Sleep apnea is a condition that occurs during sleep, thus the word “sleep” and the Greek word “apnea” means “without breath”. The direct translation would be sleeping without breath, pretty scary right? Luckily, sleep apnea can be cured with apnea machine therapy. Which uses machines that pumps air continuously into your airways, thus the therapy is also called Continuous Positive Airway Pressure or CPAP therapy.
Below is a good basic guideline to choosing an apnea machine or cpap machine. Bear in mind there’s a lot of variables to consider before choosing an apnea machine mask so you might want to turn the below information into a checklist after you’re done reading. This can help you make a better decision and evaluate each masks carefully before plunging into an emotional buying and ended up with frustrations and desperation. Some of you are impatient and don’t really want to read a 1700 word article, so i suggest you read this short review on an apnea machine i recommend.
Before I continue, there’s a few housekeeping information that you need to know so you’ll understand what I’m talking about. I’ll need to make some introduction to the world of CPAP masks and machines. First of all, the CPAP system is comprised of a mask and a headgear. (some does not have a headgear but we’ll get to that later) The mask part of the apnea machine is the one covering your mouth and/or your nose to prevent air leakage, think of the emergency room type of mask they put on the victim’s mouth for oxygen, this will give you some idea on which part of the CPAP is the mask.
The second component is the headgear which consists of straps. It’s main function is to make sure the mask stays on your mouth and/or nose and is not taken off when you’re sleeping soundly throughout the night. So the headgear securely straps the mask onto your head.
Ok, now that we’re familiar with the CPAP or apnea machine’s component, let’s move on the types of mask that are currently available on the market for sleep apnea sufferer at the time of this writing. The three broad category of masks that are available are the mouth only masks, nose only, and the mouth and nose masks. As you can probably guess, the mouth only masks will have mask covering the mouth region.
The other masks are also what the name implies so I assume you understand it perfectly well. Why the need for these categories of mask? For one, some people only breathe through the mouth (mouth breathers) so they will need a mouth only masks. Each CPAP mask is unique in its way, for example the mouth only masks does not require a headgear but most certainly need a humidifier machine (which is another very important machine to maintain unless you want to have infection) to keep your throat from getting dry and irritated. But the mouth masks is not for everyone, those who grinds their teeth and those who had has surgery for sleep apnea previously is not the prime candidate for using the mouth masks.
For nose only masks, it’s normally called the nasal pillows. Basically it’s a very simple design consists of tubes, it does not normally come with headgear nor does it require any masks to seal the pressure. Like the mouth masks, it serves a unique need for certain people. Because it has no masks or even headgear but just two tubes that has a mushroom type shape, claustrophobic people love to use it!
It’s also better for people who would like to keep their beard or mustaches in tact. (masks doesn’t go well with beard or mustache because it will cause the air to leak, thus causing the pressure to be less that it should be to prevent sleep apnea from occurring)
With the above introduction out of the way, we can now start to discuss about the criteria and features you should have in mind when choosing a sleep apnea machine. The first features that you should keep in mind is comfort and proper sealing. Let’s discuss the proper seal first. Proper sealing is required to keep the air pressure just nice (as set by your doctors) so this is a very important feature to keep in mind if you want to cure your sleep apnea and have a good sleep. With that said, there’s 5 types of sealant that i’m aware of right now.
They’re the synthetic rubber, vinyl, silicone, inflatable cushion type and the memory foam. Creative manufactures can mix and match to create the best fitting mask and headgear using these raw materials. Let’s look at some of the pros and cons of each type of material.
First of all, some people are allergic to the silicone so its advisable to get synthetic rubber or vinyl type of masks. Materials like the memory foam is the best in the market right now because it fits your face and it’s memory foam adjusts according to your face’s shape and contour. The best thing about memory foam is it remembers the shape on your face so you’re more comfortable next time you wear it and over time the masks just fits nicely into your face.
The inflatable cushion type is also very impressive as it takes care of one major irritation people have with the masks. The masks is hard to adjust. To loose and the seal leaks air, to tight and the seal loses it’s shape and leaks air. This is a major frustration and sometimes people take hours just to get the right adjustment. The inflatable cushion takes care of this by having the option to inflate the mask so it fits your face nicely and the air doesn’t leak out. So you can just strap on your mask and the inflatable cushion will do the tightening. This is really convenient!
As for the straps, recently manufacturers even came out with memory foam and wire combination. Now you can adjust the straps according to your head’s shape. (because of the wire, the mask’s shape stays the same) This is marketed by the manufacturers as the one-size-fits-all type of mask. This takes care of the problem of choosing the best size for you. As you probably know (but it’s so important that I might as well repeat it again) if the seal and the straps does not do a good job there would be air leakage and your sleep apnea will not be fixed throughout the night. Plus, the air will blow out to irritate your partner (which means, your partner will be kicking you out of bed 
) and the air might even blow up to your eyes and cause irritation.
But if you’re not in the position to buy the wire and memory foam type of apnea machine, and you have to choose a proper size but you’re in doubt…then choose a smaller size that fits snugly instead of a mask that fits too comfortably. If it’s too big, there might be air leakage, and you probably don’t want that to happen as explained above. As for the shape of the mask, most of the come with the standard triangular shape and are worn over mouth and/or the nose. There’s not much to talk about the shape here and it doesn’t really affect your sleep.
Ok, let’s talk about headgear for a while as there’s some important features that you need to keep in mind if you’re going to choose a good apnea machine. First of all, it’s very important that your headgear can support side, back and front sleeping behavior. This is very important because you might love to sleep on your side but you can’t because the stupid headgear is preventing that. Forcing it unconsciously during sleep can force the mask to dislodge from your face which is not a good thing. The ones that support side and front sleeping usually has a piece of plastic and swish from side to side as you move around during your sleep so the headgear can move with you. (with the mask itself still in tact of course)
It’s also important to have a strap that has a quick release clip for the purpose of convenience and also when you’re choking for various reasons we won’t dwell into here. (just not nice to think about) I know I’ve been going on and on about the headgear but this is the last one. (also the most important but simple) Does the strap stays in place so you don’t need to adjust it constantly? This is a major frustration for a sleep apnea veteran as it really can be frustrating to keep needing to adjust the straps.
Lets move on to another major concern regarding comfort. Specifically, the comfort of your partner. The exhalation holes. That doesn’t sound all important doesn’t it? But it’s very important because some apnea machine produces exhalation that are like a horn. (OK, that’s exaggerated but not by much )
A lot of apnea masks these days come with the life saving features of sound muffler. It has a special material at the point of exhalation that muffles the sound of the exhalation, making it quiet like a baby. The second most important feature that you should look out for in the exhalation point is the air dissipator, imagine a focused exhalation hitting your partner’s face and then imagine him or her waking up with the killer face (haha, not so nice) if you don’t have this very important feature. Like the name suggests, it dissipate the air going out of the masks so it doesn’t come out in a focused way.
Phew, this is a long article (who can guess you can write so much about apnea machine?) so I’m going to end it soon with some little tips. First tip, make sure the hoses are no longer than 12 feet long because anything longer than that will reduce the air pressure set by your doctor. (so you got to reset it with the help from your doctor if it’s longer than 12 feet) The second thing is that some mask can support eye glasses so be on the lookout for that if you love reading to sleep. I’ll end this article with the recommendation that you read this review here on my blog.