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Sleep Apnea
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Sleep Apnea
Dr. Mary Talley Bowden recently shared an interesting post on X : body position can be an overlooked part of a sleep study.
One of her patients only experienced sleep apnea while sleeping on his back. Before moving straight to a CPAP machine, she suggested trying a sleep backpack, a small inflatable pillow worn on the back that helps stop you rolling into that position while asleep.
Such a simple idea, but one I hadn’t really thought about before.
Has anyone here tried a sleep backpack or other positional therapy for sleep apnea and did it make a difference?
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2 Replies
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Yes, I figured out that my problem occurs when I roll over on my back without knowing it when I am asleep. I took a couple of t shirts that are more form fitting, not real loose, and made pockets in the center of the back out of other t shirt material. In one I put pockets for 2 tennis balls. In the other I made 3 pockets and am using pickle balls which are a little bigger than tennis balls. Both of them help but are not a 100% answer. I use an oxygen monitor that goes on my finger and records my oxygen level and pulse through the whole night and then I put it in the computer program that comes with it and it gives me a great printout just like you would get with a formal sleep study. With that I am able to keep track of what works and what doesn’t. The oxygen ring is from getwellue.com I really like it. Wish this would completely solve the issue but it doesn’t. I had not heard of the inflatable backpack so will look into that. Would love to hear if anyone has other ideas. I am not overweight and do not snore and do not wake up tired. If not for the oxygen ring I would never have known I have sleep apnea. I tried a Cpap and could not tolerate it. Got no sleep at all.
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Love this… the ingenuity of the tennis ball and T-shirts!
The oxygen monitor sounds useful too, particularly as you say you had none of the symptoms people typically associate with sleep apnea and might never have known otherwise.
It would be interesting to hear from others who have positional sleep apnea and couldn’t tolerate CPAP. Has anyone found another approach that helped keep them off their back throughout the night?
And if you do try the inflatable sleep backpack, please come back and let us know how you get on with it.
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