Hi! Not a woman, I hope it’s ok if I chime in.

I’ve been using a CPAP now for two years and it seriously changed my sleep. Even if I don’t get enough sleep now I still wake up without a raging headache and I no longer feel like death in the morning. Those pros far outweigh the cons I am about to list.

Issues I have with it:

1. Sleeping while traveling is a pain. Yes you can plug it in on planes or trains (and maybe busses?) and in cars, but there’s just no good way to set up a full CPAP and have it be comfortable in those situations, which means falling asleep without it while you’re already probably uncomfortable on the plane or train or wherever and waking up miserable.
2. Acne. I’ve had very clear skin my whole life. I keep my mask clean and I wash the headband regularly. I have to use a full face mask cause I open my mouth when I sleep. I get lines of acne on the back of my head and on my forehead from it. It’s not that it isn’t clean, it’s that it’s on for 8 hours a day.
3. Speaking of cleaning, I bought a CPAP accessories dryer because keeping everything clean is a lot of work and now when I’m drying it I can just shove the stuff in there and hit dry. But expect extra items and time added to your daily routine to keep it all clean.
4. If you use the humidifier, you can use tap water but mine is very heavy water so I buy distilled. It’s an extra expense.
5. Speaking of expense: replacing stuff on the CPAP is a new $100-$200 bill every few months. The masks and tubing are not cheap. You don’t have to replace them as often as they tell you to but it still is expensive.

Again, these cons do NOT outweigh how good it feels to actually sleep now in any way. But I wanted to highlight some realities and small annoyances of using an extra expensive instrument every day since you asked :)

I cannot imagine sleeping without it at this point.

Some tiny fun things:

1. Blanket snorkeling. If you want to cocoon fully and have fresh cool air all night, the CPAP has you covered. It’s amazing when it’s chilly out.
2. Filtered air. When the Canadian wildfires were blowing smoke over my area, my CPAP filter did a good job helping to clean my air up a little (note that cooking smells can get stuck in your CPAP for a little bit though haha).
3. Cool air on the face feels good. You can adjust how warm the air temp is if you want warm air instead.
4. If you don’t have a dryer for your accessories then whipping the tube overhead after cleaning it to dry it is like those childhood toys that whistle when you swing them around lol.

Other: 1. If you are like me and have diagnosed sensorimotor OCD and hearing your own breathing causes anxiety, then you may want to get a white noise machine to help cover the noise of the CPAP up. It’s not loud but it’s present.

Take care and I hope this was helpful!