4am monster

[TD7410]

Had my first follow up dr appointment today. Was expecting to get scolded for changing my pressure settings,was prescribed 5 CPAP. Well that was too low so I inched up to 8 and it feels pretty good. Well instead of getting chewed out I found he had no clue what I had done other then what I told him. I finally downloaded and installed sleepyhead and have several nights data transferred to the laptop. Now the problem. Most nights, not all I am waking, and I mean wide awake at 3:30-4. Those nights I feel like CRAP the next day. The AHI's are practically flat line until that time when they spike. I confirmed that by looking at the clock and comparing to timeline on SH. I told doc this and his answer was its insomnia and prescribed an antidepressant, Trazadone 50mg. I really don't want to take these. I asked him if I needed to switch to APAP, he said no. I know the first response is to see the data, I'm working on it and will get it up here as soon as I can. Leaks, everything looks good until that 4am monster shows up. What do you guys think? BTW the only meds I'm on is Lipitor.

[Pugsy]

The insomnia monster comes visit you at 4 AM...then comes over to my house at 5 AM.
If I spot him I am going to shoot him. Fix both our problems.

It's not always so easy to figure out why the sleep maintenance insomnia monster comes calling. It's not always about cpap therapy or sleep apnea which is unfortunate because if it was those are fairly easy to spot a problem with and fix it. If you see leaks prior to waking up...it might be that all you need to fix is the leaks. If the leaks are after you wake up then unlikely to have caused the wake up.
There's a long list of potential culprits for waking earlier than we want and/or not being able to get back to sleep.
I am still trying to sort my issue out. Just started in the last month...and I just can't function well on 5 hours of sleep even if it is great sleep.

[TD7410]

Thx pugsy, I promise if get my hands on the monster he'll never make it to your house again! I guess what I'm asking is it possible that the AHI's can be controlled till then and appear? Or am I barking up the wrong tree? Is it worth trying APAP with say an 8-15 range?

[Goofproof]

Sleep Traps they are a lot like Bear Traps, except the teeth are lined with foam, to quiet then down when they are set off. Eight are the correct number , three down the side of the bed and two at the foot.

Remember, no sleep walking or potty breaks. Jim

[Pugsy]

Without seeing your reports I have no idea what you are seeing and can't really form much of an opinion or idea what might be causing the wake ups (and even then it is hard). My wake ups are totally unrelated to sleep apnea or my pressure or cpap.
I had one OA at 4:50 AM this morning and it looks like SWJ (sleep/wake/junk) to me...meaning I was probably awake laying there trying to get back to sleep when it happened.
Before that there one one lone very brief hyponea at 3:45 AM. It's not the apnea events waking me up. Something else is.

Post your detailed report though. Maybe something there stands our as a logical reason for the wake up.

I am leaving tomorrow...going to visit my daughter and grandson so I don't know how much I will be on the forum the next 4 days but someone here will try to help you out.

Though I will say this...if your OSA is worse in REM sleep or when on your back (or maybe a little of both) then it is possible for the AHI to increase in those wee hours of the morning where we will typically have more REM...and if that is happening and it is the OSA events causing the wake up then preventing a cluster of obstructive apneas or hyponeas might just help and worth trying.
If your events are primarily Clear Airway/Centrals...more pressure won't fix them.

[Julie]

It's quite possible you're having GERD (acid reflux) and it tends to act just like that... lets you sleep until it builds up and then boom, you're up! Don't have any caffeine after noon if you can manage that, and you might want to try something I've now done for years (but for you it would be a ? 2-nite experiment). Take just half a small(er) Tums right before bed... not a fancy prescribed PPI or anything else, just the Tums... and see what happens. It's worked for me unless I forget to take it, or take too small a piece, but otherwise it's great and there are no side FX to worry about. If it works for you, then you'll have at least a very likely answer (GERD is notorious in apnea pts), and if not, nothing lost.

[TD7410]

help a newb here. I took the screenshot in SH of the graphs how do I get it over here?

[TD7410]

[TD7410]

go easy on me that was my first!

[TedVPAP]

The three links below will help you post the necessary data.

[Pugsy]

go easy on me that was my first!

You probably want to use some place like imgur and not photobucket unless you want to pay 300 to 400 dollars a year so you can put your images on other web pages. They are holding probably over a 1000 of my images hostage and I refuse to pay the ransom for something they used to do for free.
That's okay...I think I found a way to work around it and say screw 'em.
If anyone wants to know...send me a private message. Only forum veterans please. I am not going to make it public and not to someone who registers here only to learn the work around.

[TD7410]

will do, I'll work on getting that done next chance I get which will be this weekend

[TASmart]

I found that when I started PAPing that I tended to wake at 4 AM wide awake. I believe it was because I was getting so much more sleep than I got u treated my brain told me to get up. Now, after 9 months, I sleep until about 8 AM with some alert wakes during the night. But even then I do not have to get out of bed to pee!

[TD7410]

BTW, tried melatonin before going to bed last night. Had trouble going to sleep but once there the monster didnt appear and the wife said that was the most peaceful she had seen me sleep in a while. Still a little fuzzy headed today, but we'll work on that. Thx for all the help.

[nicholasjh1]

I found that when I started PAPing that I tended to wake at 4 AM wide awake. I believe it was because I was getting so much more sleep than I got u treated my brain told me to get up. Now, after 9 months, I sleep until about 8 AM with some alert wakes during the night. But even then I do not have to get out of bed to pee!

My research and experience shows the same thing... We've been primed to have extra energy to survive the suffocations, or as the medical industry calls them apneas during the night. It makes sense then that when first starting therapy we have an unusual amount of night energy! Time helps with this, and personally I used provigil for a while to help reset my clock, I'm off of it for now.