Side Effects - Shaky, Body Aches, Fatigued, Chest Pain

Since I've been using the CPAP, about 1 month, I've had these side effect: Shaky, Body Aches, Fatigued, Chest Pain. Anyone else? I've told my Pulmonologist and my PCP and they don't seem to be alarmed about it. I find it bizarre and starting to get kinda freaked out about it.

If your pulmonologist and your PCP say you're OK, then it may be you've begun to over-breathe during the day. It's quite common and it's officially called 'hyper-ventilation syndrome'. I'm surprised your docs didn't mention it.

The remedy is breathing exercises. There's a book out - Self-Help for Hyperventilation Syndrome by Dinah Bradley. She's a qualified respiratory physiologist, and Amazon has both new and used paperback copies.

If doing the exercises by yourself doesn't work, you can ask to be referred to a respiratory physiotherapist to help you get them right.

PS. HVS isn't a necessary sequel or side-effect to CPAP, and the onset here may just be co-incidental. But the remedy is the same in any event.

Well, interesting, but not much use - you have given zero info on your machine, mask, any software you might have access to so you know what goes on overnight, what your pressure settings are (vs scripted ones), whether you're prone to anxiety problems (not a crime) or have ever been diagnosed with e.g. chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia, whether you're on meds (which ones plse) for anything, whether you're comfortable wearing the mask, etc. etc. We'd like to help but have no way to start.

And I would not assume that any kind of resp. syndrome (at least yet) is the problem... way too early to do that.

For the body aches, get a mattress topper. You are probably sleeping in one position for much longer lengths of time then you used to and you body is hurting. The first month my hips hurt so much I had a topper and two old duvets on my mattress to help with it. After a few more weeks it won't bother you so much.

If the doctor is not worried the chest pain are just chest muscles having to work harder to help the exhale and like any other muscle they get sore. As they get stronger that will go away.

You may be fatigued because your body wants more sleep to do more repairs. I slept like a log for 10-12 hours the first few months.

When I first started out, I had a shortness-of-breath feeling during the day. My sleep doc thought I may be retaining CO2 (or something like that), so he had me reduce my pressure from 9 to 8.5. I stopped having the problem when I did that. I'm not saying that's your issue (as you are having more symptoms than I did), and it could have been just a coincidence that my daytime breathing issue stopped when I reduced the pressure. Just sharing my experience. Oh, and now when I up the pressure a bit for any reason, I don't have any daytime breathing issues. (I do have software that I use to monitor my therapy.)

Suggest you push your general practitioner for investigation as to what is causing your symptoms. While some of your symptoms might be explained away, some are peculiar. For instance, soreness (pain) in the chest/ribs area is common to newbies but should go away after a while. When one first gets effective treatment, it's often reported to feel extra tired for a while, like the body needs more of that restorative sleep. This too should wane over time. Air trapped in the stomach can feel like chest pain. But I can't remember reading about being shaky and having body aches as a direct result of treating sleep apnea with CPAP. If you are on any meds, please review them with the prescribing doctor. The dosage appropriate for the body chemistry of the sleep deprived may not be the same as for the rested body. Because some of your symptoms could indicate a problem needing treatment, I wouldn't let them be dismissed without some evaluation.

As a side note, was there any mention of limb movements in your sleep study report? In my experience, because my muscles (especially legs and lower body) never rested during sleep enough to be restored, they became so depleted of strength they ached terribly and at some point my legs were too weak and shaky to even navigate steps. My case was an outlier due to long standing augmentation on a med, so is not likely to be your issue. Just throwing it out just in case you or someone else reading this might benefit.

Thanks for posting these symptoms and the replies. I've had many of the same symptoms.

kteague wrote:Suggest you push your general practitioner for investigation as to what is causing your symptoms. While some of your symptoms might be explained away, some are peculiar. For instance, soreness (pain) in the chest/ribs area is common to newbies but should go away after a while. When one first gets effective treatment, it's often reported to feel extra tired for a while, like the body needs more of that restorative sleep. This too should wane over time. Air trapped in the stomach can feel like chest pain. But I can't remember reading about being shaky and having body aches as a direct result of treating sleep apnea with CPAP.

It's very helpful to know that soreness in the chest/ribs area is common in newbies. I'm also feeling extra tired and breathless, like I've just got done working out, but it lasts for hours into the next day. I've had some body aches as well. Maybe I'll try my pressure down a very small amount and see if that makes a difference.

Thanks to all of you so willing to help out those of us that are new just starting out.

