For years I had trouble getting up in the morning. I felt sluggish and not as mentally alert as I should have been. Sleeping was a problem. It seemed to take ages for me to fall asleep and worse still the night was filled with restless, shallow sleep and frequent wakening.



Then, I started to snore and this caused an even greater problem: the beginnings of sleep apnea. It was time to take action and after speaking with my doctor, decided on a simple overnight sleep test. I desperately needed to get a good nights sleep.

This took the form of a small monitor attached by wires to my fingers. All I had to do was go to sleep as usual and the machine measured the breathing rhythms. This was analyzed in the next few days and it was found that I was not going into any form of a deep sleep but waking many times during the night. The poor breathing and snoring was causing a mild form of sleep apnea, forcing me to “wake-up” many times during the night and, as a result, get a very poor night's sleep. And a very sluggish daytime resulted.

The answer was obvious and simple. I needed a CPAP sleeping machine as soon as possible which, fortunate for me, was partly covered by my own health insurance. This may be true in your area and should be checked out right from the beginning as costs could be in the hundreds of dollars.

But the results are dramatic.

CPAP stands for ‘continuous positive airway pressure', a machine which was initially used for the treatment of sleep apnea at home, but has now become widespread in intensive care units as a form of ventilation. Many of us use them today.

Obstructive sleep apnea occurs when the upper airway becomes narrow as the muscles relax naturally during sleep. This reduces oxygen in the blood and causes arousal from sleep. The CPAP machine stops this phenomenon by delivering a stream of compressed air via a hose to a nose mask or full-face mask, keeping the airways open under air pressure so that unobstructed breathing becomes possible, reducing or preventing apnea.

It is the air pressure that prevents the apneas although you do have to learn to breathe only through your nose and not through your mouth. This sounds easy, but for me it took almost three weeks to train myself not to open my mouth to breathe while I slept.

What happens is that when the machine is turned on, but prior to the mask being placed on the head, a flow of air comes through the mask. After the mask is placed on the face, it is sealed to the face and the air builds up pressure. At this point, it is the air pressure that accomplishes the desired result. This has the additional benefit of reducing or eliminating the extremely loud snoring. My own machine also has a distilled water container and the air passes over the water to prevent drying out of the nasal passages.

My own machine is very small, portable, automatically changes to different power sources, almost noiseless and best of all, acts like a humidifier to my nasal passages. The air pressure can be turned up or down for your own situation, and besides cleaning the face part regularly yourself, the machine is serviced by the providers once a year.

Does it work? I sleep much better now and awake refreshed. I do not snore; I do not have any form of sleep apnea! I have used it on three continents and it travels with me as cabin luggage, although the airline security people will have a look at the machine as you go through.

Getting a good nights sleep for me, has been accomplished with the use of a modern sleeping machine.