People with certain medical conditions like sleep apnea—especially when undiagnosed—have a harder time getting enough shut-eye each night.
In the recent report of CPAP.com, About 35% of all American adults report sleeping less than seven hours per night on average. In the United States, between 50 and 70 million adults suffer from a sleep problem, and 22 million of them are thought to have moderate to severe sleep apnea, making up around 18% of the adult population in the country. Globally, over 100 million people experience sleep apnea.
People who suffer from sleep apnea experience breathing problems while they are asleep. Breathing pauses or shallow breathing are one of its hallmarks, which can lead to snoring, frequent awakenings, and daytime lethargy.
If left untreated, sleep apnea can cause major health issues, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke.
In the course of the problem, there needs to be greater awareness and diagnosis for sleep apnea as well as promotion of effective treatments such as Continuous Positive Airway Pressure or popularly known as CPAP Therapy.
Obstructive sleep apnea is commonly treated with CPAP therapy, which uses a machine to continuously pressurize the airway while the patient sleeps. The device functions by applying positive pressure to the airway, acting as an “air splint” to keep the airway open and free of obstruction.
To use CPAP therapy, a patient often wears a mask or nasal cushions that are attached to the CPAP machine via a flexible tubing. Depending on the type of mask, the mask or nasal pillows fit over the nose, mouth, or both, and the machine continuously supplies air to the airway throughout the night.
However, the frequent use of CPAP systems makes them more prone to bacteria and harbor germs if not properly cleaned.
Dr. Lawrence Epstein, a specialist in sleep medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a Harvard affiliate said that “The mask rests on the face and comes into contact with skin-deep…
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