Your ability to get adequate sleep directly influences your cognitive health. If you require a continuous oxygen concentrator throughout the night, the last thing you want is an obstacle to a good night’s sleep. In this blog post, we’re going to discuss continuous oxygen concentrators that are optimized for sleep.
If you or a loved one suffers from sleep apnea, it may become necessary to use an oxygen concentrator in addition to a CPAP machine. A CPAP machine is used for obstructive sleep apnea or OSA. This condition is when the muscles in your throat cannot support their weight while you are sleeping. Often, a first sign would be a sleeping partner mentioning or complaining about your snoring, a common symptom of sleep apnea. It’s also extremely common for the patient to feel restless and run-down when they wake up; often being accompanied by headaches and other signs of not receiving enough oxygen at night.
Everyone breathes differently when they are asleep. When you’re sleeping, your body slows down, your breathing becomes shallower, and you take in less air in each breath. This can be dangerous for people with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) or other lung conditions. Many people with breathing problems prop themselves up with pillows while they sleep to avoid having trouble breathing but propping yourself up with pillows won’t help this problem.
Our breathing pattern changes while we sleep. Some of us tend to breathe mainly through our mouths, and most of us breathe deeper when we sleep, while others have a shallower breath pattern. For those who use oxygen therapy while sleeping, your nighttime oxygen solution may differ from what you use for supplemental oxygen during the day.
Sleep apnea is a severe sleep disorder that, if left untreated, can lead to severe health problems. The word apnea means a cessation of breathing, so sleep apnea means that one stops breathing during sleep. Although your body will force a deep breath eventually, people with sleep apnea can go 10 seconds or more without breathing per episode, and these episodes can happen up to 100 times an hour.
In this article, we will discuss an overview of sleep apnea including symptoms, complications, and treatment strategies. However, consider these stats regarding sleep apnea:
Snoring is a big problem for many people and sometimes it can be a sign of moderate to severe sleep apnea. CPAP machines are one of the most common devices used to treat sleep apnea. A CPAP machine is not an oxygen concentrator, but a machine that forces air through the airways to keep them from closing during sleep. If you’ve talked to your doctor and he or she thinks that your snoring isn’t a symptom of sleep apnea, then you won’t need to use a CPAP machine.
Unfortunately, an oxygen concentrator is not the solution to stopping snoring, or the right way to treat sleep apnea. However, oxygen concentrators are used in conjunction with CPAP devices when patients suffer from sleep apnea as well as a chronic lung disease. The combination of the two help to ensure that the patient is breathing and receiving high purity oxygen while they sleep.
Portable oxygen concentrators do a lot of great things, and make a lot of great things possible. They will overall improve your quality of life, because when your health is improved, you are able to do so much more with it. One great benefit of using a portable oxygen concentrator is improved sleep.
A good night’s sleep is extremely important. Unfortunately, sleep can be made nearly impossible when you can’t breathe correctly, or if you don’t feel well. It’s also not always realistic to be able to sleep at home every night, especially if you want to travel, or just spend the night somewhere else.
When you can get enough air or oxygen into your lungs, the oxygen can be properly distributed throughout your body. With oxygen-rich blood and oxygen getting pumped into all your cells at a higher rate, you will sleep much better, and feel much more energized in the morning. Lack of sleep and lack of oxygen can also cause headaches in the morning, and off and on during the day.
Depending on your individual oxygen therapy needs, your doctor may determine that you need to use oxygen therapy while you are sleeping. It might be necessary for you to receive oxygen therapy 24/7, or just during the night, because you might have a hard time bringing in enough oxygen on your own while you are sleeping. A different dosage setting might even be needed while you are sleeping, as opposed to the setting you use while you are awake.
Your doctor might do an overnight sleep study to monitor your blood oxygen levels during the night, when you wake up in the morning, and compare them to your blood oxygen levels while you are awake. He or she will prescribe night time use and specify on a dosage setting specific to your individual needs.
If you wake up in the morning feel abnormally tired and just downright awful, but later on in the day you start to feel much better, you might benefit from nocturnal oxygen therapy. Your doctor will ultimately help you determine if you need to use an oxygen concentrator while you are sleeping.
He or she will monitor your blood oxygen level while you are awake, and then while you are sleeping overnight, with the use of a pulse oximeter. If you have COPD that doesn’t require you to use an oxygen concentrator during the day, it might be determined that you do need to use an oxygen concentrator while you are sleeping to keep your blood oxygen level where it should be.
Your breath rate changes when you fall asleep, and again when you fall into a deeper sleep. That’s why you might not need it just while you are taking a little nap during the day. Your body wasn’t given the time to fall into a deeper slumber.
Losing sleep is one of the unfortunate effects of COPD, and one that can cause more problems down the road if you ignore it. Sleep is extremely important to every aspect of health, especially our immune systems. You do most of your recuperating and healing during sleep. If you have recently suffered even a mild exacerbation, you’re likely to feel even more worn down and in need of a good nights rest.
If you are able to get the amount of sleep you need on a regular basis, your immune system will work the way it’s supposed to, which will help prevent the illnesses that are responsible for most COPD exacerbations.
