Daniel Whitfield
The 4-Hour Number That Quietly Runs Your CPAP Therapy
There is a number that decides whether your insurance keeps paying for your machine, and most people wearing one have never been told it out loud.
What Product Design Awards Actually Tell You About a VR Headset Like the Meta Quest 2
A strap won an award. Not the headset — the strap. When a third-party accessory for the Meta Quest 2 picked up a design citation a few years back, the press release did what press releases do: it…
Three Months on a CPAP, Three Ways of Measuring Whether Sleep Apnea Treatment Is Working
Ninety nights ago a sleep tech handed me a small humming box and a nasal mask and told me to "give it a few weeks." That instruction is the most honest and least useful thing anyone said to me during…
Sleep Apnea Myths: Am I Too Thin, Too Young, or Too Female to Have It?
A 34-year-old woman runs marathons. Resting heart rate in the low 50s, BMI of 21, no snore loud enough to wake her partner — or so they thought. She goes to a sleep lab for unrelated insomnia.
The Eleven Minutes Before Sleep: What a Sleep Quality Assessment Actually Looks For
Falling asleep instantly is not a sign that you sleep well. It is often a sign that you don't. This runs against everything we tell each other.
Sleep Apnea Pillow Types: What Actually Helps a CPAP Night, and What Doesn't
The night I decided to take this seriously, I bought a $34 contour pillow, threw out the king-size down monster my partner had been complaining about for a year, and slept with my CPAP app open on the…
CPAP Equipment Care: What to Actually Tell the Anxious Patient
A patient I'll call M. came into clinic last spring holding her nasal pillow mask in a Ziploc bag, the way you'd carry evidence. She had been on CPAP for eleven months. She slept well on it.
Airway Alignment and Sleep Apnea: The Short History of a Half-True Idea
The advice arrives early, usually from a partner: roll onto your side. It will help your sleep apnea.
CPAP Mask Fit at Home: I Tried Four Masks Without Ever Seeing a Fitter
The unpopular opinion first: for most people, a careful afternoon at the kitchen table will get you a better CPAP mask fit than a ten-minute appointment with a harried DME technician in a…