A night without CPAP

[cpap450]

Not the dumbest thing I've done, but not the smartest either. Just playing "what if," I tried a night without CPAP after more than a year using it.

I'll often feel "at one" - with the room, with my wife - as I turn out the lights, and masking up certainly ends that "at-one-ness." Which is a main reason I tried it.

I noticed - as I've noticed mornings when I take the mask off and stay in bed - that I breathe totally through my nose, where pre-CPAP, it was mainly my mouth.

However, I noticed that as time went on - by about the one-hour mark - my jaw was slackening and I was using my mouth more. I think my nose did more than half the work the whole time, but the mouth gained more and more ground as the night continued.

One great thing I've noticed with CPAP is that my mouth is "normal" and fresh when I wake up, as opposed to dry, gummy, really gross like it had been before CPAP. This time my mouth wasn't immaculate, but it was still a lot better than it had been when it was my primary way of breathing.

As the night wore on, I would notice my nostrils not working as well. It felt a bit like they were closing up. My throat too got a bit tight, like I was getting a cold, although I was fine in the morning, and remained fine since.

It was a LONG time before I fell asleep, and the next day I was really hurting from lack of proper sleep. Although my wife thought I slept great, and said I never snored once.

The thing I most noticed during the night was that with CPAP, I can hear my breathing more, since the hose is right by my head. The sound serves as a form of reinforcement, and I feel like a "sleeping machine" - if I wake up, it's usually for moments, and the feeling and sound of my breathing reinforces me going back to sleep.

But of course, no CPAP, no sound reinforcement. One would think that the absence of sound would somehow make sleeping better. For me, it didn't.

I imagine that if I were ever away for an overnight trip, or a vacation, I'd sleep better than I did on this "experiment night." But even though I wasn't sick of CPAP - just curious - my experiment served to really validate how great it's been for me, and how it enhances the overall sleep experience. I wasn't looking for that outcome, but, having gotten it, I feel great about it!

[zonker]

Not the dumbest thing I've done, but not the smartest either. Just playing "what if," I tried a night without CPAP after more than a year using it.

you aren't alone.

i went a night without mine at the two year mark of using it. my resulting sleep was FAR worse than what you described.

i've thought to myself how i wake up frequently even using cpap. but it was far worse without it. plus i woke up with a headache. i felt like i was gasping for air all night long. will never knowingly do that again.

i think interesting how people sleep differently, each from the other. i'll bet we won't see any two folk who have tried going without having the same experience.

[Pugsy]

I have also had a night without cpap because I went on a trip and didn't include the long hose from humidifier to the mask...and didn't realize it until too late to figure out something.

It was a horrible, horrible night...multiple wake ups and pee breaks and woke up feeling like crap with a massive headache.
I got a rude reminder just how bad things were without cpap.

[Grumpy48]

I haven't tried a whole night without the CPAP, but if when I get up in the morning, take the mask off prior to a bathroom trip, and then head back to bed for a few extra winks, I get a drop in my O2 saturation levels (Wellue O2 ring) that is similar to what I was getting for a whole night prior to starting with the CPAP.

I took the mask off at about 6:20am, took the bathroom trip, and subsequently had the O2 drop after falling back to sleep.

o2 levels.jpg (173.54 KiB) Viewed 686 times

[rcobourn]

I've been under the impression that if you are used to CPAP and stop suddenly, you have an increased chance of cardiac events. This could be inaccurate, but maybe check into it before doing experiments.

[rdfry]

Had an in home sleep test to get a new apap. Not able to use apap and it was terrible just like all the previous sleep tests over 33 breathing stoppages an hour