Exclusive | CPAP baddies are trying to make wearing a sleep apnea mask cool

Forget silk rods and curling socks.Kayla Fawcett found a new beauty tool in the last place you’d expect: her CPAP machine.One night before bed, the Wisconsinite wrapped her hair around the soft tubing of her headgear, clipped it in place and hit record.

She sent the video to friends, who convinced her to post it on social media.By morning, she had a head full of bouncy curls — and a viral hit, racking up more than a million TikTok views and a comment section full of people eager to try it themselves.“So many women were commenting that this changed their lives,” Fawcett, 32, told The Post.“Others stated that they were encouraged to try using their CPAP again after quitting because, let’s face it, they suck to wear.”The unexpected hack landed Fawcett in a growing online community giving the once-unglamorous sleep-apnea devices a makeover — pushing back against stigma, challenging stereotypes and celebrating the power of a good night’s rest.Enter the CPAP Baddies: a movement aimed at taking the stigma out of wearing a continuous positive airway pressure device — and having some fun with it.“CPAP users are more than weird old uncles that snore loudly.

We’re young, we’re sexy and not afraid to say it with our masks on — and that’s baddie behavior,” said Rogue Schmidt, a 31-year-old who uses the device to treat “severe” sleep apnea.“Say what you want about an algorithm or TikTok trend but I think if I had seen more people my age talk about sleep disorders, I would have gotten treatment a lot sooner.”And the stakes are high.More than 80 million Americans are estimated to have obstructive sleep apnea, or OSA, a chronic condition in which the upper airway partially or completely closes during sleep, repeatedly interrupting breathing.The disorder can wreak havoc on sleep and leave sufferers with daytime fatigue, trouble concentrating, memory problems, headaches and mood changes.“I was sleeping 10 to12 hours a night and still drift...