In today’s post, we will be showcasing the best pillows for sleep apnea.
What is Sleep Apnea?
You may have sleep apnea if you experience breathing pauses or periods of shallow breathing during sleep. Each pause may last anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes and happen repetitively or randomly.
This condition usually presents itself in the form of loud snoring, choking, or a snorting sound as the person attempts to resume breathing. (Source: Wikipedia.org)
There are three types of sleep apnea:
- Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is the most common one that occurs if you experience partial/complete obstructions of the upper airway lasting anywhere from 20-40 seconds
- Central sleep apnea (CSA) is the lesser common type. This usually occurs if you are unable to intake enough oxygen into your bloodstream, and as a response, the body temporarily (for 10-30 secs) halts breathing in an effort to control respiration.
- The last type of sleep apnea is a mixed version of both OSA and CSA (detailed above).
Causes of Sleep Apnea
Obesity, tonsil size, endocrine disorders, neuromuscular disorders, and genetics are all probable causes of sleep apnea.
Prevention of Sleep Apnea
Harvard has published a Apnea Hypopnea Index (AHI), which measures how severe your sleep apnea is:
The goal, if you have sleep apnea, is to keep your airways open during sleep and lower that AHI reading as much as you can. There are three potential solutions to do that:
In the order of most effective to least effective:
1. One of these possible solutions is to get a CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) machine.
Unfortunately, it looks like Amazon no longer carries CPAP machines (Reddit). Recent health care regulations may have required a doctor’s prescription before authorizing the sale of CPAP machines.
For example, the Philips Respironics: Dreamstation CPAP now requires an Amazon business account and a health care license.
Mouthpieces help cover the upper and lower teeth and align the jaw in such a way that prevents blocking the airways. There are also tongue retainers that prevent the tongue from blocking the upper airways.
While there may not be many reviews for CPAP chinstraps, this cheap solution may help with your sleep apnea.
4. CPAP implants
An implant, such as a nerve stimulator, requires surgery. This should be your last option if none of the other remedies work for you.
What is a CPAP pillow and why do I need one?
If you use a CPAP machine, you probably need a CPAP pillow to accommodate the machine. These CPAP pillows are specifically designed for CPAP users.
Attention all back and stomach sleepers:
You will need to learn how to sleep on your
side.
Sleeping on your back exacerbates the sleep apnea, and sleeping on your stomach will hurt your face if you have a CPAP mask on. Therefore, all back and stomach sleepers will need to sleep on their side.
If you are already a side sleeper, congratulations! There’s no action item for you.
A Good CPAP Pillow would have the following characteristics:
- The pillow should keep your chin pointing upward, as opposed to tucked down, in order to avoid airway blockage.
- No leakage
- Good support for the head, neck, and shoulder.
- Tether for the CPAP hose
- Adjustable thickness
- Absorbent & breathable material to reduce heat build-up, and allows sweat to be absorbed (preferably, a layer of memory foam so that a contour can be formed)
Top Recommendations
#1. EnduriMed: CPAP Pillow
This EnduriMed pillow was the best CPAP pillow out of the four highly rated CPAP pillows on Amazon (wow!)
It doesn’t matter if you are a back sleeper, stomach sleeper, or side sleeper – this pillow is a great solution if you are tired of having your CPAP or BIPAP mask move around with you as you toss and turn in your sleep. No more leaking, no more mask lines, no more additional pressure!
Since the ends of the pillow are contoured (indented), the mask is easily able to stay in one place while you are asleep. Your head goes into one of the contours (not on top of it), letting your mask hang off the pillow so that it isn’t in your way. There’s a total of “four” such indents for your mask.
If you so choose, there is also a cooling mesh case that comes with the pillow to keep your head cool while sleeping.
Positives
- Well made with high quality memory foam
- Alleviates neck pain, shoulder pain, and ear pain
- The pillowcase comes off easily for washing and cleaning, very hassle-free.
Even though there are many positives about this pillow: in the interest of full disclosure, we are compelled to also disclose the possible negatives as well.
Negatives
- May be a bit firm to some
- Does not have an apparatus to hold the tube in place
#2. Contour Products: CPAPMax 2.0 Pillow
As you may have extrapolated, the 2.0 version is meant to be an improvement on the original 1.0 version (not listed on Amazon anymore).
Positives
- Highly customizable and good amount of thickness
There are three layers of cushion that can be added/removed to support your needs. Use all three if needed.
- None of the CPAP machinery will bother you:
The pillow prevents both the mask and the CPAP hose from pushing into/touching your face.
What differentiates this pillow from EnduriMed’s (above) and other normal pillows is that the CPAPMax’s special pillowcase comes with an apparatus for the hose to go around your face
- This pillow makes it comfortable even if you sleep on your back, even though it is not recommended since it worsens your sleep apnea.
- Alleviation of neck pains makes it a two birds, one stone kind of deal.
Negatives
- May be too firm for some users, however, it is by design.
The reason the pillow is firmer than a regular pillow is because a normal, soft pillow could easily end up blocking the vent of the CPAP mask. You want your head to remain elevated, as opposed to sinking into the pillow.
In addition, you could always flip over to the reverse side since it is softer.
- The size of the pillow may be too small if you are a larger individual
- Odor may be a concern for some users
#3. The Womfy CPAP Pillow
This pillow is Amazon’s Choice, which we don’t believe is the case. The two of ComparableGoods’s picks above are definitely more superior (in our opinion). However, for a modestly cheaper price, this Womfy pillow does the job if you are on a budget.
Positives
- This CPAP pillow comes with a super soft bamboo cover, which complements the pillow firmness. If the pillow is not firm enough, the pillow also comes with an extra piece of foam if necessary
- In addition to CPAP, the pillow is designed to relieve post-surgical pains
- Easy to remove foam if needed
Negatives
- Ears: Openings for ears may not be wide enough for some users. However, it is easy to make the hole bigger manually
- Bamboo pillow case is pretty thin and may insulate heat throughout the night
- Material is not as high quality as the two pillows listed above (Endurimed and Contour Products)
#4. Splendoress: Bed Wedge Pillow for Sleep Apnea
Positives
- If you feel like your head isn’t elevated enough, this is the pillow for you. In addition to helping with sleep apnea, this pillow also helps with back pain and acid reflux/gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).
- Like the other pillows we recommended, this one strikes a balance between the right amount of firmness and softness.
Negatives
- This pillow is not ideal for pregnant women.
- You may also experience minor neck stiffness/pain the first few days of using this pillow.
This pillow is our final recommendation. All the other pillows out there do not qualify for our screening process. If we’ve overlooked a CPAP/sleep apnea pillow, please do let us know! Otherwise, we will continue to be on the lookout for better pillows to add to this list, if they are indeed better than these top choices.
Do these pillows actually work? Or is it just a marketing scam?
Good news!
There are articles written by university scholars regarding the effectiveness of sleep apnea pillows.
And guess what?
The results are pretty conclusive:
Original study from the US National Library of Medicine National Institute of Health.
Drop us a comment below if:
- You found this guide helpful
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You want to give us some tips/feedback
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You have already tried out one of our pillows listed above
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We’ve missed a pillow that you think deserves to be on our list!
