7th August 2021

Some of you will be unlucky enough to be afflicted with snoring or live with someone who is. Sound asleep, you don’t have any idea you are shaking the roof beams and keeping others awake during the night.

It doesn’t seem to matter what sleeping position you have, on your side, on your back or sitting up. If you fall into a deep sleep, you often snore. Even the nudge from your partner to partially wake you will only result in a temporary sound check and you may quieten down a little, but once you are back to deeper sleep, it is likely your snoring will resume.

I unfortunately am a snorer. Poor John had to put up with it and I became very self conscious of dozing in public – eg on a long haul flight or bus trip, because I might snore.

But hidden within those snores could be a medical condition that is not good for you – Sleep Apnoea. And that’s what I have too.

So what is Sleep Apnoea and how do you know if you have it? Sleep apnoea is when you stop breathing, hold your breath and then restart. That may be common when changing positions during sleep, temporarily holding your breath. But for those of us who suffer from obstructive sleep apnoea, the most common type, our airways relax and become narrow and we stopping breathing. We snore loudly and make gasping or choking sounds. We can also wake frequently. That can lead to us being tired all the time and places stress on our hearts and makes us at a higher risk for strokes. They say it is linked to age and weight (oh no not another thing to have to lose weight for).

Your partner might be able to tell you if you stop breathing during the night, if you have one. If you live alone, then you can’t tell, but could suspect something is going on. The real diagnosis can be made by a sleep specialist, who will monitor you during the night and be able to determine how often you stop breathing. Or if you are lucky, that you don’t stop breathing.

I had that test done. Not the most pleasant thing, to be wired up with monitors that check exactly what happens when I fall asleep. My results said I had Severe Obstructive Sleep Apnoea and the monitors recorded that on average I stopped breathing 39 times an hour. Wow!

That’s how I came to having a CPAP machine beside my bed for the last 7 years. My CPAP – Continuous Positive Airway Pressure – machine delivers a constant and steady air pressure through a mask that sits under my nostrils. The air delivered through the mask holds my airways open stopping it collapsing and narrowing. The sleep clinic set it up for me so it delivers exactly the amount of air pressure I need, the air is warmed as it passes through the tube to the mask to 27 degrees and a water reservoir keeps the air at 4% humidity. The machine is quiet and not much bigger than an alarm clock.

So why this post, it sounds like everything is working out for me? With my mask on, I don’t snore and I don’t stop breathing.

It is because it ticks me off to see tv shows and movies poke fun at people who use a CPAP machine. In a sitcom, if you want to have a gawky or obese character generate even more laughs, it seems adding in that they wear a CPAP mask – a big one, when going to bed is the way to do it.

In tv land, dorky Pjs, a stuffed toy and a CPAP mask don’t make for a sexy bed mate more a loser at love and relationships. If you google CPAP machines in tv and movies you can find a listing of where they make a cameo appearance. For example Leonard Hofstadter in the massively popular Big Bang Theory has one and his lines indicated his acknowledgment that sleep apnoea can kill.

Spreading negatives about a medical device that can help, that implies something about you if you need one, is cruel and crazy. People get so much of their information about the world through popular media and we know how damaging that can be, especially for body image. Each time I see the use of a CPAP machine and mask come up in a show, my heckles go up. (most recently in Last Man On Earth show). Please don’t poke fun and possibly turn people away from having their sleep a healthier one.

And if you or your partner snore and you are feeling tired all the time, please talk to your doctor and see if it could be possible you have sleep apnoea.

On a side note – with COVID-19, it has been found that a CPAP machine can be effective in managing the effects the virus has on a person. Where as previously they may have been struggling to breath alone and they needed care in an ICU in hospital where they would be sedated, have a tube placed down their throat straight into their lungs (intubation) and a ventilator would take over their breathing function, now it has been trialed to use a CPAP machine instead, as it is not invasive, doesn’t require sedation and is able to be used at home. So much better than intubation and using a ventilator which can have very poor outcomes for the patient.

Here’s the article if you are interested.

https://www.nihr.ac.uk/news/life-saving-breathing-aid-developed-to-keep-covid-19-patients-out-of-intensive-care/24542

So don’t knock the CPAP machine or its user, please. It is a tool that can be used to save lives and doesn’t say anything about the person who is using it, other than they care about their health.

Hugs.