Don't lose the night to a mask that slipped off.

Why I Made MaskAlarm

I built MaskAlarm because I have obstructive sleep apnea.

Like a lot of CPAP users, I had the same frustrating experience over and over. Somewhere in the middle of the night—completely asleep—I would pull my mask off without ever realizing it. I'd wake up the next morning, find the mask lying on the pillow beside me, and discover I'd only received an hour or two of therapy. The rest of the night? Nothing.

If you've experienced that, you know how discouraging it can be.

I've been a software engineer for more than 30 years, so instead of accepting the problem, I decided to solve it.

About two years ago, I built my first prototype. It ran on a tiny microcomputer beside my bed and periodically took pictures while I slept. The software compared each image to reference photos of me wearing my CPAP mask to determine whether it was still on. It actually worked—but only for me. Anyone else would have needed to look exactly like I do.

Then I realized AI could solve the problem much more elegantly.

Instead of comparing faces, it could answer a much simpler question: Is this person wearing a CPAP mask or not? That insight became the foundation for MaskAlarm.

I'm a husband, father of three, former U.S. Marine, and lifelong engineer. Good sleep isn't a luxury—it's essential. There was a point where I would have gladly paid almost anything for a tool that could wake me the moment my mask came off. I searched everywhere, but nothing like it existed.

So I built it.

The feature I'm most proud of is also the simplest. When your mask comes off, MaskAlarm sounds an alarm. You don't have to unlock your phone, fumble through buttons, or even get out of bed. You simply put your mask back on. The app recognizes that your mask is back in place, automatically silences the alarm, and lets you go right back to sleep.

No extra steps. No bright screens. No frustration.

Just a simple idea designed to help you get the therapy your doctor prescribed and the restorative sleep your body needs.

If MaskAlarm helps you wake up feeling better—even one more morning than you would have otherwise—then every hour I spent building it was worth it.

Thank you for giving it a try.

Victor BobaFounder, MaskAlarm

Set your phone on a stand. Sleep. We do the rest.

It won't wake you for a quick adjustment.

The alarm arms and double-checks before it ever sounds — so you're only woken when your mask is genuinely off. Here's exactly how it works.

Two phones. One watch. Nothing slips by.

Have a spare phone? Put one on each side of the bed and they monitor together — sharing every detection between them, so a mask-off that one camera can't see from its angle is caught by the other. Pairing takes seconds: scan a QR code, done.

Pairing is anonymous — the phones connect with a one-time code and never exchange names, accounts, or personal details.

Not in the room? Get the alert on your phone.

When the mask comes off, MaskAlarm can reach whoever's watching over the sleeper — by text or a loud app notification, on any phone, near or far. Up to three caregivers, and it's included in the subscription.

A CPAP alarm for dementia and Alzheimer's patients who pull the mask off.

Sleep apnea and dementia go hand in hand — and the people who may benefit most from CPAP are often the least able to keep the mask on through the night. MaskAlarm watches when no one else can, and sounds an alarm that won't stop until the mask is back on or someone turns it off — so a mask pulled off at 2 a.m. can't be silently ignored for hours.

Treating sleep apnea is linked in research to better sleep and slower cognitive decline — but a CPAP only works while the mask is on. Confusion, restlessness, and memory loss make nighttime mask removal common in dementia, and a caregiver can't stay awake watching all night. That's the gap MaskAlarm was built to close.

MaskAlarm is a monitoring and alerting aid that helps keep prescribed CPAP therapy in place. It is not a medical device and does not diagnose, treat, or prevent dementia, Alzheimer's disease, or sleep apnea. Research on CPAP and cognition is ongoing — always follow your healthcare provider's guidance about diagnosis and treatment.

See how your therapy really goes.

MaskAlarm is more than an alarm. Every night it quietly tracks your CPAP use, then turns it into a clear picture each morning — so you know you're actually getting your therapy, and can catch problems early.

• An AI Sleep Report every morning. A plain-English summary of your night — total mask-on time, when and how often the mask came off, and time spent out of bed — written for the night you just slept.
• Compliance at a glance. See whether you hit the hours your therapy needs, without digging through your machine's data.
• History & trends. Follow your nights over time to spot patterns, measure improvement, and see what's working.

What it looks like on your phone.