One of the key ingredients of a full, rewarding life and enjoying good health is ensuring that you get the right kind and amount of sleep on a daily basis. The time when you sleep is the time during which the body repairs and rejuvenates itself, and the mind freshens up to leave you totally prepared for the coming day. Good sleep quality has also been seen to lower the risk of a number of health conditions, and for many people suffering from poor sleep or lack of sleep, the results have been counterproductive for their health. People who do not enjoy quality sleep due to bad posture or incorrect furniture choices can easily take corrective measures, but for those with sleeping disorders, often the solution is a bit more complex. One such disorder is sleep apnea.
Affecting about 18 millions Americans, sleep apnea is one of the most common sleeping related health conditions in the country. It is a condition where people experience irregular or shallow breaths during sleeping, and might even have their breathing stop and start one or more times, making it a dangerous disorder which needs prompt treatment. Apart from the obvious risks, sleep apnea is also considered dangerous in other ways. For example, people with untreated sleep apnea are three times more likely to develop a heart condition in the future, and are four times more likely to experience a stroke at some point of time or the other. This is why treating sleep apnea is important, and this is where CPAP masks come in.
CPAP machines routinely help people with sleep apnea sleep in relative peace and safety, and it does that by ensuring a few things. CPAP stands for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure, and that is exactly what the machine delivers. Using a mask that remains attached to the face while sleeping, CPAP machines maintain an even, mild air pressure, which forces the airways to remain open all through sleep and prevent the stoppage of breathing. This is one particularly effective way of ensuring that sleep apnea patients get to sleep peacefully and in considerably less danger.
Choosing the Right CPAP Equipment and CPAP Settings
For those with sleep apnea, purchasing a CPAP machine is likely to be a welcome change in their lives. To start off, CPAP machines are manufactured by a number of companies, and each model comes with different features. Depending on the extent and diagnosis of the condition, your doctor is likely to prescribe you with either a particular model of CPAP equipment or a few options, among which you can choose according to your budget and the features that you want. Your CPAP machine needs to be right for the nature and extent of your disorder, and then needs to be set up properly for it to serve its intended purpose. This is why paying attention to CPAP settings is something that you cannot do without.
The trick to getting your CPAP settings right is to start off with a broad idea which you can get from your doctor, with input from the CPAP manufacturers as well on the usage of their machine. The most important CPAP setting that you need to set is the amount of positive pressure that the machine would use through the night to ensure that your airways remain open. It is best to start off with a setting recommended by your doctor, and to fine tune it if the need arises depending on whether it succeeds in serving its purpose, and your comfort level using it. Other CPAP settings that you can change depend on the product you have and its features. For example, you can turn on heating and humidification on the air that you breathe if your CPAP machine has those features, by changing the appropriate CPAP settings.
With the right machine, mask and the right CPAP settings, you can significantly change your quality of sleep and, by extension, your quality of life, at the same time reducing the risk of major health conditions. All you need to do is purchase the right CPAP machine, and dial in the right CPAP settings.
