAP machine? Sleeping on your back to make the machine more effective is not easy for some individuals. Often side-sleepers struggle with learning to sleep on their back. CPAP pillows can help some individuals sleep better. If you have issues with your CPAP, such as leaks, pressure, or noise, a CPAP pillow might help.
How does a CPAP Pillow Work?
Starting with a CPAP machine can feel daunting with learning how to fall asleep in a new position. If you’ve always slept on your side or stomach, learning to fall asleep and stay asleep on your back can feel impossible.
Some people find that a specifically designed pillow helps them keep their CPAP masks in place better during the night while side-sleeping. Sleep apnea CPAP pillows like the EnduriMed can make room for your mask while sleeping on your side so that it doesn’t slip.
CPAP mask slippage can cause air leaks which decreases the effectiveness of your sleep apnea treatment. A pillow that puts pressure on your mask can cause red marks or chafing skin.
If you consider using a sleep apnea CPAP pillow, talk to your doctor first. They can help you decide if a specialized pillow is right for you or if there may be solutions other than CPAP for your sleep apnea. A CPAP pillow may help you sleep better with your CPAP, but these are not the only solutions available.
Sleep Apnea and Your CPAP Machine
Many who can’t sleep well with their CPAP machine stop using it. Stopping treatment for sleep apnea is never a good idea. Look for ways to sleep better with your CPAP or find other solutions for your sleep apnea. Breathing well during sleep is crucial, and stopping treatment can be detrimental to your overall health and well-being.
CPAP treatment helps those with sleep apnea breathe well while sleeping. If you stop your treatment without another solution in place, you put your health at risk. According to Sleep Apnea Statistics, untreated obstructive sleep apnea increases the risk of:
- Heart failure by 140%
- Stroke by 60%
- Coronary heart disease by 30% (1)
You can walk around daily without realizing that you suffer from a sleep disorder, thinking you are just tired or lazy. However, a sleep disorder can cause unresolved health issues without treatment. With proper treatment for sleep apnea, you sleep better and feel better.
Therapies to Consider
Many therapies for obstructive sleep apnea use corrective surgery techniques to help you sleep well again.
- Positional Therapy: Obstructive sleep apnea may lessen when you sleep on your side. Sleeping on your side helps keep your airway open. Check with your doctor if this solution may work best for you.
- Weight-loss: With 42.4% of Americans obese, there is a good chance that excess fat tissue contributes to obstructive sleep apnea. Excess weight contributes to more fatty tissues around the throat and the base of the tongue. (1) One common but overlooked solution: see your doctor for medical weight loss or bariatric surgery.
- Mouth Device (mandibular advancement appliance): works by moving the jaw and tongue forward, preventing the tongue from blocking the airway. These devices can work well, but they are not for everyone.
- Inspire Therapy: If your ENT doctor diagnoses you with a backward collapse of the tongue, a hypoglossal nerve stimulator may help. Inspire is the only FDA-approved obstructive sleep apnea treatment that works inside your body to treat the root cause of sleep apnea with just the click of a button. Implanted during a short outpatient procedure, Inspire monitors your breathing while you sleep and delivers mild stimulation to key airway muscles. This stimulation gently moves the tongue and other soft tissues out of the airway to enable breathing during sleep.
- Avoid Alcohol or Medications: Stay away from sedatives, sleeping pills, and some antihistamines. They may relax your throat muscles more than usual, causing or worsening blockage, snoring, and apnea.
Popular Surgical Solutions
According to the University of Michigan, there are many alternatives to CPAP for treating obstructive sleep apnea, including:
- If you have enlarged tonsils and adenoids, surgical removal can prevent their contribution to airway obstruction and snoring. Tonsils sit behind your palate and tongue and often contribute to obstructive sleep apnea when they are oversized.
- If you possess a long palate, a surgical procedure known as a uvulectomy may shorten your palate by removing excess tissue in your soft palate. This procedure widens the airway and allows air to move through the throat more easily. A uvulectomy may reduce snoring and decrease levels of obstructive sleep apnea.
- If your airway collapses behind your tongue, a GGA (genioglossus advancement) surgical procedure moves a portion of the chin bone forward. Moving the bone forward pulls the base of the tongue muscles forward to increase airway size.
- If you’ve inherited a shortened upper or lower jawbone, an MMA surgery (maxillomandibular advancement) lengthens and moves forward the upper jaw (maxilla) and the lower jaw (mandible). This surgery is more of a last resort for those with severe obstructive sleep apnea.
- If your jawbones are narrow, a surgical procedure and orthodontic therapy may widen them. An MME (maxillomandibular expansion) uses orthodontic appliances and surgery to expand the jawbones. This therapy enlarges the airway and increases the space available for the tongue.
- When your tongue is abnormally enlarged, tongue reduction surgery may be helpful. Reducing the size of a person’s tongue may cause the airway to collapse less, thus improving airflow and breathing.
Find YOUR Sleep Apnea Solution
With so many possible treatment options, there is a way to sleep well again. Seeing your ENT doctor can answer why you don’t wake up feeling refreshed each morning. Using various diagnostic techniques, your doctor can help you find the culprit behind your obstructive sleep apnea so that your life is full of energy once again.
We Can Help
At Enticare, our expert sleep specialists work with you to find sleep solutions. We focus on determining the sleep disorder you may suffer from and finding the best treatment for you. Our board-certified surgeons use the latest surgical techniques to help you sleep better. We stay on top of the latest medical advances treating sleep disorders to give your options. Contact us to set up an appointment and get started. Find your answers today and start waking up feeling energized and refreshed.