How to Clean Your CPAP Mask – A Step-by-Step Guide

Last week we talked about the importance of keeping your CPAP mask clean, and how doing so can greatly help with your sleep apnea treatments. Today we discuss the best way to clean your mask. By following proper protocol, you can work toward a germ-free mask and effective treatments every time you head to bed.

Supplies

Before you get started, ensure you have everything on hand for a proper mask cleaning. You'll need either CPAP mask wipes, or quick access to a sink, gentle liquid soap, a clean dry towel, and a washcloth or soft-bristled brush (optional). 

Getting Started

Each morning after waking up, take your mask apart. This should only take a few seconds; you can find instructions on the user guide, if needed. This includes pulling apart tubes, headgear, extra pads, and soft sleeves. Wipe down each of these sections thoroughly with careful attention to remove facial oils, and any other grime that has built up. Though sections might not feel or look dirty after a single night's use, daily cleaning is the best way to ensure you're breathing clean air as you sleep. This routine will also prevent a thick germ build up from taking root.

If you're using soap and water, turn on warm water (not hot) and start wiping down each piece with a gentle soap. You can use a cloth or a soft brush to reach nooks and crannies. (If you are using wipes, once a week you should rinse tubes with soap and water to clean these hard-to-reach places.)

Then it's time to go back and check your work – look for remaining dirt or soap that wasn't thoroughly rinsed. Dry with a clean towel and let parts sit flat so they can dry. Keep out of direct sunlight, and remember it will take longer for the insides of tubes to fully air out.

Cleaning your CPAP mask is a simple process, and it's one that will allow you to get better use out of your nightly treatments. Start cleaning your mask for a better way to gain sleep apnea relief. 

Continue Reading

How Do CPAP Pillows Help CPAP Therapy?

Sleep apnea is a condition that affects the ability to get a good night sleep. By interrupting your body's airflow and steady breathing, it wakes you throughout the night. Keeping you from obtaining long bouts of rest, or gaining some of the deepest REM levels. Over time this can add up to some serious sleep deprivation. One of the best ways to gain sleep apnea relief, however, is through CPAP treatments, which stands for continuous positive airway pressure. By essentially forcing air through the nasal passages, patients can rest easy, without their body obstructing their own nightly airflow.

But did you know it can get even better than that? Accessories have been specifically designed to help make CPAP therapy more effective. For instance, lotions that help keep your nose moist, wipes that allow you to clean your mask with ease. And what has been voted the unofficial crowd favorite, the CPAP pillow. It works by hosting specialty cutouts that fit your CPAP mask. That way you can turn and roll throughout the night, but without fear of smashing your mask up against your pillow. No matter how well your machine is helping you sleep, plastic forced into your skin is sure to cause an unwelcome wake up call. 

The pillows also host cord cutouts on either side, allowing you to turn from left to right with ease. No crushing your own air tube, and the flexibility to sleep on whichever side is most comfortable. Even if that means switching throughout the night. 

Being more comfortable means better sleep, as well as a more efficient nighttime routine. Putting on a breathing mask for bed has never been so easy. If you're already using a CPAP machine or are in talks with your doctor about adding one to your nighttime routine, consider the help of a CPAP pillow for an additional layer of comfort, and easy equipment use.  

Continue Reading

4 Products to Help Keep Sleep Apnea in Check

When you don't sleep well, your entire day can suffer. Where you're tired, cranky, and irritable from not having earned good rest. Yet these moments causing such behavior can be quick and infrequent, in fact, we might not even remember them. But for anyone who has sleep apnea, quick wake ups can occur hundreds of times per night. 

With a combination of doctor-recommended advice, CPAP machines, and more, however, patients have worked to cure – or at least slow down – this ongoing problem.

To get the most out of your CPAP treatment, look to these popular Contour Living devices and accessories. 

CPAP Pillows

It can be hard to obtain rest when there's a mask covering your face. Especially for anyone sleeping on their side. To obtain better comfort, enlist the help of a CPAP pillow. Each has strategically placed cutouts so you can comfortably lay without mask pressure pushing back into your body (r your face!) and interrupting sleep.

Cleaning Wipes

Safe and effective, having these cleaning wipes nearby can help you ensure your mask is clean (and smell-free) at all times. Use on a regular basis, as well as daily when suffering from a cold, in order to keep your mask as clean as possible.

Face and Nasal Moisturizer

It's likely that, until you used a CPAP machine, never in your life did you think you'd need a nasal passage moisturizer. Yet with a constant stream of air running through it, the nose becomes suddenly very dry. Use this specialty-designed moisturizer, along with a face lotion, to help keep your skin as hydrated as possible.

Tube Holder

No one wants to roll over and hit their air tube – or even risk smashing it with their own body weight. With this holder, however, you can help keep your air supply readily in place, and in an ideal working position. 

To learn more or start shopping, head to the links above. 

Continue Reading

CPAP Treatment to Reduce Diabetes

In the medical world, nothing is quite as good as a dual-purpose cure. Rather than treating two separate issues, both can be cured with a single cure. The odds of this working correctly, however, are very slim. How often can a patient reduce multiple problems with only one solution?

