Things I have learned the hard way about being a CPAP user that may or may not apply to others:
- If you snore, get a sleep study done! Temporary snoring is normal but snoring every night or loudly is a big sign that you might have sleep apnea, which can cause lots of vague frustrating symptoms like weight gain, mood shifts, low focus, sore throat in the mornings, etc.
- Clean your CPAP using a gentle soap, like castile soap.
- Cleaning means lightly scrubbing some soap and water on with a sponge or your fingers and rinsing / drying them.
- Clean the tank, hose, and headgear regularly. I clean them weekly, some people go longer.
- Don't clean the filters with soap or water, replace the disposable ones and gently dust off the reusable one as needed.
- Clean the nose pad (the bit that goes on or around your nose (or face for total face masks) nightly. You will get pimples around the part that touches your face: cleaning the nose pad will massively reduce how many you get.
- Wash the fabric parts too. They touch your face, and will cause breakouts if you're not cleaning them.
- If you are cleaning regularly you can double or triple the replacement schedules for CPAP parts. The manufacturer says the nose pads need to be replaced weekly but they can go for several weeks with regular cleaning. I've seen people online go for even longer. This will save you money.
- It's easier to clean regularly if you make it easy to do:
- Give yourself enough space. I use a sink in my basement—you might consider washing in your shower/bathtub if your sinks are small.
- Use a dish draining tray to hold the parts as they dry, ideally a dedicated one near your washing space. This skips having to hand dry anything.
- Parts replacement plans from the place you got your CPAP from usually suck. They often forget to send items or send you way too many or overcharge. Buy individual parts from a parts store online. I use https://cpapx.com/.
- Always be one ahead on your replacement parts, i.e. if you replace your nose pad and have none left, do not throw away the wrapper until you've ordered replacement pads. This will save you when you eventually forget.
- You use distilled water in a CPAP to avoid bacteria in tap water and mineral buildup in the tank. People online say you can use tap water in a pinch or while traveling instead of buying distilled water at your destination—I don't really wanna test this out so I just buy the distilled.
- It is worth the effort. If you need a CPAP then getting used to wearing one and all this maintenance effort is absolutely worth it.
