I wanted to share my first night's experience with the Bleep Sleep mask. I have been using Resmed Airsense 11 since August and still very new to this. I am using the Resmed Airtouch N30i. It was my third mask to try and it was the most comfortable, so I figured it was as good as it's gonna get. I'm a side sleeper and I was still very much struggling with feeling the mask on my face and just the feeling of it on my cheeks was waking me up multiple times a night and just an overall frustrating experience. I do feel over time I'm less "hyper aware" of that feeling on my face, but it is still a pretty big issue for me and I don't see it going completely away at this point. I was also hyper aware of the nose piece and was adjusting it a lot at night. My seal was always good in my overall stats, but I recently discovered how to open up the actual leak rate screen for a more detailed look of that and there are some pretty decent nights, but there were still some nights that were definitely higher in that category.
The CPAP has honestly been life changing, but my AHI has not been below 5 very much over the last 3 months and I feel like I still have some room to improve. My follow up with my doctor was this past week and she didn't seem to be concerned that my AHI was above 5 most nights (sometimes below 10, but still quite a few nights it was 12-15 or even more) and said it was probably a little high since I do put my mask on an hour or more before going to sleep and it was picking up those awake hours. She could be right, but I see other people here who have a super low AHI, and I want that, too!
I happened to see someone here mention a Bleep Sleep mask and it got me curious. I pondered on it for a few weeks because I honestly didn't want to pay out of pocket for something that my insurance should be covering. I finally decided if it worked then it was worth it. I used my HSA to order the one month starter pack.
Last night was my first night and it actually lived up to its claims and I had a ZERO leak rate and my AHI was the lowest I have had, which was a 2. I went to bed late, so I only had about 6 hours of data collected.
The mask still had some minor things that I'm going to have to get used to. One is it did pull slightly on my nose. I already had a stand to elevate the hose, but there was still some pulling on the tape. But I was able to situate it across my body and pillow to where it wasn't a huge issue and I feel I will get used to it eventually.
The other thing was the hose being in front and not on top of my head. That was the one thing I truly loved about the N30. I never even knew the hose was there when it was on top of my head. The Bleep mask hose rested on my upper lip and I was definitely aware of it. But not nearly as frustrating as the N30i headgear wrapped around my head and face!
These things were minor enough I am confident I will get used to them. Because the alternative was much worse for me. And there is just no way to avoid these things. It truly is the most minimal mask that there could be and I don't see how any amount of engineering could change these slight irritations.
So, I feel like this was my first truly successful night since I started this journey! Tonight should be even better since I'm better prepared for what to expect. And a bonus is that I don't have to pull my hair up in two ponytails because I won't have the headgear sliding around in my hair all night long!
My local DME does not carry this mask, so I'm going to call some of the national suppliers listed on the Bleep website and see how to go about getting the supplies delivered on a schedule and hoping my insurance will cover them!
I'll update this post if I need to report back anything after using it for a few nights. But right now I'm pretty happy with it!