Thanks to some recent research, that’s exactly the case for CPAP machine. Not only does it allow for better, more restful sleep for those suffering from sleep apnea, it helps treat outside issues, such as diabetes. Patients who use their breathing machine on a regular basis have shown lessened effects of type two diabetes. Additionally, those who use daily treatment methods to control their diabetes have had better, more accurate results from their medication.

The CPAP Results in Action

This news comes after a controlled study, which outlined patients for the past five years. Here patients were selected based on their experiences with type two diabetes, then evaluated for prescription medications, as well as their past adjustments with the medicine. Scientists in the United Kingdom have been collecting data on those sleeping with the machines vs. those who were not. 

But how do the CPAP machines help? It’s thought that by better, uninterrupted sleep, patients are able to heal naturally rather than relying solely on the medicine’s involvement. Those who get better sleep are also proven to promote weight loss, increase blood flow, and create an increased amount of energy. This often means additional exercise and movement, which can also reduce the symptoms of diabetes.

What This Means

Whether or not you suffer from sleep apnea, but do suffer from type two diabetes, a CPAP machine could improve your treatment. Talk to your doctor about getting a machine, and learn more about how it might help your treatment. 

Continue Reading

CPAP Therapy and How it Can Help

CPAP – also known as continuous positive airway pressure – is a growing treatment among those with breathing problems. Whether sleep induced or caused by another form of sickness, CPAP helps patients young and old maintain a healthy breathing pattern while sleeping. The therapy is most often seen in those with sleep apnea and babies with lungs that are not yet developed.

With the former, CPAP helps keep air moving so patients won’t wake up from breathing interruptions. By keeping airways open with this constantly moving oxygen, patients no longer suffer from frequent waking, which is caused by collapsed airwaves during sleep. While, with infants, breathing treatments allows lungs to rest and grow while a machine takes care of the air flow. That way young, underdeveloped lungs don’t get tired out before they’re able to naturally expand.

What Exactly Does CPAP Do?

Consisting of a mask, machine, and a tube that connects the two, the CPAP machine pushes a constant flow of oxygen. One wears the machine at night to receive breathing assistance until morning, or whenever a doctor deems necessary. The mask comes in all sizes so it can properly fit each patient, and sits atop the nose. Some versions cover both the nose and mouth, while both come with straps to keep the mask securely (but comfortably) in place.

Most machines are small, lightweight, and create soft, rhythmic noise as to not interrupt the sleeper. Specialized versions also come with humidifiers or heaters, depending on the specific type of treatment. CPAP machines are easily portable, helping those that travel regularly or need the machine throughout the day.

Compared with alternate breathing treatments, CPAP machines are known to be much less invasive than ventilators or steroids (used to strengthen infants’ lungs). Oftentimes they are chosen first to create a more natural treatment regimen. 

How to Get Started

CPAP users must first be diagnosed by a doctor. Once receiving a prescription, patients work with a home equipment or medical provider to find the best machine to fit each person’s size and condition. It’s also likely follow ups will take place to ensure the equipment is still as efficient as possible, and that symptoms are being effectively treated with CPAP’s help.

Though it’s used to treat a wide variety of medical instances, CPAP therapy has shown to offer a great deal of support for both breathing and sleeping problems.

To find out more about CPAP and better sleep, check out our articles page.

Continue Reading

Helpful C-PAP Accessory Provides Improved Comfort for Sleep Apnea Patients

If you use a C-PAP machine at night, we have a sleep apnea pillow that you will love! The new CPAP Sleep Aid rescues C-PAP users from mask discomfort and provides the support your expect from a contour pillow. The CPAP Multi-Mask Sleep Aid’s patented design features hollowed out areas that accommodate the C-PAP mask, alleviating pressure and dramatically improving comfort. Improved comfort translates into improved compliance, fewer mask leaks and a higher quality of sleep.




According to the Sleep Apnea Association, the compliance rate among C-Pap users is poor, around just 60%. While there are several factors that account for that low rate, mask discomfort is one of the most common issues. Aside from mask discomfort, C-PAP users often complain that they feel restricted to a certain sleeping position, and that the hose is constantly getting in the way. Our unique pillow design will accommodate any mask and hose regardless of sleeping position. The hollowed out areas on either side of the pillow, allow a person to roll from the right to left side, or even sleep on the stomach without compromising comfort or compliance. Additionally, the hose conveniently hangs over the hollowed out area, making it much more accessible.


The C-PAP Multi-Mask Sleep Aid is made of high quality, medical grade foam. It’s well thought out design provides improved head support, neck support and spinal alignment. It comes with a plush velour/quilted cover that can be removed for washing. Additionally, this sleep apnea pillow will accommodate any type of C-PAP mask.


Of all the C-PAP Accessories, this may be the most important that you will ever buy, because it improves the user experience literally overnight! C-PAP users take heart, this sleep apnea pillow is the real deal! For more information on the C-PAP Sleep Apnea Pillow or to place an order, click here.

Continue Reading