Accidentally fell asleep with mask on, but didn't turn CPAP

[yaconsult]

All masks are designed with vents and/or valves to allow breathing if the machine is off.

Just to clarify, only FFMs have the anti-asphyxiation valve so you can breathe when the machine is off. (With nasal or pillows masks, you can just open your mouth.) AFAIK, vents are used only to get rid of expelled CO2 (not for breathing).

I use nasal pillows and a chinstrap and you can still breathe through your nose and the vents when the machine is off - it's just not comfortable to do so due to the restricted air flow.

[palerider]

All masks are designed with vents and/or valves to allow breathing if the machine is off.

Just to clarify, only FFMs have the anti-asphyxiation valve so you can breathe when the machine is off. (With nasal or pillows masks, you can just open your mouth.) AFAIK, vents are used only to get rid of expelled CO2 (not for breathing).

I use nasal pillows and a chinstrap and you can still breathe through your nose and the vents when the machine is off - it's just not comfortable to do so due to the restricted air flow.

this is wrong, and has to be corrected.

there's very little air exchange through the vent holes, when the machine is off, with a nasal or pillow mask, most of the air goes back and forth through the tube, NOT exchanging with fresh air.

[yaconsult]

And that's why it wakes you up.

[chunkyfrog]

And that's why it wakes you up.

Which is why I let my mouth do whatever it wants.
If the power goes off, I can still breathe.

[sonofnothing]

I would think it's dangerous, depending how severe your case is
My cousins wife died last night because she didn't hook up to her ventilator. :/

[BleepingBeauty]

yaconsult, first you say that the vent holes are designed to allow you to breathe when the machine is off, and then you say it's so uncomfortable to breathe that way that it wakes you up. Both of those statements can't be true. Vent holes are only designed for the expulsion of exhaled CO2.

I think one of the purposes and goals of this forum is to counteract the misinformation we get in the real world about apnea and its treatment (from sleep doctors, techs, DMEs, RTs, etc.). Wouldn't you agree?

[Gasper62]

I forgot to turn my machine on once, (S9) slept the whole night with an F10 FFM on, felt like sh!t when I woke. What's also happened twice is that I wake up with no air flow and an error message on the display. The latch on the humidifier lid hadn't clicked all the way and then released at some point in the night causing the machine to stop the blower/airflow. I make doubly sure that little sucker is secure now before I go to sleep.

[palerider]

I would think it's dangerous, depending how severe your case is
My cousins wife died last night because she didn't hook up to her ventilator. :/

bit of a different case.

[LSAT]

I would think it's dangerous, depending how severe your case is
My cousins wife died last night because she didn't hook up to her ventilator. :/

A ventilator is complete,y different from a CPAP....Apples to Oranges

[wm_hess]

I would think it's dangerous, depending how severe your case is
My cousins wife died last night because she didn't hook up to her ventilator. :/

bit of a different case.

Palerider

I saw this as well, and was going to post something along your lines when I first did a search (lord knows I've seen the message posted so many times recently) and found this viewtopic/t46846/Difference-between-BiP ... ml#p421368

It was blurry enough for me to let it go, considering what happened in his family.

-Bill

[chunkyfrog]

Considering what happened (sorry about your loss), I can understand why a friend of ours was urged by his doctor
to go from ventilator only at night to using it 24-7. Not only the conscious effort to breathe all day,
but having to remember to hook it up at night, every night, or perish, is a lot of stress,
especially for someone who is not well to begin with. My condolences.
I would hope medical science will be able to make a better future for your niece, and our prayers for her will help.

[palerider]

I saw this as well, and was going to post something along your lines when I first did a search (lord knows I've seen the message posted so many times recently) and found this viewtopic/t46846/Difference-between-BiP ... ml#p421368

It was blurry enough for me to let it go, considering what happened in his family.

-Bill

in a purely academic discussion, you're really only getting into ventilation area with the ASV and the AVAPS/IVAPS machines, the latter of which are classes as non-invasive ventilators, and will breath for a person. as John mentioned, the plain bilevels and cpaps don't have enough umph to actually ventilate you, and they don't even try, since even the bilevels trigger off of your own breathing.

I only make this point to avoid terrifying newbies that are reading this and get the wrong impressions.

[chunkyfrog]

In my case, I am safe with or without my cpap, but without,
I am quite likely to wake up with a headache--a big one.

[Frau]

I have done this now twice. Not good feeling in the morning. I changed the settings on my machine per advice in this thread. Thank you fir posting. Feeling better about avoiding future mistakes like this!

[tyrone747]

Am I the only one that thought the OP was going to say it was the best sleep they've had in ages?