3 months into my therapy and need some advice about when to get out of bed
Hi hi,
I've been diagnosed with sleep apnea around 3 months ago, moderate with 21 events each hour. Like a lot of people here I have been feeling like crap my whole life and in the last 3 years it got much worse. Got diagnosed and put on CPAP, been struggling with it since then.
Couple of days ago I managed to sleep a bit more due to some meds that I am now on. I would usually fall asleep around midnight, wake up once to go to the bathroom and then manage to fall asleep again.
Then around 5am I wake up and I dont feel destroyed, which is completely new to me. However, I still feel that if I close my eyes, I will fall back asleep instantly if I dont have the mask on anymore - with the mask I cant continue sleeping.
So then I take of the mask and continue sleeping for 3-4 more hours which is not really good sleep - I keep waking up a lot. When I do eventually wake up, I feel pretty tired and groggy. This is still better than how I felt without using the CPAP machine at all.
One day I tried just getting up at 5am and trying to see how the day would be like that. I was definitely more sleepy during that day than I usually do, but at least I didnt start the day with feeling like crap and struggling to get out of bed.
So my question is - should I just continue sleeping without the mask in the morning and hope that eventually I will just sleep through the whole night? Or should I keep getting up when I initially wake up since I dont feel that tired then ( even though I can definitely feel that I will fall back asleep right away without the mask ).
RE: 3 months into my therapy and need some advice about when to get out of bed
Welcome to the forum.
Always try to wear the mask.
I do suggest wearing the mask before bed, under pressure and doing something you enjoy, watch TV, read a book, play games. The concept is to learn that the mask is good.
Read the Mask Primer, see my signature. A common issue with masks is that they are often too tight.
Are you using nasal prongs (I didn't think any were still around) that sit INSIDE your nose or nasal pillows which rest on the outside?
I strongly suggest that you download OSCAR and post a copy of your nightly charts. That gives us a much stronger position to make specific recomendations from and you never know what we may see that will significantly help your therapy
04-27-2020, 02:34 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-27-2020, 02:34 PM by Hydrangea.)
RE: 3 months into my therapy and need some advice about when to get out of bed
Hi! You're doing fantastic!!!! Keep it up! Keep wearing the mask as much as possible. If you really need another extra hour or two of sleep and can't do it with the mask, go for it.
It's a journey, for sure!
I've been through the stage you're in. It's frustrating because your body is starting to get used to getting restorative sleep, so its got two minds:
- hooray, I'm getting restorative sleep, so I don't need as much sleep!
- well wait a second, there's a lot of years of bad sleep that I need to catch up on!
So it's a stage that your body is going through. Just keep pushing through. You won't be in this stage forever.
I'm not giving you medical advice. I'm speaking only from my own personal journey with CPAP.
RE: 3 months into my therapy and need some advice about when to get out of bed
(04-27-2020, 08:48 AM)bonjour Wrote: Welcome to the forum.
Always try to wear the mask.
I do suggest wearing the mask before bed, under pressure and doing something you enjoy, watch TV, read a book, play games. The concept is to learn that the mask is good.
Read the Mask Primer, see my signature. A common issue with masks is that they are often too tight.
Are you using nasal prongs (I didn't think any were still around) that sit INSIDE your nose or nasal pillows which rest on the outside?
I strongly suggest that you download OSCAR and post a copy of your nightly charts. That gives us a much stronger position to make specific recomendations from and you never know what we may see that will significantly help your therapy
Thanks for the welcome post! I went through 5-6 masks so far, tried all available types and discovered that the only ones that I can deal with are the ones which dont cover my nose. Currently at home I have the Nuance Pro which I got from the company covered by my health insurance - I dont use them anymore but I am waiting for the liners for them and then will give them another go.
Besides them I bought the 3 different Dreamwear masks to try each of them out and decided to stick with the nasal pillow ones, not the ones that go into your nose. I also kept the Dreamwear full face mask because I think that I could learn to tolerate it but as I tend to move a lot during the night, I kept having leaks with it. The nasal pillow ones I find pretty comfortable and I stopped wearing them during the day because I dont feel the need for it anymore.
I currently have two more issues with the mask :
1. When I move from the back to the side I dont always position myself comfortably which is irritating if it happens in the middle of the night when I am already pretty easily annoyed. I am thinking about getting a cpap pillow where that part of my face will be in the hole and wont bother me.
2. I had two nose surgeries in the last 2 years and unfortunately all the masks that I tried hurt my nose after 4-5 hours of wearing them. I try to adjust the pressure to be tight enough to avoid leaks when I turn but not too tight - however my nose is super sensitive since the surgery so even just putting my finger on it without almost no pressure creates some discomfort. Will take some time to heal.
For OScar - I tried that a couple of weeks back but my device ( Prisma Smart ) is not supported by it, I could not upload my data to it. I use the Prima online journal which is not very detailed but I dont think that I need any help with analysing the data, most night I have no leaks and usually rotate around 2-5 events.
(04-27-2020, 02:34 PM)Hydrangea Wrote: Hi! You're doing fantastic!!!! Keep it up! Keep wearing the mask as much as possible. If you really need another extra hour or two of sleep and can't do it with the mask, go for it.
It's a journey, for sure!
