Your sleep apnea/CPAP thread

I've had a couple of CPAPs over the last ten years.
I don't have to worry about cost because I get them through the NHS.
I've always had ResMed machines (they've been very reliable) and I get the current nasal mask appropriate from my assessment.
I find it works best if I sleep on my back but luckily I'm a pretty static sleeper.
It has made a huge difference to my life.

Wonder how hard it’ll be to get a resmed machine now that respirinics is off the market.

Didn't say it before but after some new sleep studies in late 2019 -- good timing, that -- I got a fully new CPAP setup with the covers-the-nose option in February 2020 and have been using it steadily since. I don't think I get MORE sleep -- I average around six hours, maybe seven -- but per the readings it's definitely been a help, so I'm grateful. Last week for the first time due to a short vacation I spent a week without it and I could tell the difference on waking up, a touch groggier, drier throat and so forth.

Ten years ago I went to a sleep doctor because of excessive daytime sleepiness. I was having 1 or 2 spells each day where I would zone in-and-out for up to half an hour, with a drugged feeling like I fighting off Nyquil. I video'd myself at work a couple of times to see what was happening--I was repeatedly dropping off into microsleeps of between 1 and 20 seconds long, as many as 40 times in 30 minutes.

After a couple of sleep studies, they said I had moderate sleep apnea (maybe a dozen incidents per hour). Got my CPAP, used it for over a year, and it never had any affect on my daytime sleepiness! So I eventually stopped using it.

Nowadays my sleepiness is really bad (like, "the boss keeps telling me to wake up" bad), so I just did my first sleep study in many years. My apnea is now about 50 per hour, so I'm getting a new CPAP soon.

So does anybody else here have to put a big elastic band around your head to keep your mouth shut while you've got the mask on?

I tried that once but it was too much. I stuck with the full face masks. As mentioned I’m now using a nasal mask and somehow am not opening my mouth, except one night where I suddenly did and started snoring and woke up my wife.

from an update email that ended up in my spam filter:

Based on current estimates of impacted devices worldwide, we are working towards completing this effort within approximately 12 months.

I don’t know what to do. I know the odds of having an issue with your machine are slim esp if you’ve never used ozone cleaning, but in starting to have perhaps psychosomatic symptoms.

I'm seeing CPAP equipment in the drugstore recently, not just hoses and masks, but the actual machines. You need a prescription for the machine, but I'm happy you don't have to go to the supplier for new masks and such.

When I last had a CPAP about 8 years ago, they had to send a rep to my apartment to set it up or change the settings. Do they still do that, so that I'll have to actually clean the place so they don't know I live in filth?