Been chasing the effects and feelings of week 1

[SrDrowsy]

I’ve been on cpap for about 3 and a half months now. Was diagnosed with severe osa, ahi was 50. On the first week I had an explosive amount of energy, focus and concentration. After day 6 it dipped and vanished. I’ve been chasing that feeling ever since. I recently stopped taking an ssri (8 days ago) and I feel definitely feel less drowsy. My specialist stopped answering my emails shortly after I picked up my cpap machine so I’ve been raising my cm level incrementaly for the past few weeks. I was at 9 and am currently at 12.

I must have had osa for nearly 20 years. Will I continue to get better? Will I ever feel again the effects I had on week 1?

[TedVPAP]

I’ve been on cpap for about 3 and a half months now. Was diagnosed with severe osa, ahi was 50. On the first week I had an explosive amount of energy, focus and concentration. After day 6 it dipped and vanished. I’ve been chasing that feeling ever since. I recently stopped taking an ssri (8 days ago) and I feel definitely feel less drowsy. My specialist stopped answering my emails shortly after I picked up my cpap machine so I’ve been raising my cm level incrementaly for the past few weeks. I was at 9 and am currently at 12.

I must have had osa for nearly 20 years. Will I continue to get better? Will I ever feel again the effects I had on week 1?

To give you the best advice, data is needed. See the three links below.

[DonO]

I had the same experience in the first week. It seems to have passed now that I’m around 30 days in, but I’m thinking that I got back to normal so quickly that I readjusted to it quickly. I still feel like doing more things than before CPAP, but that first week was like waking up! It was wonderful.

[nicholasjh1]

A number of things could be happening

1. as you have guessed you may need a higher pressure. Data would help us help you with this.
2. Studies show that Creatine levels raise at night with apnea sufferers (especially non-treated, but also in treated) this is the bodies attempt to have enough energy to survive the night (in my opinion, as Creatine is a catalyst for cell ATP which transfers energy). on Initial CPAP use normally someone is already exhausted... so even with the adjustment to the mask they may sleep relatively well, and the difference from before with low oxygen, CO2 poisoning, wakeups (even the one's you don't remember because you were being starved of oxygen) the difference may be dramatic, and easily noticeable... but the other thing that can be happening is that even with the raised creatine levels at night, you're so exhausted you get some sleep, so you still have that energy store during the day. as you progress your body begins to normalize and have enough rest, but according to the studies you still have raised creatine at night. In my opinion this is because your body has been trained this way for a long time. so as I was more rested I tended to be quite awake after the initial catchup period, thus my sleep actually got worse, though my brain was no longer dieing. Over time the hope is your body normalizes, but the habits of a lifetime can be hard to break, so long term recovery can vary between individuals. in addition studies show that it takes a year for the brain to fully recover from severe apnea's oxygen deprivation. Severe sufferers have been shown to have lost up to 30% of their brain mass according to one study I looked at.
3. This could be the "new normal" at first I thought it might not be working any more, but observation showed me that my performance was much higher. It's like holding your breath for a really long time. That first breathe of air feels better and more alive than any normal breath. Another example would be the taste of food when you're really hungry. I know when I'm starving things just tend to taste delicious. but with successful therapy, it eventually became obvious that I was becoming more engaged, could exercise *MUCH* more easily and generally things were just better. Go on a quick run, you might be surprised at how good it feels.
4. Adrenaline bursts.... Something I experienced... I believe I had adrenal fatigue from the apnea... during the initial few days there was no big difference, but as my overall health got better and my adrenaline wasn't being overutilized at night I'd get burst of crazy energy just walking up the stairs or other activities. So adrenal fatigue could confuse things... as in initial therapy may allow you to have a better adrenal profile, but the body could overuse it then during the day... eventually it recovers to normal function... in otherwords apnea sufferers endocrine system is effed up pre-therapy and it takes a while to normalize. this could exhibit in any number of ways.

[SrDrowsy]

To give you the best advice, data is needed. See the three links below.

How's this?

[TASmart]

Read the OP he tells you how he feels and what the issue is.

[TedVPAP]

To give you the best advice, data is needed. See the three links below.

How's this?

Your data looks good, but possibly room for improvement.
You are set for a constant IPAP pressure of 12. I would switch to Auto-CPAP and set the lower IPAP limit to 11 and the upper IPAP limit to 15. Post the results after a couple of days.

[SrDrowsy]

To give you the best advice, data is needed. See the three links below.

How's this?

Your data looks good, but possibly room for improvement.
You are set for a constant IPAP pressure of 12. I would switch to Auto-CPAP and set the lower IPAP limit to 11 and the upper IPAP limit to 15. Post the results after a couple of days.

How's this:
https://imgur.com/a/UleuE

I'm feeling a lot better and I think that's because I stopped taking my SSRI's.

[SrDrowsy]

I'm feeling even better now! It definitely seems that the SSRI I was on caused a lot of issues.

[TedVPAP]

I'm feeling even better now! It definitely seems that the SSRI I was on caused a lot of issues.

Glad to hear you are feeling better. Did you sleep numbers also improve?

[SrDrowsy]

I'm feeling even better now! It definitely seems that the SSRI I was on caused a lot of issues.

Glad to hear you are feeling better. Did you sleep numbers also improve?

I think so, check it out
https://imgur.com/a/fQ1Q4

[TedVPAP]

I'm feeling even better now! It definitely seems that the SSRI I was on caused a lot of issues.

Glad to hear you are feeling better. Did you sleep numbers also improve?

I think so, check it out
https://imgur.com/a/fQ1Q4

An improvement.
I would give it a few weeks before entertaining any further PAP changes. Then you could try making some small changes to minimum pressure.
The Auto algorithm works best when it see's flow limitations; increasing pressure to avoid hypopneas and apneas. Some people (like you) don't present flow limitations so pressure changes are not as proactive as we would like. In those cases, a higher minimum is needed in order to reduce the AHI.