If you suffer from sleep disorders such as sleep apnea, you’ve likely endured interrupted sleep for a long time. What’s more, your partner has more than likely been awoken several times during the night by your loud snoring or when your Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) has caused you to lurch into wakefulness. Even when you have had what feels like an uninterrupted night’s sleep, you can still awaken feeling exhausted when you have OSA. Over time, this can have severe implications for your mental and physical health.
For those with moderate to severe OSA, a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure CPAP machine can be a tremendous boon. It works by sending a constant stream of pressurized air into your upper airway to stop it collapsing or narrowing. This can alleviate both waking during the night and the kind of heavy snoring that can disrupt your partner’s sleep. A CPAP machine can be enormously helpful, but it’s also an important responsibility and it’s up to users to keep their CPAP machines clean.
Why is it important to keep my CPAP clean?
There are a number of reasons why cleaning and maintaining your CPAP are extremely important. First of all, making sure your CPAP is clean also helps to ensure that it remains fully functional. Like any machine, a CPAP requires regular care, and cleaning is one of the most important ways to care for your CPAP. What’s more, there are serious hygiene implications. The hoses, tubing and mask of your CPAP can be a perfect breeding ground for bacteria, yeast and mold. Regular cleaning can prevent such potentially harmful microbes from propagating within your machine.
What can happen if my CPAP is not cleaned regularly?
There are a number of unpleasant potential consequences if you don’t keep your CPAP clean. First of all, the mask can accumulate oils, dead skin cells, and dirt from your face which, if not cleaned regularly can not only compromise the effectiveness of the seal but lead to discomfort or breakouts of spots. Your CPAP can also pick up dust, allergens, and germs from around the room and potentially introduce them into your lungs. This can potentially make it easier to catch sinus infections, sore throat or even pneumonia as well as eye or nasal infections. Mold could in your CPAP’s tubing or humidifier can also irritate the airways, resulting in coughing and potentially a more serious infection like bronchitis.
What’s the best way to clean my CPAP?
Your CPAP requires a regular cleaning regimen. Your mask should be wiped clean daily using a damp towel with warm water and a mild detergent. Make sure you empty the water from your dehumidifier and replace with fresh water at the start of every day. Once a week you should also give your mask and tubing a bath with a mild dish detergent for around 5 minutes before hanging out somewhere like a towel rack or shower rod to dry.
The filter should also be cleaned once a week by removing it and rinsing it in warm water from the tap. Give it a squeeze while held under the water to ensure that there is no residual dust before blotting the filter dry with a towel. Finally, the dehumidifier should be cleaned out with warm soapy water and left out to air dry. The dehumidifier should also be disinfected once a week by soaking it in a solution of one part vinegar to five parts water for 30 minutes and thoroughly rinsed out using distilled water to ensure that no mineral deposits build up within. As you can see, hand washing your CPAP machine can be quite a big commitment. Fortunately, there is an easier way… using a CPAP sanitizer?
What are the benefits of using a CPAP sanitizer?
A CPAP sanitizer ensures that your CPAP is completely clean in a way that washing by hand simply cannot, and it also saves considerable time and effort. The great thing about CPAP sanitizers is that they spare you the laborious process of cleaning as detailed above. Because they are fully automated, they can offer complete and comprehensive cleaning while freeing you up to enjoy your daily schedule. A CPAP sanitizer cleans out the entire system at once and kills 99.9% of all germs and bacteria. It is completely mercury free and has an ozone filter for your peace of mind. It even cleans the water within the reservoir to ensure safe, easy breathing day in and day out.
We take the time and effort out of keeping your CPAp machine immaculate!