Challenges of Using A CPAP Sleep Mask For Reducing Problems with MS Sleep Apnea

It can be challenging to wear a continuous positive airway pressure sleep apnea masks and machines or CPAP machine for taming the problems associated with MS sleep apnea.

There is more than one type of sleep apnea. Depending on which type of sleep apnea that you have, there are quite a few different kinds of CPAP sleep masks that can be used for reducing the effects of the sleep apnea or for even getting the sleep apnea under control.

When it comes to the CPAP mask and machines, which help the person with sleep apnea to breathe better while they are sleeping, there are many different ways that the masks and machines are made.

But basically the majority of CPAP masks fall into 2 general types of masks.

One type of CPAP mask covers the nose, but not the mouth and the other type is considered a full face mask, where it covers both the nose and the mouth.

When we sleep, breathing through our noses helps us to get more oxygen to our brains and into our blood while we sleep.

Those of us, who tend to breathe more through our mouths, when we are sleeping, tend to have a much lower level of oxygen being supplied to our brains and to the rest of our bodies from the oxygen levels in our blood, which circulates through out our bodies.

The reduced levels of oxygen in our bodies and our brains can greatly reduce the abilities of our brains and our bodies to function as they should normally.

Often the CPAP mask that covers only the nose is tried first, during the overnight CPAP sleep study to see if it helps us to be able to get adequate levels of oxygen while we are sleeping.

At times, the CPAP mask that covers the nose only does not help enough, since if allergies are present or if you tend to breathe through your mouth while sleeping, the full face mask is needed to boost the oxygen levels back to the level that is needed to help your bran and your body to function as they should.

Mouth breathers often have an obstruction in the nose, throat or some other part of the airway or they can have a problem with congestion from allergies, which can prevent them from being able to breathe through their noses only.

If sleep apnea is suspected, an over night sleep study is done with you to determine if sleep apnea is present.

Multiple Sclerosis can set us up for sleep apnea to develop, since MS is known to attack the nervous system and cause many parts of our bodies and our brains not to function as they should.

Once it is determined that sleep apnea is the problem that you are having problems with, another overnight sleep study is done to determine which type of CPAP sleep mask will work for your particular type of sleep apnea.

Sleep apnea is basically where for one reason or another, the person stops breathing temporarily several to many times a night, while they are sleeping.

Most often the breathing problems occur while the person is lying down to sleep, but sleeping while sitting up in a chair can sometimes cause the restricting of the airway too that can cause breathing problems while sleeping.

Difficulties, which can present more problems with MS sleep apnea, while you are trying to get used to sleeping with a CPAP sleep mask can include:

Allergies can cause congestion

Congestion can make it difficult to breathe through your nose.

To use a sleep mask that covers only the nose, you need to be able to sleep with your mouth closed. This can present a problem when allergies are present.

Chin straps can be used to help to keep the mouth closed when using a sleep mask that only covers the nose, but the congestion can cause a problem that can prevent being able to drain the congestion enough for you to be able to breathe through your nose and not your mouth.

We unconsciously breathe through our mouths when we are congested.

Sleep masks do have filters on them, but some only come with 1 filter and some have 2 filters.

The sleep masks with 2 filters work better for those who have allergic reactions, since 1 filter removes dust and other particles from the air and the second one removes molds and other airborne pathogens, which can help reduce allergic reactions while sleeping.

It is best if you can clean up the room that you sleep in to remove as much dust, mold and clutter to minimize clogging the filters on the masks and to help reduce possible allergens in the room that you sleep in.

When it comes to MS sleep apnea, getting used to wearing a CPAP sleep mask when sleeping can be difficult.

Typically, problems encountered when getting used to sleeping with a sleep apnea CPAP mask can include:

* Difficulty getting used to sleeping with the mask on your face

We can unconsciously find it uncomfortable at first, when we first start wearing a CPAP mask to sleep at night to help us to breathe better when we sleep at night, especially if you have never had to wear a mask on your face before..

* Claustrophobia

This is the fear of not being able to breathe with the mask on your face or fear of the feeling of being closed in or too restricted.

This can be more of a problem if you need to wear a full face sleep mask, since there are also ones that just cover the nose and not the mouth.

