So glad I found you

[abeardneglected]

Oh, man, I'm so happy I found this forum. I read a dozen discussions today and they have rekindled my hope that I can do this.

Tonight is Night 6 of CPAP therapy for me. I have been miserable. I feel like I'm getting used to the equipment and the air while I'm awake, but every time I drift off to sleep I stop breathing, wake up, drift off, wake up - my record is 42 times in one hour. I'm so exhausted. I'm not sure if I've slept more than a few seconds at a time with the device on. During most of the day I feel like I just finished a day at the pool with a bully who kept pushing me under the water. I'm comforted to find others have been through something similar (this and this were particularly helpful).

Anyway, I just wanted to say hi and thanks to those who created and maintain this resource. I'm sure I'll be back often. Probably around 4am.

[Julie]

Please download Oscar (see top of pg) and follow directions re posting what (and not what) here so we can see what's up.

Also complete Profile re what model of which machine and mask you have, plus whether you take any meds, alcohol before bed, etc. etc.

Return to this thread with all and we'll try to help.

Thanks!

[zonker]

Anyway, I just wanted to say hi and thanks to those who created and maintain this resource. I'm sure I'll be back often. Probably around 4am.

welcome to the zoo! let me say it's a pleasure to see someone come in and do some background reading instead of just asking the same question they could've had answer with some research.

as julie says, if you want some help, well, do as she suggested.


meanwhile, carry on.

[Miss Emerita]

Welcome! You definitely can do this. You have a great machine, and you've come to a great forum for help. The occasional lucky soul takes to PAP instantly, but most of us have a hard time of it at first. In other words, you have a lot of company!

You're trying to relax and sleep with a very weird, brand new experience going on. Once the experience becomes more familiar, it'll be easier to drop off. You can accelerate the process of adaptation by setting the machine up outside your bedroom during the day or evening and using it for several hours while you do something diverting, e.g., watching TV or reading. This gets your mind and body to start calming down about the strange sensations.

If you won't mess up an insurance requirement for "compliance," I would even recommend that you stick with this routine for several days, even a week, before you try again to sleep with the machine on.

In the meantime, you can also help yourself by following the guidelines below. At the beginning, I didn't. I thought they sounded really mickey-mouse and didn't apply to me. In desperation, I finally tried using them, and lo and behold, they actually helped.

• Keep a consistent sleep schedule. Get up at the same time every day, even on weekends or during vacations.
• Set a bedtime that is early enough for you to get at least 7 hours of sleep.
• Don’t go to bed unless you are sleepy.
• If you don’t fall asleep after 20 minutes, get out of bed.
• Establish a relaxing bedtime routine.
• Use your bed only for sleep and sex.
• Make your bedroom quiet and relaxing. Keep the room at a comfortable, cool temperature.
• Limit exposure to bright light in the evenings.
• Turn off electronic devices at least 30 minutes before bedtime.
• Don’t eat a large meal before bedtime. If you are hungry at night, eat a light, healthy snack.
• Exercise regularly and maintain a healthy diet.
• Avoid consuming caffeine in the late afternoon or evening.
• Avoid consuming alcohol before bedtime.
• Reduce your fluid intake before bedtime.

[abeardneglected]

Thanks, all! Good advice. I put an SD card in the machine today and installed OSCAR on my computer so we’ll see what it has to say soon. I am stoked right now because I took a Sunday afternoon nap and actually fell asleep for about an hour with the machine on! Never been so excited about my nap performance before.

[zonker]

Thanks, all! Good advice. I put an SD card in the machine today and installed OSCAR on my computer so we’ll see what it has to say soon. I am stoked right now because I took a Sunday afternoon nap and actually fell asleep for about an hour with the machine on! Never been so excited about my nap performance before.

a step in the right direction.

[Iceman1217]

Thanks, all! Good advice. I put an SD card in the machine today and installed OSCAR on my computer so we’ll see what it has to say soon. I am stoked right now because I took a Sunday afternoon nap and actually fell asleep for about an hour with the machine on! Never been so excited about my nap performance before.

I feel like I'm in the same boat as well. Do you feel yourself falling asleep and then having a weird feeling through your body that tells you to get up? Just wondering if that's something that's normal when you start CPAP.

[abeardneglected]

I'm checking out my first couple of days of data. Between a nap and an interrupted night-time session I got about 4 hours yesterday. (I unchecked the 35-minute session where I just had it on while reading a book.) The chart shows the crazy number of Clear Airway events I'm having every time I drift off.

Sep 20 chart.png (204.66 KiB) Viewed 2647 times

It looks like I fought the machine from 23:05 - 23:25 and then fell asleep for about 35 minutes and resumed the fight from 00:02 - 00:48, at which point I gave up and gently threw the mask to the floor. A glutton for punishment, I had another gasping session from 05:11 - 05:55 and then called it a night.

Kind of interesting to see it all graphed out. Hopefully I can build up longer sessions soon.

[Miss Emerita]

Quick question: do you know the breakdown of events in your sleep study (OA, CA, H)?

I just came across this very interesting article:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2287191/

The section on State Related Changes in the Control of Breathing might be especially relevant to your situation.

The broad takeaway is that there are a number of complex neurochemical handoffs that occur as we fall asleep, and they don't always go smoothly. I don't have any expertise to offer, except to say that often on this forum we see people who have a lot of CAs at the start of their PAP treatment who then see the numbers of CAs diminish significantly.

[abeardneglected]

Quick question: do you know the breakdown of events in your sleep study (OA, CA, H)?

OA = 94
CA = 0
H = 53
AHI = 23.1/hr

Thanks for the article - I'll check it out.

[Miss Emerita]

Very good. We're not dealing with central or mixed apnea here.

[abeardneglected]

Last night was encouraging. I still felt like I drifted in and out of sleep all night, but when I looked at the clock I was surprised to see it had jumped ahead. The biggest surprise was experiencing mostly-uninterrupted unconsciousness from about 3:05am to almost 5am. I'm hopeful this means it's mostly about acclimatizing to the machine and it's just a matter of time. I'm visiting the dr tomorrow to see if adjusting the min air pressure or something else might help.

Sep 22 chart.png (206.79 KiB) Viewed 2571 times

[Julie]

You really do seem to have mostly central events, which if they prove to be real (would rather Pugsy comment) would point to your getting a different type of machine as regular C- Apaps don't address it at all, and e.g. more pressure would not help.

[Okie bipap]

You may have treatment onset central apnea. This may or may not get better with treatment. My wife was diagnosed with it when she first started treatment. Hers got better over a period of around four months.

[abeardneglected]

You may have treatment onset central apnea. This may or may not get better with treatment. My wife was diagnosed with it when she first started treatment. Hers got better over a period of around four months.

Oh, interesting. I'll look more into that. I found this on the Mayo Clinic site:

"Treatment-emergent central sleep apnea. Some people with obstructive sleep apnea develop central sleep apnea while using continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) for their sleep apnea treatment. This condition is known as treatment-emergent central sleep apnea and is a combination of obstructive and central sleep apneas.
. . .
For most people, treatment-emergent central sleep apnea goes away with continued use of a CPAP device. Other people may be treated with a different kind of positive airway pressure therapy.