Newbie - How Long Before I Start Feeling Better?

[Kazak]

Greetings.

After being diagnosed with a moderate sleep apnea in November, I have been trying to get accustomed to my CPAP for the past five weeks (AirSense 10, nasal mask, autoramp of 4, final pressure of 10). I am finally used to wearing the nasal mask and feel as though I am able to fall asleep now somewhat like the pre-mask days. However, I am not experiencing any benefits yet in terms of feeling less fatigued and tired during the day. How long can this process take before I do start feeling like I've actually slept a good night's sleep?

I have also installed SleepyHead and am looking at my data. I can provide screen shots if that would be helpful. In general, my AHI is trending under 5 now, but I see in reading the forum that I should be striving for 1.

Thanks in advance for any advice here on how long it can take before I start to see some benefit.

[zoocrewphoto]

Greetings.

After being diagnosed with a moderate sleep apnea in November, I have been trying to get accustomed to my CPAP for the past five weeks (AirSense 10, nasal mask, autoramp of 4, final pressure of 10). I am finally used to wearing the nasal mask and feel as though I am able to fall asleep now somewhat like the pre-mask days. However, I am not experiencing any benefits yet in terms of feeling less fatigued and tired during the day. How long can this process take before I do start feeling like I've actually slept a good night's sleep?

I have also installed SleepyHead and am looking at my data. I can provide screen shots if that would be helpful. In general, my AHI is trending under 5 now, but I see in reading the forum that I should be striving for 1.

Thanks in advance for any advice here on how long it can take before I start to see some benefit.

It will vary from person to person since there are a ton of factors. How bad was your sleep compared to how much better it is. And there are many factors just in that. For example, we are categorized into mild moderate, and severe based on the number of events per hour. But we can also be mild to severe in terms of how long events last, how low our oxygen levels go, and if we clusters of events or spread out. We can also react to sleep apnea by waking up so frequently to avoid oxygen saturation that we barely get any real sleep.

As we use cpap, we can improve our sleep quality. But how fast that happens depends on our comfort with the mask, how well we trust the machine while asleep enough to actually sleep deeper than previously, etc.

For me personally, I noticed that my sleep was longer with fewer interruptions right away, but I was pretty severe at 79+ per hour. I did not feel more energetic right away, just not as crappy. Other things improved over the next few weeks - more cheerful, no more headaches, no more bad dreams, etc. I still don't feel extremely energetic. I have only had a few of those nights. But I do feel better in general, and I am not tired all the time like I used to be.

Welcome to the group. And do post some shots from sleepyhead. Most people do feel better when they get below an ahi of 2, rather than 5. We can help you do that.

[Mudrock63]

Greetings.

After being diagnosed with a moderate sleep apnea in November, I have been trying to get accustomed to my CPAP for the past five weeks (AirSense 10, nasal mask, autoramp of 4, final pressure of 10). I am finally used to wearing the nasal mask and feel as though I am able to fall asleep now somewhat like the pre-mask days. However, I am not experiencing any benefits yet in terms of feeling less fatigued and tired during the day. How long can this process take before I do start feeling like I've actually slept a good night's sleep?

I have also installed SleepyHead and am looking at my data. I can provide screen shots if that would be helpful. In general, my AHI is trending under 5 now, but I see in reading the forum that I should be striving for 1.

Thanks in advance for any advice here on how long it can take before I start to see some benefit.

You have jumped a big hurdle getting used to sleeping with the mask and machine. A lot of folks have difficulty when they start out. I would definitely post a some screenshots of a few nights data. The good folks on here may have suggestions for tweaking your settings that will help maximize your results.

I've been at it for just over three months. Finally have AHI down to the 4.0-6.0 range. Not totally there yet. Like you, I want to see these events down to 1.0 or less. As far as results, I feel much better. Overall fatigue level is way down. No headaches. Better attitude. The funny thing is you adjust to the new normal, and tend to forget how bad things were before therapy. I had a wake up call last Thursday night. The power went out, machine went off during storms. Friday I felt like pure hell. A nice reminder that the therapy is providing a great deal of help even though I feel it isn't "perfect" yet.

[Sheriff Buford]

As Zoo stated, it depends. I woke up with my ah-ha morning around day 17. With some folks, it's a gradual thing. You really have to be sensitive to how you feel during the day to appreciate the effects. Keep up the good work. What is your AHI average? I have never been a fan of the 5 AHI. If your AHI is 5... then that means you averaged 5 events per hour. If you slept 7 hours, then you had a total of 35 events over the 7 hour period. To me that is ridiculous. That's way too many events for a person trying to treat this disease. Oh well...

Best Wishes, Sheriff

[Cardsfan]

Hi Kazak- and welcome.
In terms of feeling better- my sleep Dr said "it takes 6 months for your brain to recover". I started feeling my energy coming back after 2-3 months. It is a long process. But, at first my
AHI was not where it is now. After listening to advice here, and a yr. of tweaking my settings, I have an AHI of below 1 almost every night.
When I first started therapy my settings were not ideal, and my AHI hovered around 3 or 4. Which below 5 is considered acceptable by Doctors. I do not believe a doctor would be happy with himself being woke up 5 times every hour all night long.
So the lower you get that AHI, the better your sleep and recovery will be.
There are other things you can do in the meantime. Do not sleep on your back. Sleeping on your side helps keep your airway open. Avoid caffeine, avoid alcohol (it interferes with the sleep cycle). If you can elevate the head of your bed, that also helps. I have one of those adjustable beds and sleep with it up a little. My neighbor, a nurse, told me she puts bricks under the feet of the head of her bed.
And , if you post some of your sleepyhead screenshots, you will get help with your settings.

