Dad was diagnosed with extremely severe sleep apnoea last week. He’s always had awful broken sleep, constant tossing and turning, horrific snoring etc.

He used a CPAP machine for the first time last night and slept ten solid hours, only rolling over once. “Like a log,” he said.

I’m so ridiculously happy for him!!!

I told him to expect the first week with it to suck because there’s usually an adjustment period. It’s weird and uncomfortable to wear a mask and have air blasted into your nose all night, and have a hose getting in your way as you sleep.

But nope, he’s clearly taken to it well.

Anyway, if you have consistently poor sleep or feel overly sleepy during the day, if people tell you that you snore, if you wake up with headaches, or if you have treatment-resistant high blood pressure, especially if you have other inflammatory conditions, get checked out!!

Came back to say that the type of CPAP machine also makes a big difference to how comfortable an experience it is.

Really basic CPAPs deliver air that is cool and dry and this can cause nasal irritation and dryness. One with a humidifier and heated hose will fix that right up.

A fixed pressure CPAP machine delivers a continuous level of pressure all night. It’s very common for a person’s airway to be more obstructed when lying on their back, so the pressure required to keep it open is higher than what they need while sleeping on their side or stomach.

In order to be effective through the night, a fixed pressure machine has to be set to this higher pressure, which can be really uncomfortable when you don’t need it.

So you can get a clever automatic CPAP (APAP) that monitors your breathing and adjusts the pressure as necessary.

Less pressure when you’re on your side, more when you switch over onto your back.

And there are many more things than just sleeping position that affect the level of airway obstruction. Body weight changes, physical activity, certain medications, even the foods you eat.

So it makes a huge difference to have a machine that can automatically compensate for those things and give you only the minimum pressure required to keep you breathing. Much more comfortable.

Obviously cost is a limiting factor, but 100% fork out for these features if possible.

Anyway, I talk about sleep apnoea a bit but my weird dream is that one day someone will say to me, “I saw your tweets that time and got checked out. Turns out I have it but now I’m getting treated and my life is so much better!”