When will I feel rested?

What's the next step? If my AHI is less than 1 and I sleep at least 6 to 8hrs each night and have used my machine faithfully for 4 years and I still feel exhausted all the time, what's the next step?

I'm tired of not feeling rested. I wish I could sleep 12 hrs straight like I used to.

I've reached the point where I need a nap a few hours after waking.

I'll pull my data when I wake up this afternoon if anyone thinks it would be helpful.

Back. Slept about another 4 1/2 hours. That's a total of 12 1/2 total hours today.

So, NOW I feel great. Very rested. But as I've been told I shouldn't need this much sleep. But I, myself, very much DO feel I need this much.

The first seven-ish hours on the left were from about 11:30pm to about 7am was worth absolutely nothing. I woke up just as exhausted as when I went to bed. Just as moody and irritable. After dropping off my son at daycare, I went back to bed.

(sorry, the time in sleepyhead is off by several hours and I don't know how to fix that.)

yourbrokenoven wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 15, 2018 9:44 am

. . . I sleep at least 6 to 8hrs each night . . .

You may have just answered your own question with that "6 to."

yourbrokenoven wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 15, 2018 2:35 pm

. . . Slept about another 4 1/2 hours. That's a total of 12 1/2 total hours today. So, NOW I feel great . . .

When more sleep helps how you feel, you may feel better with more sleep.

The principles of good sleep hygiene (worth a google or two, when you find the time) apply just as much to successful PAP users as the principles apply to the rest of the human race. PAP just allows us to follow the principles more successfully than others, should we choose to do so.

It CAN be a mystery to solve sometimes and a bit of a puzzle. It just pays off big when you find that missing piece! I wish you all the success with that. I'm sure you'll solve it.

yourbrokenoven wrote:Back. Slept about another 4 1/2 hours. That's a total of 12 1/2 total hours today.

So, NOW I feel great. Very rested. But as I've been told I shouldn't need this much sleep. But I, myself, very much DO feel I need this much.

The first seven-ish hours on the left were from about 11:30pm to about 7am was worth absolutely nothing. I woke up just as exhausted as when I went to bed. Just as moody and irritable. After dropping off my son at daycare, I went back to bed.

(sorry, the time in sleepyhead is off by several hours and I don't know how to fix that.)

There's a big gap in your data? And what in the world is an unclassified apnea? Never seen that before.

Sent from my Kogan Agora 8 using Tapatalk
Dreamstation Auto Nasal Mask
Pressure Setting at 9-20 cm H20. currently. Still working on getting AHI below 5

Danlo67 wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 15, 2018 3:07 pm

And what in the world is an unclassified apnea? Never seen that before.

UA...something happened but the machine didn't know what to call it. Usually seen when there is a spike in the leak rate.
The big leak makes it harder for the machine to figure out exactly what is going on.

The gap is where I woke up, got my son dressed, and took him to daycare (again, the time in the data is wrong. I took the mask off at about 7 or 7:30, not 4am.) I went back to sleep around 10:30 am and slept to about 3.

The unclassified apnea seems to happen early on. I remember having a lot of difficulty with my mask (happenes every few nights) where it's just really uncomfortably tight or leaking profusely. I may have taken the mask off in frustration and left the machine running when I went to the bathroom and then for a glass of water.

Well, the last time I posted something about feeling like I need more than 8 hrs of sleep, I was told that I shouldn't need more than like 6 to 8 hrs when using cpap/bipap. So, now you guys are saying my feelings are correct, I'm not going crazy, and that I DO need more like 10 to 12 hrs of sleep?

At least I can figure that part out. I thought something was wrong with my treatment (Mask, pressures, etc). If it's number of hours of sleep, that's completely on me and requires quite a different plan of action. (getting kids to bed earlier)



Again, thanks.

My point was that if getting more sleep helps the way you feel, it may be that you are not scheduling enough sleep every night. If you need 8, for example, a few nights of getting 6 may make you run a sleep deficit that requires that you catch up on your sleep. One or two hours one way or the other is a big difference for some of us.

Not trying to be confusing. Sorry if I am. I don't always get the sleep I need myself. And sometimes the act of posting something and seeing what we wrote helps us answer our own questions. I think that's human nature. I know it is mine.

It makes sense if others suggested that getting 12 hours every night is out of the norm and may indicate a sleep issue. But it is a principle of sleep hygiene that we figure out how much sleep we individually need then try our best to schedule getting that amount every night. If we need 7.5 every night but only get 7, that burden may make us feel the need to nap to catch up.

The ranges commonly given are averages indicating a person can learn from what a healthy range is. But that does not mean it is good sleep hygiene simply to fall somewhere in that range each night. The idea is to figure out what YOUR needs are and then try to get that exact amount each night, within reason.

But hey, nothing wrong with naps, if that works for you, as long as you use PAP during them. It is just that trying to schedule the perfect amount for YOU every night may be the regularity that makes you feel best. And admittedly, sometimes our needs change according to our rhythms, cycles, emotions, and mental states. A stressed person may need more for a while. It isn't a perfect science. Just a valuable principle.

As I type this, it is counsel I need to do better at following myself. It is a struggle for all of us. And it is easy to forget the principles in the midst of real life. I was only trying to throw around ideas that might help--not accuse or confuse.

One recent change in sleep hygiene recommendations is added stress on waking up at the same time every morning--that now seems very important, if we can pull that off. It allows your body to know how to schedule that last long session of REM that most of us need in order to feel rested and ready to go when we wake up. Is that always gonna work with kids, dogs, and mates. No, not always. But it is a powerful tool for understanding to file away to help us figure out what is going on if we get into an unsustainable pattern.

Hey, don't let any of us make you feel bad about any of this. After all, we have a moderator here who stays up half the night some nights playing odd cyberspace wargames with alien spammers.

Do you sleep on your back most of the time? if so, trying sleep on your side might help somewhat