Dreamwear CPAP mask

[AshBran]

Hello, my name is Ashli, I’m 32 years old and I’m a newbie to this CPAP thing. I have a dreamwear mask with the nasal cushion and every night I put it on and make sure it’s on properly. The problem I’m having is keeping it on my face while I’m asleep. I’ve even tried with my hair up also to keep it on and it still doesn’t seem to work. Any suggestions or advice to help me with this?

[Pugsy]

What size frame are you using? Maybe it's the wrong size.

Also..did you get the side fleece covers? If so, are you using them?

[Sova]

Hello! I'm a 36 year old woman with long hair who's been using the Dreamwear mask for a few years now, I definitely had the same issues in the beginning. Once I figured everything out my CPAP was so much easier to use and I now sleep really well with it.

First- what kind of Dreamwear mask are you using? There are a few different types of nasal cushions, I found that some of them worked better than others for staying on my nose. I also had a lot of challenges with the entire mask sliding around on my head while lying down. I found that it worked best if I put my hair into a tight ponytail kind of in the middle of the back of my head, then used bobby pins to secure it into a bun. Then, I would secure the back of my mask around that bun to hold it in place. My mask looked just like this one (though with a different type of nose cushion):

https://rapidcpapmask.com/products/drea ... 4113300633

You can see that the back has two straps. I'd put my bun between the two straps and it held things in place pretty well. I think they recently re-designed things and my supplier just sent me a mask that looks like this instead:

https://www.cpapdirect.com/masks/philip ... -with-arms

I was worried that it would slide around without the two back straps to secure around my bun, but I tried it last night and it seemed to hold in place really well! I think because the new strap kind of hugs the bottom edge of the back of my head, so as long as I have my hair up it stays pretty securely in place if I have it adjusted correctly.

All of this being said, it definitely took me a couple of months of experimenting with different mask types & configurations before I found one that worked for me. It sucks because you have to eat the cost of these extra parts, but a lot of cpap ordering sites have a great return policy for stuff that doesn't work for you! I suggest ordering a couple of different sizes and parts to see what works best for you. I landed on Small headgear but a Medium nose pillow (I use the Gel Pillows, but I think they might be discontinued soon?? See my post today!). I hated the default nose cushion they sent with my mask (pictured in both of the above), it slid off my nose almost immediately and had a ton of leaks.