* Sinus congestion or problems with Allergies

This can make it difficult for you to breathe through your nose when sleeping.

We get much more oxygen to our brains and into our bloodstream, when we breathe through our nose and not through our mouths, while we are sleeping.

But this problem can also make it so that we can't use the type of sleep apnea mask that covers the nose only. This can make it so that we need to use a full face CPAP or sleep mask.

* Difficulty breathing more deeply and more regularly

Sleep apnea already comes with the characteristic where we stop breathing temporarily a few to several times when we are sleeping at night.

This can just add to the sleep apnea problem or it can be a major contributing factor to the sleep apnea problem to start with.

This type of problem with holding your breath is more of a problem where learned responses of holding your breath when you feel under stress can make it where you are not getting enough oxygen to the brain and the rest of the body.

This can be a learned response from past traumatic events in your life, where you tend to hold your breathe more often when you feel stressed out.

Finding ways to relax and de-stress the nervous system can help reduce this problem, as well as learning to breathe more deeply and more regularly.

We can retrain ourselves, while we are awake to help us to learn to breathe more deeply and regularly and then carry this over to helping retrain ourselves to do the deeper breathing, where we slow down our breathing and make it more regular to help relax our nervous system, our bodies and our minds before we go to sleep after we put on the CPAP mask.

At times, we may have difficulties retraining ourselves to breathe more regularly and more deeply while we are wearing a sleep mask, simply because we are so used to our old habits of not breathing regularly like we should be doing.

These and other problems that learning to sleep with a CPAP or sleep apnea mask can be overcome, but it does take some retraining ourselves and with changing our habits from what we did previously and it can often take a few weeks up to 1 or 2 months to get used to sleeping with wearing a CPAP sleep mask.

When sleep apnea is present, especially for more prolonged periods of time (we are talking often we can have sleep apnea problems for years before we are diagnosed), it can take time to convince ourselves that we are actually allowed to be able to get a good night of sleep every night.

This can be part of the problem too with sleep apnea

We need to give ourselves permission for us to be able to work with our bodies to allow them to relax and find sleep to be an enjoyable experience again, instead of us feeling like we are being tortured almost every night.

Getting used to sleeping with a sleep mask or CPAP mask and machine can be a challenge, but I have found that in my case of multiple sclerosis sleep apnea, that sleeping with a CPAP mask does help me most nights with with being able to actually get a very good restful night of sleep each night.

It isn't as intimidating as it may seem at first to get used to sleeping with a sleep apnea CPAP mask.

Although sleeping with a CPAP sleep apnea sleep mask is not necessarily the only solution for your case of sleep apnea to get it under control, it can help a lot with allowing you to finally get a good night sleep.

Sleeping with a CPAP mask may not be the only solution, since sometimes undergoing surgery to correct any physical obstructions, that may be creating much of the problems that contribute to sleep apnea, can sometimes help to correct the sleep apnea, so sleeping with a CPAP mask may not be needed after the surgery.

Going for surgery doesn't always fix the physical obstructions with sleep apnea either, but this may be a consideration, if using a CPAP mask doesn't seem to be helping you to sleep better at night.

If you want to at least consider if surgery can help to correct the problem you are having with sleep apnea, you can get additional opinions by visiting an ear, nose and throat doctor to see if there is a deviated septum, a problem with the tonsils or a problem with the adenoids, which could be contributing to the problem that you are having with sleep apnea.

Click on the link to read more about -- ms sleep apnea

If you find this information to be helpful or if you have any other comments or suggestions, we would be happy for you to leave us a comment.

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What Problems Can The Multiple Sclerosis Symptom of Dropping Things Cause You?

When I started out with a severe case of Multiple Sclerosis 13 years ago, I was having a very difficult time with the Multiple Sclerosis symptom of dropping things.

This made it so that I had to cut out doing every day activities like doing dishes, putting dishes away in the cabinet, stopping using any dishes or glasses that were breakable, since I broke everything I used by dropping it on the ground and shattering it.

It was like I was losing control of my hands.

It took a while of changing lots of things, before I started to recover my abilities to use my hands again to do even daily activities that we can sometimes take for granted that we can do.