LookingUp! wrote:Thanks for posting these symptoms and the replies. I've had many of the same symptoms.

kteague wrote:Suggest you push your general practitioner for investigation as to what is causing your symptoms. While some of your symptoms might be explained away, some are peculiar. For instance, soreness (pain) in the chest/ribs area is common to newbies but should go away after a while. When one first gets effective treatment, it's often reported to feel extra tired for a while, like the body needs more of that restorative sleep. This too should wane over time. Air trapped in the stomach can feel like chest pain. But I can't remember reading about being shaky and having body aches as a direct result of treating sleep apnea with CPAP.

It's very helpful to know that soreness in the chest/ribs area is common in newbies. I'm also feeling extra tired and breathless, like I've just got done working out, but it lasts for hours into the next day. I've had some body aches as well. Maybe I'll try my pressure down a very small amount and see if that makes a difference.

Thanks to all of you so willing to help out those of us that are new just starting out.

OMGosh Me too.


I am really not doing well. But I hate failing and am the queen of denial. So I am cheating and trying to use the machine during waking hours so that I can "be stupid compliant".

Like a child.
The things that have happened to me in the last few years have made me a child.
Beaten down.

Not who I was.

Anyway~~~

This apap machine(or something) has caused me scary chest pains. And the feeling that I cannot breath even the next day. A breathless feeling. I NEVER had anything like that before ...

I even hear it in the sound of my voice. A breathlessness even just talking.


When I give up at night (usually after an hour of use) my nose hurts inside and out and is 75% of the time clogged up.
...and my breathing is frantic and erratic.

(I have never had allergies or breathing issues)

I was debating about starting a thread about what would happen to a healthy person who used this machine when they didn't need to?
...because I was thinking they would have the symptoms I am having.

I think part of my issue is that I never had a inlab sleep study or titration study. So I have no faith in the diagnosis.

I was open minded about the idea that this would help my healing so I didn't fight the idea.

...but now with so many negative symptoms I just don't know what to do?

So I am buying time and just "cheating" like a punk until I can get the energy up to confront the situation with a doctor.
(and reading and posting a little here while educating myself)

I think my nasal mask the "eson" might be awful.

This ad popped up on my computer and I don't know if this "dreamweaver?" mask is better or if it is silly hype?

I kinda hate that "cookies" make ads like this pop up.
Now all the internet knows I have a cpap machine.

http://www.easybreathe.com/blog/new-dre ... ar_desktop

Grace~~~ wrote:I was debating about starting a thread about what would happen to a healthy person who used this machine when they didn't need to?

pretty much nothing. the same side effects as anybody else that started exercising little used muscles... some muscle ache for a bit.

Have you utilized the exhale relief settings ? • Expiratory Pressure Relief (EPR™) on ResMed machines or, •C-Flex Plus Pressure Relief , etc on Phillips Respironics machines. This feature can help some in their fight to overcome the air pressure when they try to exhale. Good luck.

And I wonder how much you've experimented with humidity settings - none of which are mandatory for 'therapy'. I never use my humidifier, others need a high setting year round, but if you're in an e.g. naturally humid climate more often, you could be creating trouble if your setting is high, and vice versa, plus seasons can make a big difference as well. There is such a thing as humidity induced asthma that can develop in anyone at any age, though I'm certainly not saying that's affexting you, just suggesting you look at various possibilities.

grace wrote: OMGosh Me too.


I am really not doing well. But I hate failing and am the queen of denial. So I am cheating and trying to use the machine during waking hours so that I can "be stupid compliant".

Like a child.
The things that have happened to me in the last few years have made me a child.
Beaten down.

Not who I was.

Anyway~~~.

I can understand this. Although I'm not sure for myself I would say life events have made me a child but it has made me very hypersensitive to many kinds of medical intervention. I am currently in a situation of really being too demanding with my doctor because of the way this is going with just how sore my chest muscles felt and the breathlessness and feeling brain fog and soreness. He isn't happy with me at all.

Grace wrote:
This apap machine(or something) has caused me scary chest pains. And the feeling that I cannot breath even the next day. A breathless feeling. I NEVER had anything like that before ...

I even hear it in the sound of my voice. A breathlessness even just talking.


When I give up at night (usually after an hour of use) my nose hurts inside and out and is 75% of the time clogged up.
...and my breathing is frantic and erratic.

(I have never had allergies or breathing issues)

This was my exact experience the first couple times I started. The chest pains were scary, the breathlessness was happening all day. I couldn't talk right without sounding like I was out of breath, And my breathing was erratic.

