RE: Anyone stopped using their CPAP for a night? Whats it feel like?
SteveSP,
Your post is similar to my experiences. I've always been 100% compliant, but on the few occasions I've had to try and sleep without is pure misery.
If our electricity goes out, there's no way I even let myself fall asleep without Cpap. If I do, I am jerked awake every few minutes. Can't be good for the heart.
I have stocked up on supplies and kept my old 60 series machine just in case my current breaks down.
RE: Anyone stopped using their CPAP for a night? Whats it feel like?
We had a big damaging ice storm earlier in the year and lucked out with only one night of no electricity. Untreated I was 30.8. I have a battery backup and had charged it, but decided to try going without since I don't have a converter for the Resmed and didn't want to dig out the old Phillips. To my surprise I did fine. My problem with untreated apnea wasn't sleeping at night but falling asleep while driving.
RE: Anyone stopped using their CPAP for a night? Whats it feel like?
I have gone gone without the CPAP at home and camping and a few night over the past two years. Each time is holy hell. I can fall asleep but jump awake snoring within 15-20 minutes. I describe it as sleeping really good for 15 minutes about 30 times a night. I can't even take a nap on the couch.
RE: Anyone stopped using their CPAP for a night? Whats it feel like?
Great topic. But I think more relevance to the answers could be had by including in the question - What is your untreated AHI and what type of apnea do you have?
Mine is mixed apnea and 40 AHI untreated.
I have gone without my ASV for three nights with minimal ill effects. I can still fall asleep easily, but I do have to get up frequently to go to the bathroom. (One of the more interesting and annoying side effects of sleep apnea of which I do experience) After the third night I start to slowly revert to feeling tired sooner throughout the day. For some reason, my body seems to react very slowly to this change. However when I resume ASV therapy, my improvement seems almost instant.
The good part is that if I can't seem to get a good night sleep for one or two nights, it has little effect on the way I feel throughout the day.
RayBee
~ Self-Treatment - via ApneaBoard experts.
~ Self-Pay - no help from Kaiser other than getting my script, then a pat on the butt and out the door.
~ Self-Educated - via ApneaBoard experts, its many users, and posted reference material.
~ Complex Apnea - All Night AHI=34.2/h, Supine AHI=45.5/h
~ Using a 2021 16" MacBook Pro M1 Max, 32 GB, 1 TB, macOS Monterey V12.6.2.
~ Pay no attention to the dog behind the cup, he ain't a docta, and does not give medical advise.
~ Woof, woof.
RE: Anyone stopped using their CPAP for a night? Whats it feel like?
I've woken up 3 times with cpap not running. First one was in a hotel in Miami, and they shut the power off. Gave them heck.
Other two times were when cpap stopped. (Or some gremlin shut it off.)
In over 30 years I've missed one night. That was on a ferry returning from Newfoundland to the mainland. There was no place to plug in my cpap. I stayed up.
In Massachusetts I was on vacation in a hotel. Power went out during a thunder storm. Power came back on--tv didn't work. My cpap was powered from the same receptacle. It was plugged in to a surge protector on a long extension cord. Message: I always use a surge protector/exension cord when I'm using my cpap.
I'm Canadian. If my cpap quits or lets the smoke out while travelling in the US I would need to return to Canada and cut my vacation short. US vendors have told me they require an prescription by a US sleep doctor. Car is too small to carry a spare cpap.
RE: Anyone stopped using their CPAP for a night? Whats it feel like?
Yes, It feels just like staying up all night. Simply because my base AHI kicks in (77 last time, 90's before that) and I get less than 2hrs of sleep.
RE: Anyone stopped using their CPAP for a night? Whats it feel like?
Gideon I bet it takes days of regular sleep with your mask on to make up for that one night of sleep deprivation.
RE: Anyone stopped using their CPAP for a night? Whats it feel like?
Probably, but I'm one of the lucky ones that feels "instantly" better with even 1 night of CPAP.
After my last diagnostic test (which was supposed to be a split study, but not enough sleep time even to state I failed, let alone let me finish out on a pap machine. I had to sit in the car for an hour and a half to wake up enough to be able to drive home.
Pre CPAP I can still remember the rumble strips on the side of main street waking me up, sorry, main street had driveways, not rumble strips. Yes I was in denial at the time (diagnostic 90+, Rx CPAP(brick) at 19), and I was one of those 'road hazards'. So for all those listening in, PAP can make a huge difference very quickly.
RE: Anyone stopped using their CPAP for a night? Whats it feel like?
I've made great gains since I decided to listen to the people here.
but historically, and until I got my S10 last August, I was sleep deprived.
I had bad sleep habits too. I'd go to bed late, even though I had to get up every morning about 6:30 a.m. at the latest.
Not with apap things are better. I'm making gains. And I'm feeling better when I wake up.
RE: Anyone stopped using their CPAP for a night? Whats it feel like?
Yup, me too.
Had been planning to take a break from xPAP for a while, but...
On the 27th April I was trialling different trigger and cycle settings on the Vauto.
Woke up at 05H30 not doing too well, some headache, chest pressures, vivid dreams etc.
Removed mask, planning to take a break and just lie in bed for a while.
Woke up after 2 hours without CPAP feeling even worse: self-waking with snoring, same old headache, brain fog, feeling shattered, convinced me more than ever I need xPAP!
@Raybee: AHI untreated 40+ mainly OA and HA, many years of snoring and apneas (just ask my wife)
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