The scariest thing about all of the problems that I had with dropping things is that I love kids. I used to help my friends out with babysitting for them and I loved playing with their children.

At the time, I had no children of my own and I remember that at one point I was somewhere around lots of people and someone handed me their 2 month old baby to hold. I hadn't really thought about it at first, since it was about 3 years after I was first diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and my friend was talking with someone else and they had walked a few feet away from me and left me holding the baby.

I suddenly was in a panic, when I realized that I couldn't hang onto to the baby for more than a few minutes. All I could think about was that I was going to drop the baby.

I tried desperately to get my friend's attention and when she finally sent her husband over to take the baby away from me, I felt such relief that I hadn't dropped and hurt the baby.

After that, I was not willing to pick up a baby or any child and hold them. That was difficult, since I love children.

What kind of things does this Multiple Sclerosis symptom of dropping things get in the way of you doing, that makes it difficult for you to function from day to day?

I'd really like to hear more from you , as to what you are dealing with because of the effects of Multiple Sclerosis, since you have been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.

Sometimes just discussing the way that Multiple Sclerosis has affected our lives does help us to feel like we are not alone in our struggles with MS.

I'd love to hear from you. Leave us your comments and we can talk about it.

Take comfort in knowing, you are not alone in your struggle with Multiple Sclerosis.

We can learn to help each other to reduce the effects of Multiple Sclerosis on our health.

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Multiple Sclerosis Sleep Apnea and Passing Out

I apologize for my delay in answering any questions e-mailed to me within the last 2 months. I was recently diagnosed with sleep apnea on top of the Multiple Sclerosis that I have been dealing with for 13 years.

On top of this, I have had a severe problem with passing out often and the combination of the 2 has made it very difficult for me to think straight enough for me to write very much or be able to carry on conversation via e-mail, like I typically can do.

My doctors have recently figured out that my adrenal glands are not functioning very well, which is causing my blood pressure to drop to the point where I can pass out for 1 to 3 hours at a time.

I recently received and started using the sleep mask or CPAP machine as it is called (or continuous positive air pressure machine) to help me reduce the problems that I exerience because of sleep apnea and to help me to get more restful sleep at night.

I was also started on a few different medications to help boost the function of my adrenals to help prevent the dizziness and passing out that I have been experiencing all too much over the last 2 to 3 years.

Both the medications and using the sleep apnea CPAP machine have been helping me to start to function better again.

I am working back into the swing of things with providing you with more information on what I have learned about living with Multiple Sclerosis and about what I have found that has helped to reduce the effects of Multiple Sclerosis and other conditions that accompany MS to help you to find relief too!

Helping you, who alsp struggle with Multiple Sclerosis and the other health conditions that can accompany Multiple Sclerosis is my main objective with everything that I do with my website and blog.

But I can't do this alone. I need your feedback to help me to know what information you are searching for to help you to find relief to what you are deling with, when it comes to Multiple Sclerosis.

I don't to just talk about what I have been through, since this may or may not help you to find relief.

Please leave me your comments, or questions as to what you would would like to find out more about when it comes to what you are dealing with because of Multiple Sclerosis.

I just want you to know that I understand how difficult living with Multiple Sclerosis can be and sometimes additional health challenges can also appear, which are not initially related to the Multiple Sclerosis, but that is somehow related to the effects of Multiple Sclerosis on the body, that can sometimes make it difficult for you to function.

Where I can, I describe things from a first hand point of view, since I have been there with much of what I describe that those of us with Multiple Sclerosis can ourselves be struggling with in each of our own cases of Multiple Sclerosis.

Although I myself don't take any of the typically prescribed medications for Multiple Sclerosis, if you find that they do help you, in reducing the struggle that you find yourself in with the symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis, then use them.

But remember that no matter what treatment method or other ways that you use, while working with your doctors, to reduce the effects of Multiple Sclerosis on your body -- remember it's your body.

You know how you react to things and what kind of thing appear to help you, and which do not seem to help you much at all...or may even cause you to become worse instead of doing better.

No matter what ways you use for you, it is always your choice. Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise.

If you would like to learn more about how sleep apnea can affect those of us with MS, click on the link to learn more -- Multiple Sclerosis sleep apnea

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