Suffocation and CPAP, is there a Connection?

Obstructive sleep apnea is the disease for which CPAP Machine (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) is widely used. CPAP is not the only option to treat sleep apnea but it is by far the most successful therapies. CPAP is basically a machine comprising of several parts such as a mask which patients who are diagnosed with the above-mentioned disease wear while they sleep if the situation is serious, they might even require it while taking naps in the afternoon. Imagine a whole machine attached to your face while you sleep, as the purpose of this device, is to provide you with airway pressure which is needed because of the breathing problems or blockage in your nostril, CPAP mask is directly attached to your nose or mouth. Doesn’t that sound suffocating? At least to, me it does!

Well, even though it feels like the whole process is a pain and that one might suffocate while wearing it, there is a reason why it was mentioned in the very first few lines of this article that CPAP is by far the most authentic and successful therapies. It is true that adjusting to it is a difficult process and that at the very start, you might even feel like you could get suffocated in there, but that is the case with any other thing, isn’t it?

It takes time to get used to anything, take an example of your current job or business that was once a startup, think of the time when you started your career and took the first step into your professional life, wasn’t it dreadful? Did you not think that this is killing you? But all along you were aware that things will get better and that even if it is such a devastating act, you know that it is benefitting you. Same is the case with CPAP machine, it is extraordinarily difficult to adjust to it, it might take 3-4 weeks to think of it as a part of your life that is, in essence, working as a life saver.

With advantages comes the disadvantages and one can never completely trust a machine as it is made by us humans, and we all are well aware that “to err is human”. With all the good points about CPAP, there are some factors which in rare situations might go wrong. There is a chance that the machine stops working while you are asleep. However, that will still not be the cause of suffocation, as there are safety valves attached to every CPAP machine. Plus if you wear a nose mask, you are good to go because even if the safety valves fail, you can still breathe from a mouth. If you wear a nose and mouth mask, it will still not cause suffocation. Yes, you might find it difficult to breathe for some seconds, but that is what was happening before you used CPAP as well, so, all in all, you won’t suffocate while using a CPAP machine because it is there to help you.