Why Do You Need a Humidifier for Enhancing Your CPAP Therapy?

Sleep apnea or sleeping disorder is quite common among most people. Sleep apnea causes a lack of air supply in the lungs of the patient while sleeping. It gives the patient a feeling of choking or other complications, which are enough to create life-threatening situations.

A CPAP treatment offers those patients the proper air supply to the lungs through a machine that creates air pressure. In the therapy course, the air passing through the air passage can cause the drying out of the airway.

A Humidifier comes in handy to add moisture to the airstream to reduce irritation and promote an easy air supply.

What is a humidifier?

Often, the patients undergoing CPAP therapy face problems like the drying out of the airway and air passages due to the air movement. A humidifier is a kind of device that adds moisture to the airstream to reduce the irritation sensations to the nasal passage.

Users often add this device to their CPAP therapy to prevent the drying of the airways and swelling that narrows the passages.

Types of humidifier that can improve your CPAP:

There are two types of moisture-retaining devices for the CPAP so that patients can easily choose the type that goes with their convenience. Here are the two types of humidifier that comes with its own characteristics.

Cool Passover: A Cool Passover Humidifier works bypassing the room temperature air over the chamber of a room temperature water to give a cool sensation while breathing.

Heated Humidifier: A Heated Humidifier functions by heating the water to make it warm. Therefore, as soon as the airstream passes over that heated water, the device collects the moisture from the water and makes the air warm. This type of gadget is more efficient to hold a substantial amount of moisture to maintain comfort for a long time.

Who can use a humidifier?

Patients who are undergoing CPAP therapy might feel problems with the drying out of the air. A moisture-retaining device for the CPAP helps them. Also, it is suitable for those who mostly use full-face masks.

Full-face masks tend to get dried due to the wide passage of the area. A BMC RESmart GII Auto CPAP with Humidifier & Maskkeeps the moisture intact inside such masks.

More intriguing facts about humidifiers:

Here are some interesting facts about this moisture-boosting device that you must know.

• The humidification machines come with various settings, from where the humidification level can be customized.
• Humidifier lessens the drying out of the air pressure and adds moisture to the air to keep your nasal passage and lungs free from irritations.
• The device makes the treatment much easier for CPAP therapy patients, which helps them stay comfortable with the air-circulation method.

What kind of water is required for a humidifier?

It is more often suggested to use distilled water for the CPAP humidifiers. The distilled water ensures the longevity of the device. Therefore, pure water ensures that no bacteria or virus is entering through your passageways.

Most device manufacturers recommend emptying the machine's chamber every morning to stay hygienic and retain better air and moisture during the therapy.

What are the drawbacks of this device?

Though the machines come as an excellent aid for those CPAP patients who are having irritations, there are some drawbacks too. Here are the disadvantages that a patient using a humidifier might face.

• Even if you are using this device, you can still feel dry if the device’s temperature or the humidity level comes with a very low setting.
• The heated air of a heated humidifier cools down and creates water, which usually dampens your face. It is called the rainout for CPAP therapy.

However, these drawbacks are easy to control using the proper settings of the gadget.

Conclusion:

It is always recommended to use the right kind of equipment to ease out your CPAP treatment. Making it less irritating is going to serve you better sleep.

If you have any problem regarding the dryness, ask your therapist to provide you a humidifier to make your therapeutic journey more comfortable.