My Home-made CPAP Pillow

[MaxDarkside]

Rather than shell out some bucks for an official "CPAP Pillow", I decided to improvise. Works pretty well for me...

1 each firm cheap pillow... $5
1 each men's unused old tie from the closet... $0
A good night's rest on my tummy... priceless

Cinch and tie the tie around the pillow about 2/3rds of the way down.
Picture:


Works for me! Cheap solution that might work for you too...

[Lizistired]

Had not thought of that.... What ever works, I might give it a try.

[Perrybucsdad]

I must be missing something... so how do you use it?

[LSAT]

Doesn't look comfortable to me. Your face would need to be on top of the tie in order to have the hose in the cut out area.

[MaxDarkside]

I met with my sleep doctor / neurologist today. I told him about my doing this and he thought it a good idea because he hears from numerous patients that the "official" pillows don't work well for some people and cost upwards to $100. Of course, he hears of failures more often than successes. So I figured I'd take a picture of it and share here. It isn't perfect, but works pretty good for me with a full face mask, sleeping on my side / tummy, the posture that gives the lowest AHI for me. After doing this my AHIs are dropping and dropping... now below 2.0 8 out of the last 10 nights.

How do I use it? I put the pillow the long-way on the bed and the shorter end towards me and lay my head so the mask is in the notch parts.

Regarding the tie, that is why I use a men's tie... soft and satiny. You don't even feel it there.

Thanks,

[Lizistired]

Made sense to me. I really miss sleeping on my stomach. I still do in the early morning but trying to adjust the pillow usually makes me just get out of bed.

[Jay Aitchsee]

I like it

Jay

[Perrybucsdad]

Maybe it's just me, but I just crunch up my pillow, and I have been able to sleep on my stomach with no modifications. But this is a great idea and novel way to make it work for you. Nice job.

[MaxDarkside]

Maybe it's just me, but I just crunch up my pillow, and I have been able to sleep on my stomach with no modifications.

I started out with a crunched up feather pillow, but it kept "uncrunching" during the night, and the shredded foam ones seemed to "uncrunch" faster, so I tied an old tie around it.

[LSAT]

I have been using a foam contour pillow that I purchased for $20.

[napstress]

What a great idea! Thanks for sharing it. Quite do-able, except I don't think my husband owns a tie.

[nanwilson]

A solid foam pillow with cut outs for the mask works well too. Just buy a cheap foam pillow, use a knife and cut out a big "c" on one side a nd an inverted "c" on the other.......now your head is on the pillow and the mask hangs over the cut out. There is a photo of it and full explanation on another topic,,,just do a search for homemade cpap pillow.

[Lizistired]

Max, Thanks for inspiring me to try stomach sleeping again. I used my regular pillow. I made it half the night last night and during that time my leaks were 0!
I've always had the best sleep on my stomach but since cpap I rarely try it. Now, to find that satin robe tie...

[MaxDarkside]

Hi nanwilson... I thought of trying that first, but the single piece foam pillows I've had are a bit too stiff for me. I usually slept on feather pillows, so this firm one is like halfway between.

Hi Lizistired.... I think most people's AHI and other scores are lower on their side / tummies for obvious physiological reasons. Good to hear that you got some good rest that way. My issue now is that during sleep, I'll roll on my back, my airway closes, the mask goes high pressure, leaks start hissing and I feel like I can't breath, so I arouse, reset (off/on) the machine to get back to low pressure and roll over onto my side/tummy again. That happened twice last night. I read here about the tennis ball in the pocket of a backwards T-shirt. I might try that to teach myself not to go on my back