Transcription
What's up, guys? My name is Tristan from the cpapstore.ca. And today we're going to go over 10 huge CPAP beginner mistakes.
Now, the first one is dry mouth. So, if you have a mask that only covers the nose and you open your mouth, the air is going to go into your nose and shoot out of your mouth and you're going to have dry mouth. It's going to be unpleasant and it's going to give you it's probably going to give you a headache. You're going to get dehydrated. All uncomfortable stuff.
But the other mistake that we I want to talk about is people say no to the full face mask too early because they walk in the clinic and they say, "I want a minimal mask." Or they'll just start limiting themselves. Oh, I could I could never use CPAP. My doctor says I have to use CPAP, but I can't even think. I don't want to use it. Or they'll be like, "Oh, I have to wear that on my face. Gh. I don't want to. I need the minimal. Give me the minimal. Only nose. I don't want anything on my face." but then they're kept up all night because they have a mouth leak, which is way more disturbing than wearing a full face mask.
Yes, you should progress to a nasal mask. Nasal breathing is healthier. It's going to humidify the air. It's better filtration for your body. Nasal breathing is better for you. But don't say no to a full face mask so early on that you struggle with dry mouth for the entirety of your CPAP journey until you decide to quit. The number one goal should be curing your sleep apnea first. Um, and so if you have dry mouth, try a full face mask. Okay.
The other thing with dry mouth is um, chin strap. You can use a chin strap that goes around your chin to keep your mouth closed. Um, or increase your humidity in your machine. So, this is your humidifier tank. You want to fill that with distilled water. And then you're going to have your humidity on with a heated tube, hopefully. Um, and with a heated tube and the correct humidity settings, uh, maybe like a four or five, uh, you should eliminate dry mouth if you can keep your mouth closed.
Next thing, uh, dry eyes. Uh, not fitting your mask correctly would be the most common mistake. Often with a full face mask, unfortunately, even though I just kind of recommended them. Uh, an F20 mask or any mask that goes right above the nose here, often there will be a little bit of a leak there and that area will shoot air into your eyes. Okay? So, you just want to make sure you're not overtightening your mask. Uh, you're getting a mask that fits for you. Um, and you might have to switch up your mask if it's not working for you. Okay? Go to a clinic. Uh even if you didn't buy the CPAT mask from the clinic, if you go to the clinic and say, "Hey, I bought this mask online. I don't know if it's the right mask for me." They're they're going to help you out cuz they want to probably sell you another mask. So, at least they can tell you if you're fitting the right mask.
The next thing is uh the symptom is aerophagia, but the mistake is too much pressure or too little pressure. So if you get aerophagia, which is stomach bloating or air in the stomach, uh check with your doctor and see if you can increase or decrease your pressure. If your pressure is too high, and when I say too high, it's like maybe you don't need it. If your AHI, your sleep apnea hypopnea index, if it's low, uh maybe you can decrease your pressure. Having less pressure or lower pressure forcing less air into your body is going to decrease the chance of you having aerophagia. But the opposite is also true. If you have too low of a pressure, for example, say you need a pressure of 10 to cure your sleep apnea and your pressure setting is set at five to eight and you're getting apneas and you're still snoring and you're still gasping for air all night, then you will also have aerophagia because you have the positive airway pressure going down and you're also gasping for air and snoring and breathing out of your mouth and having apneas and the two of those combined also can cause aerophagia. So basically you want to have enough CPAP pressure where you're treating your apnea, uh, but not too much where it's uncomfortable and you're having aerophagia, and not too low where you're not treating your apneas and also having aerophagia.
Number four, not learning clinical settings early enough, thinking it's complicated. It's not complicated. You take your fingers and you put them on two buttons in the AirSense 10. It's the home button and the dial button. You press them down for 5 seconds or whatever and you get to the clinical settings. So many people are scared about CPAP. They think they need to talk to their doctor. They approach CPAP therapy as this is going to be so complicated. It's so I I don't want to learn it. I just want to be simple. It's difficult for me. And I get it. Uh, but learning or not learning how to use your clinical settings is a huge mistake because for all of these symptoms, you're going to probably get one of these symptoms eventually. Google it and figure out you're going to have to change your pressure a little bit or change your EPR or change your ramp settings. I would not try to learn in bed. Don't go to bed and be like, "Okay, I'm going to go to bed 15 minutes early and learn how to use my CPAP machine." Don't do it, okay? It's going to stress you out before you go to bed. Go to the dinner table at 4:00 in the afternoon when you're not trying to sleep and sit down and just pluck away with your CPAP machine and watch one of our clinical setting videos online and learn it. Okay?
Next thing. Uh, not washing frequently enough. So many people will say, "I've used CPAP but it gives me sinus infections or I use CPAP and um my CPAP water chamber is pink." We just got a a comment on Facebook and they said that they have too much pink mildew in their water chamber. What should they do? Okay, wash it. You want to wash your mask daily with CPAP wipes or a warm cloth with a little bit of soap, but CPAP wipes is pretty convenient. You can get wipes like this for like five to 10 bucks, depending on the quantity you get or whatever. Um, with soap, you can use mild dish soap or vinegar, whatever you like. Some people were saying that uh dish soap is too harsh, has too many parabens to, you know, it's not good to breathe. We agree. Um, that's why we started selling CPAP soap as well. Okay, you don't have to buy CPAP soap. You don't have to buy CPAP wipes. Some people can't afford extras. So, you know what? Use dish soap, use a warm cloth, and wipe your stuff. Whatever it is, keep it clean. And then you take your distilled water every morning and you dump it out. Okay? You don't want to reuse the water because your breath air is the excess air that you don't breathe is going back into here sometimes. Rinse it with water, let it dry, and then tonight you put it back together and use it. Okay? So, that's what you want to do every day.