[Michelle-OH]

I started not having daily morning headaches immediately. I've been using for about 7 weeks now and I no longer get up 2-3 x night to go to the bathroom because I'm actually sleeping. I know people who say they wake up feeling like they are 20-30 years younger, I'm not there yet. I saw my sleep doc last fri, he said as long as my AHI was at a 5, where it's been, that's basically all I could hope for...I know he's wrong only from results I've seen from people here. The E.R. doc last weekend when I was there with my mom mentioned the possibility of her needing to be placed on a bi-pap due to her pneumonia and asked if I knew what that was, then said I didn't look like someone who needed a cpap. Proof that docs know so little compared to people on this site!!

[R1200ST]

I noticed that I started recovering in the second month. What I noticed immediately is the fact that I didn't wake with dry mouth, sinus issues, headaches, blurry vision, bags under my eyes etc.

The full body fatigue was a gradual issue that really, I did have the ah ha moment about two months in.

Been having issues with cedar fever, and I went three nights without my CPAP, and when I went back on, I noticed a IMMEDIATE difference the next morning.

So be patient, you will get there. Make sure you are not having a lot of sleep interrupts. You need that DEEEP sleep!

[jt1]

I guess I was a lucky one, I immediately noticed a difference the first night in the sleep lab. I'm just about 60 days into treatment and am tweaking my settings.
First few weeks was anywhere from a ahi of 9 down to 0.4! Right now its around 0.4 -3.0 ahi. I've had 2 nights of perfect 0.0 ahi confirmed In sleepyhead with the smiley face! I felt amazing the next morning! Hopefully the can get under 1 consistently. I still have some adjustments to make but I'm also sleeping 8.5-9 hrs recovering from all those years. Normally I only sleep about 6 hrs. Keep with it and don't hesitate to ask questions, there are several members who really know their stuff and will help get you dialed in. The hard part is done, your comfortable with the machine and cam tolerate it. Good luck.

[Kazak]

Thank you for all your support and comments. Truly appreciated.

Here are some SleepyHead screenshots for the past three days. Sorry for the multiple images per day, I see that SleepyHead shows multiple sessions per day.

[OkyDoky]

It looks like your pressure is controlling your obstructives and I would not change the pressure. What you are having are clear airway events and increasing pressure does not help because there is no obstruction for the pressure to prevent. You might take a look at your medications because sedatives/ pain meds especially opioids can cause them. If you aren't taking meds that might contribute then I wouldn't worry we all have some and your numbers are not high.
Fatigue is trully an elusive thing to chase down sometimes but you are doing the right thing to continue using your machine.

[Cardsfan]

I will address the ramp setting of 4. I suggest you try raising that to at least 6 or 7 for the comfort of it. At 4, I feel like I am starving for air. And set at 4, if you fall asleep as soon as your head hits the pillow, you are barely getting treatment. You can do this one point at a time, live with it a few days, then repeat. Ramp is a comfort setting, and anything you can do to improve your cpap comfort helps.

[Cardsfan]

I would change from cpap mode to apap mode. You do have some obstructive events sneaking thru. I would keep the setting of 10 as my lower number and set the higher number to 11 or even 12. See where the machine wants to go to keep your airway open.
Whatever changes you make, do it in small steps and live with it a few days to see the trend. Since I like to do baby steps, I would go with apap set at 10-11.

[Kazak]

It looks like your pressure is controlling your obstructives and I would not change the pressure. What you are having are clear airway events and increasing pressure does not help because there is no obstruction for the pressure to prevent. You might take a look at your medications because sedatives/ pain meds especially opioids can cause them. If you aren't taking meds that might contribute then I wouldn't worry we all have some and your numbers are not high.
Fatigue is trully an elusive thing to chase down sometimes but you are doing the right thing to continue using your machine.

Not on any meds currently. And yes, trying to find the rhyme/reason for fatigue is quite the challenge. Trying to do all the other recommended things: exercise, diet, limiting caffeine intake, and so on.

Thanks!

[Kazak]

I would change from cpap mode to apap mode. You do have some obstructive events sneaking thru. I would keep the setting of 10 as my lower number and set the higher number to 11 or even 12. See where the machine wants to go to keep your airway open.
Whatever changes you make, do it in small steps and live with it a few days to see the trend. Since I like to do baby steps, I would go with apap set at 10-11.

Hi Cardsfan,

I see in your previous post that recommend increasing the ramp pressure. Should I try that first, and then experiment with changing from cpap to apap mode? I'm not sure I quite understand that, nor that my machine supports that. (Read the manual, didn't see anything about mode - are you suggesting going with an 'apap' machine?)

Thanks!

[Cardsfan]

Hi we have the same machine. Do you know how to get into the clinical menu to change your settings? You can set your machine to apap.