Suffocation with machine off??!!

[zonker]

OUCH! What if the power goes off? What if a cord malfunctions? Can you really suffocate if machine stops working during the night?
It's on page 5 here
https://www.resmed.com/au/dam/documents ... ac_eng.pdf

everybodypanic.jpg

[wm_hess]

Heyyyyyyyyyyy....Great idea, Pugsy. I didn't even know anything like that existed. I know where I'll be going tomorrow....to some electrical place and finding one of those things. Thanks a lot. OMG, I can't tell you how happy I am now. This is going to save me so much anxiety. Thank you again!

There are Android apps (and probably Apple) that detect when power goes out and sound an alarm. You charge your phone in the bedroom and if the app detects a power failure it will alarm.

Honestly though they're not really needed. Here is a test you can do to prove it. Feel free to do this multiple times until you're convinced. Sit somewhere comfortable. Pinch and plug your nose. Here's where it's important you're sitting somewhere comfortable. Hold your nose until you pass out. Don't unpinch your nose! If you can succeed at this simple home test and pass out, then by all means get an alarm. If you fail (you open your mouth to breathe) then you're going to do the exact same thing when your sleeping.

I use a full face mask and have slept right through multiple power failures. Sometimes I might wake up and realize there is no power, but I just plug it into my battery and go back to sleep.

-Bill

[chunkyfrog]

Sleeping with cpap during a power outage is ten times easier than sleeping WITHOUT cpap.
Cpap even helos when I am congested.

[Revived1]

...even with lips taped shut....I didn't suffocate just using the vent holes to move air and I wasn't distressed...I did it for 15 minutes and it was the quiet that woke me up and not anything else.

That's good to hear, Pugsy.
I tried to get the power failure alarm device you mentioned today, but apparently we don't have them in Australia. Gawd, what next. Never mind. I've made a promise to myself now. I'm going to fix this problem by......wait for it......STOPPING WORRYING about it! I think I can do that. And dying in your sleep is not a bad way to go, if it comes to that...so no more worrying! Thanks for your help and encouragement, Pugsy.

[Revived1]

Heyyyyyyyyyyy....Great idea, Pugsy. I didn't even know anything like that existed. I know where I'll be going tomorrow....to some electrical place and finding one of those things. Thanks a lot. OMG, I can't tell you how happy I am now. This is going to save me so much anxiety. Thank you again!

There are Android apps (and probably Apple) that detect when power goes out and sound an alarm. You charge your phone in the bedroom and if the app detects a power failure it will alarm.

Honestly though they're not really needed. Here is a test you can do to prove it. Feel free to do this multiple times until you're convinced. Sit somewhere comfortable. Pinch and plug your nose. Here's where it's important you're sitting somewhere comfortable. Hold your nose until you pass out. Don't unpinch your nose! If you can succeed at this simple home test and pass out, then by all means get an alarm. If you fail (you open your mouth to breathe) then you're going to do the exact same thing when your sleeping.

I use a full face mask and have slept right through multiple power failures. Sometimes I might wake up and realize there is no power, but I just plug it into my battery and go back to sleep.

-Bill

Thanks for that suggestion, Bill. It's given me an idea, and I will do something very similar to what you suggested. My worry is that my body won't know to open my mouth because I'm still breathing, but the problem would be that what I'm breathing will be mainly carbon dioxide. I know I'll wake up or start mouth breathing if my nose gets blocked by the mask. That's already happened to me when I was using the Dreamwear one. But, the experiment I'll do, which is very much like you suggested, but addresses exactly what I'm worried about, is to just breathe through my mask while the machine is off for about 15 minutes. If I'm still alive by the end of that, I'll definitely stop worrying about it. Although, that being said, I've made a promise to myself already that I'm going to stop worrying about it....but I'll be doubly not worried about it if this experiment is successful! Thanks again for the suggestion.

[Goofproof]

I turn my XPAP off in the morning, and leave it off until I put my mask back on at night. 15 years on XPAP, never suffocated yet, I do get congested , all day from allergies, it's a relief to go to bed. Jim

[Janknitz]

I don't know about everyone else, but a loss of cpap event for me is an INSTANT awake. Maybe because my pressure is relatively high (medium?) The loss of 15cm pressure is very alerting, and I wake right up, curse for a bit, and then address the issue (ie, remove mask, etc).

The manufacturer is probably covering their butt, but I suppose if someone already had a breathing problem other than 'just' sleep apnea, their might be a problem? But all of us experienced the effects of not breathing in our sleep before we got treated. And the brain most certainly DOES wake you up!

Yup, me too. I wake up instantly.

[squid13]

I slept 4 hours one night when the power was off and finally woke up and realized it was off, that's when I put my machine on auto start after that incident , I wear a full face mask.

[Sylvanas]

Thank you all! It's reassuring:)

[Miss Emerita]

I got an alarm and plugged it into the same circuit as the machine:

Reliance Control Corporation POWER FAIL LIGHT W/ALARM by RELIANCE CONTROLS.

It works, and the alarm sounds about as loud as an alarm clock.

[Pugsy]

I tried to get the power failure alarm device you mentioned today, but apparently we don't have them in Australia.

Check out EBay Australia.

[Revived1]

I tried to get the power failure alarm device you mentioned today, but apparently we don't have them in Australia.

Check out EBay Australia.

Thanks, Pugsy. I did have a look on there the same day I went to the electronics shop, and there were a lot of one particular type from China, which were very cheap, and didn't look like they'd be at all reliable. I just had another look now, and there are a couple added that look to be a lot better quality, both from the U.S., but do sell to Australia, which is good.
That being said, I have had a few things to worry about lately, but I have truly not spent a second worrying about suffocating since I vowed to myself that I wouldn't worry about it any more! I haven't even got around to doing my experiment, i.e. breathing through the mask for 15 minutes while the machine is off! I think, after talking about it with others on here, it got out of my system. As they say, "A problem shared is a problem halved." I'm so glad Sylvana started this thread, otherwise I'm pretty sure I'd have been worrying about this for the rest of my life!
Thanks so much to everyone who answered this, even though it's not my thread. You just don't know how much you help people sometimes. There is at least one less person in the world lying in bed every night, fearing suffocation, i.e. me.