Next thing is replacing. Uh, mistake number six, not replacing frequently enough because silicone breaks down and it breaks down with your skin oils and the heat and the humidity of your CPAP machine. So, often times people think that their mask is no good and they need to switch masks. It's pretty expensive to go down that rabbit hole of trying a new good mask for yourself. It's a lot cheaper to actually change the cushion and see perhaps maybe it's just the silicone that wore out.
Okay, mistake number seven, buying a machine from a clinic. Clinics are the most expensive place to buy your gear. It's the same thing with all things medical. If you buy glasses at the optometrist, they are um like 200 bucks. If you go buy the same glasses at Costco, they are 50 bucks, right? Same thing with CPAP machines. If you buy a CPAP machine at a CPAP clinic, it's like three grand. If you buy it online, it's like one grand. It's $2,000 cheaper just because you're buying it at a store and not a clinic. So that is mistake number seven.
Mistake number eight, giving up too easily. Giving up too easily because you started too hard. Very common mistake. People sometimes are upset that they have had bad sleeps for the last 10 years or whatever. They're excited to start CPAP, but then they jump into CPAP like so feet first that like there's no way their body can adjust and then they get mad at it and they think nothing's going to ever make me sleep. I'm always going to have bad sleeps. I'm quitting CPAP because it's stupid. Okay?
So, there's a few things we can do. Number one, you don't want to overtighten your mask. Number two, you want to desensitize yourself to the mask so you don't feel claustrophobic. So, wear it, put it on um during the day because you don't want to associate anything in regards with stress with sleep because if you associate those two things, you'll never fall asleep. Okay? So, um you want to make sure that you do all your CPAP stuff during the day and take it slowly. Wear your mask while watching a movie for 20 minutes so your body can get used to it in a non-stressful environment. Uh, learn your CPAP settings and your clinical settings of your machine at the dinner table at a non-stressful environment with good lighting and stuff and your YouTube going so that it is not stressful so when you actually do do it, uh, when you're ready to go to bed, it's easy, you're familiar, there's no stress. Okay? Same thing, run a mask fit test on your machine to see if there's any leaks with your mask before you start going with therapy. These are all things that you can do that help slow down the process but increase your chances of success with CPAP.
Another thing is pressure. Okay? Now, I don't want you to go against what your doctor says. So, please clarify with your doctor. But if your doctor gives you a high pressure like let's say 15 to 20 to start because you're getting a lot of apneas, ask your doctor if perhaps you can start at a lower pressure. Now, maybe you can't. Maybe he thinks you're actually going to like die like ASAP. So, like you can't. But most of the times they'll say, "Yeah." Um, and you can try at least using your CPAP during the day or using it a little bit before bed and ramping up to your higher pressure, using a lower pressure and getting more comfortable breathing with your machine before you go to your prescribed pressure. If your prescribed pressure is high, the CPAP machine is like a bench press at the gym. You're not going to just walk in there and start benching three plates. It's going to take some time. Your lungs need to work up to the pressure of the CPAP. So don't be discouraged if breathing with the CPAP is difficult at first. You need to work up to it. So don't jump two feet first into CPAP. Jump two feet first into learning about CPAP and then slowly work into CPAP. Okay?
U and that brings us to mistake number nine, mindset. Okay. A lot of people go into CPAP with a negative mindset and it kind of starts disrupting everything. They'll be like, "Oh, distilled water. That must be such a pain in the butt to go to the grocery store and get." "Oh, this machine. Like, there's so many buttons. What a pain." "Oh, I have to wear this on my face. What a pain." "Oh, I have to clean this every day. I have to wipe it every I have to wash it." Having stress, like I talked about before bed, creates cortisol. Okay? Cortisol is your hormone, your stress hormone. With cortisol, uh, you won't be able to sleep because cortisol's job, okay, is to make you awake. Actually, if you look at a cortisol graph, your cortisol should dip before bed and start increasing around 6:00 a.m. to make you awake. The opposite is true for the other hormones like serotonin. Serotonin is the building block for melatonin, which is the sleep chemical that makes you fall asleep. So, if you're approaching with a bad mindset, a stressful mindset, of course, you're not going to sleep with CPAP, not because of the CPAP, it's because you have so much cortisol in your body and no serotonin, there's no way in the world you're going to produce enough melatonin to go to bed.
There's a tool and accessory for everything. Once you figure out what you need, super super easy. Then what and then you get going. You press the button. You put on the mask. You sleep. You wake up. You take some wipes. You wipe your cushion. Every 6 months you replace your mask. Okay. It can be simple. You don't have to overcomplicate it. Okay.
And this brings me to my last mistake. Getting the wrong gear. Okay. Um, make sure you try to learn as much as you can. Watch YouTube videos. Learn about gear because there are masks that are better for side sleepers. There are masks that are better for people who breathe out of their mouth, better for sleeping on your tummy side. If you just go to the clinic and they point you to their mask and you just buy a mask without thinking really about how you sleep, you're probably going to end up with a mask that's no good for you. Okay? Watch our videos or someone else's videos and find out what's important for you. If you want a quiet mask, then you should really be shopping with ResMed. Okay? They have the best diffusers. Okay? If you have COPD and you need really an easy time exhaling, Fisher and Paykel has a lot of great masks that are really great for COPD. So figure out what you need, why you need it, and find a mask for you, and watch some of our videos.
And that's it. 10 CPAP mistakes. I hope you enjoyed this video. Good, good luck out there. Take care.