Mask for CPAP

”Pillow" type mask

"Nasal" type mask

When I did a trial for CPAP, the device the hospital gave me is from "Res Med".  The product name is "AirSense 10" as I mentioned in the previous post.   For masks which is attached to the device and wear when I sleep, I could try two different types during the trial.  Actually, there are three types of mask I can pick.  (Two of three selections).    "Pillow", "Nasal" and "Full face".

See all type of masks in the vendor's web, Res Med

In my case I picked "Pillow" and "Nasal" since the area the mask covers are small.  I do not like big mask during sleeping.

For myself, the both types worked very well.  I guess "Nasal" type is probably much easy to fit without leaking air.  However, area it covers a little bigger than "Pillow" type and I had a bad experience when I had a congestion in my nose.  One of nights during the trial, I had a hard time to get into sleep with this mask and switched to "Pillow".

I guess it is a good and a bad.  It is sometimes getting loose or out of position during the sleeping.  Those cases were not working properly.  However, it is probably better to continue sleeping even if I have a bad congestion.  Also, it is probably much easy to get into sleep due to less covered area on the face.   So I picked "Pillow" type for long term use.

Overall, it works all right most of time including my actual treatment with CPAP after the trail.

In general, it is really a preference for each person.  One gentle man who got the same session for the trail prefer either "Nasal" or "Full face".  He did not like "Pillow" at all.  I think the key is reasonably comfortable with a mask.  Since people need to ware a mask for long term with a CPAP device.  Getting a better sleep is goal.

The trial system is working very well for me since I could try different type of masks during the trial and I could pick the best one for myself.  I think we could try all of them.  What I was told was just two types at the same time.  As long as I request to swap one of them to the other type, I could try all.  In my case, I was not comfortable with a full face mask and I did not pick it.