What I've learned so far is that changing my mask has helped a lot. I ended up going on CPap.com and buying both a DreamWear mask and a Sleep Weaver mask. Also although my doctor would rather not see me right now, he did say that the mask can make a difference. I've only tried the DreamWear mask since I starting using the machine at night but it has made a positive difference. It seems that having the air coming in from the top of my head instead of straight into my sinuses has helped lower all the negative side effects I was having.

I was also trying to use the machine the first few attempts while I was awake during the day. I was trying not to stay on therapy too long thinking to try and minimize the side effects. I think doing that actually made me more afraid to try all night. And the fear of the chest wall pain made me subconsciously fighting against the pressure while I was awake, which made it worse. The workout my lungs was getting was much worse.

I was also concerned about using too much humidity. After watching some very helpful YouTube videos by TheLeftyLanky27. He has one on effects of too little or too high humidity. He says that if you use too little humidity, it will make you very dried out in sinuses, mouth and lungs. Which in turn actually makes your sinuses swell up so you feel more stuffed up and yet dry at the same time. I decided to set my machine to auto humidity since it's supposed to be able to detect the humidity in the air and adjust the amount you are getting based on the air around you. I also bought a ClimateLine hose so the air wouldn't be so cold as I breath it in. I believe setting my machine to auto humidity has helped, even with the chest wall pain. Plus my sinuses and lungs feel better when I wake up.

Just those changes made me try for 4 hours at night, then 7 hours the second night. After the 4 hours, I was still having some more mild chest wall pain then after the next night, my lungs seems to be adapting and after 8 hours last night I have almost no chest wall pain. It has also helped to sleep during the time I'm using it because I don't fight so hard against it while sleeping.

I'm still dealing with some breathlessness, although that's getting some better too. Someone on the thread I started a couple days ago suggested that it could possibly be that a minor pressure change could correct that, plus after several days or a week of continual use at nights, will help my muscles rapidly get used to the extra work in my chest wall and symptoms will stop. Sometime when I wake for short times at night I realize that I'm not breathing so hard now and never erratic breathing.

Grace, you aren't alone in these symptoms. They are real but with the help I've gotten on here and the purchase of a new mask and possibly the hose, I'm narrowed down to figuring out which pressure setting to change so that the breathlessness will go away. I think the continual fatigue from the breathlessness will correct itself once the breathlessness is corrected.

One more thing Grace, during my sleep study they had me use a DreamWear mask so I was a little familiar with how it was before purchasing. The tech also helped me with sizing and I needed a small frame and small nose cushion. I'm not sure why these masks are sold as you have to buy a medium frame then you get all the sizes of nose cushions for your nose to try out. Then if you think you need a small mask you must buy the medium frame kit and then add the small frame on to the same purchase for an extra $30. You can't just buy the small frame alone. But I was glad I knew to add the cost of the small frame onto the order.

It is a comfortable mask as opposed to a hard plastic one but I'm not an expert in masks. I've only tried one full face mask and now the DreamWear.

Even though it's tempting, don't give up yet on using the machine. I think with the help of some of the more experienced people on here plus try some of TheLeftyLanky27's YouTube videos, I believe you can get past your side effects.

Thank you so much. I definitely think I need to try a new mask.

As I had no sleep study, I only has less than a minute to try on the three offered. A full face mask, a nasal pillow, and I decided on this eson nasal.

Getting this machine really was a rushed and horrible experience. The answer was "just go try" and let us know. So that's what I am doing but it's difficult to determine WHY something isn't working when you don't know what else is available. For example, I'd prefer to just sniff some smelling salts and be cured?

The advertising for the *** DreamWear Under The Nose Nasal Mask from Philips Respironics**** is pretty convincing? Is that what you have?

I live in hot humid Florida and so I didn't want any more humidity. I didn't notice an "auto" humidity level, but I may try that? Though ANY humidity seems counter-intuitive. I think I have humidity set on 1?

I'm not going to give up yet. I just feel a little out of control.

This is the mask I'm using:

https://www.cpap.com/productpage/pr-dre ... -pack.html

Then I added the small frame size on to the order using the customize and buy option on that web page.

The auto humidity may not be available on all machines. I just know that if your humidity is too low that you will feel too dry and yet also have sinus stuffiness due to the sinuses swelling from the dryness. It may be worth trying to increase the humidity a little at a time and see if there is any change.

I also turned off auto ramp on mine, if yours has that. Mostly because I've read in other posts that the extended time to come up to pressure can make you feel a bit starved for air. I didn't want it to add to my problems.