I've been through the stage you're in. It's frustrating because your body is starting to get used to getting restorative sleep, so its got two minds:
- hooray, I'm getting restorative sleep, so I don't need as much sleep!
- well wait a second, there's a lot of years of bad sleep that I need to catch up on!
So it's a stage that your body is going through. Just keep pushing through. You won't be in this stage forever.
I'm not giving you medical advice. I'm speaking only from my own personal journey with CPAP.
Thank you. I actually havent thought about it that way. Maybe if I wasnt so sleep deprived these 5-6 hours would be more than enough for me currently, but because if the lack of sleep I need more. So I guess in a couple of months I might wake up one morning early and not feel the need to continue sleeping, that would be nice. I am pretty surprised with this already, even though I am still sleepy it feels really weird to wake up not feeling exhausted.
RE: 3 months into my therapy and need some advice about when to get out of bed
I think you should always default to the use of the mask when you intend to nap or to 'lie-in'. If you nod off in front of the TV, or in the back seat of a car, no probs. But if you wave to the other member(s) of the household and go for a wink at 1400 hrs, you should don the apparatus. This way, your mind gets trained to accept it as part of life...for you. The other thing is, if you're at all like me, as you slip into a nap you're signs will show up once again...and I'm not talking about apnea events. I'm talking about snoring. I simply cannot nap now unless I have silicone malleable/mashable ear plugs inserted and my mask working. I'll awaken every time with that very first snore. Or, you'll close off and start awake, dunno, and get no real rest, not the kind you're intent upon for the purpose of the nap.
I can think of no better investment of your time than in figuring ways to make yourself more comfortable, or more fooled into thinking that you finally have something good going for you. You MUST overcome your resistance, or your discomfort. Fiddle, scheme, experiment. Do whatever it takes, as long as it is going to take, to overcome the small defects upon which you seem to want to dwell. If the numbers won't convince you that you are back to sleeping naturally and prophylactically, finally, then use your time to manipulate your apparatus and methods until you can let some part of it go.
I wish you luck, and I hope you can find your way to sleeping bliss. It could even happen before the let us out onto the streets again!
RE: 3 months into my therapy and need some advice about when to get out of bed
I have gotten use to the dreamwear nasal cushion and wake less frequently. Despite 7-9 hours sleep, I still experience difficulty in feeling refreshed upon waking, aka sleep inertia/sleep drunkenness/morning depression...
Apparently if we can wake after the 90 minute sleep cycle it can improve. I am next trying to set the alarm and go back to sleep for 90 minutes.
I narrowed my pressure to 7-12cm but still have AHI of 7-10. I learned I have periodic Leg Movement.
Still trying to find out what is interfering with restorative sleep to avoid excessive daytime sleepiness EDS without taking stimulants. Has anyone tried other workarounds to wake up refreshed?
RE: 3 months into my therapy and need some advice about when to get out of bed
(04-27-2020, 03:12 PM)vrapche031 Wrote: Besides them I bought the 3 different Dreamwear masks to try each of them out and decided to stick with the nasal pillow ones, not the ones that go into your nose. I also kept the Dreamwear full face mask because I think that I could learn to tolerate it but as I tend to move a lot during the night, I kept having leaks with it. The nasal pillow ones I find pretty comfortable and I stopped wearing them during the day because I dont feel the need for it anymore.
I currently have two more issues with the mask :
1. When I move from the back to the side I dont always position myself comfortably which is irritating if it happens in the middle of the night when I am already pretty easily annoyed. I am thinking about getting a cpap pillow where that part of my face will be in the hole and wont bother me.
2. I had two nose surgeries in the last 2 years and unfortunately all the masks that I tried hurt my nose after 4-5 hours of wearing them. I try to adjust the pressure to be tight enough to avoid leaks when I turn but not too tight - however my nose is super sensitive since the surgery so even just putting my finger on it without almost no pressure creates some discomfort. Will take some time to heal.
(04-27-2020, 02:34 PM)Hydrangea Wrote: It's a journey, for sure!
I've been through the stage you're in. It's frustrating because your body is starting to get used to getting restorative sleep, so its got two minds:
- hooray, I'm getting restorative sleep, so I don't need as much sleep!
- well wait a second, there's a lot of years of bad sleep that I need to catch up on!
So it's a stage that your body is going through. Just keep pushing through. You won't be in this stage forever.
Thank you. I actually havent thought about it that way. Maybe if I wasnt so sleep deprived these 5-6 hours would be more than enough for me currently, but because if the lack of sleep I need more. So I guess in a couple of months I might wake up one morning early and not feel the need to continue sleeping, that would be nice. I am pretty surprised with this already, even though I am still sleepy it feels really weird to wake up not feeling exhausted.
Yes! I'm confident you'll get to that next stage. To me, the next stage was really annoying because suddenly I was awake and alert for MANY more hours of the day than I was used to, and I felt like Why Is The Day So Long?! LOL But it's all part of the journey, and now I'm past that stage, too.
As far as masks go... If you already own them, don't get rid of them. I go through phases where I like a mask, and then 6 months later I'm wishing for a different one. Or sometimes I've drank too much and can't keep my mouth closed that night, so I need a FFM just for that one night. Or sometimes I'm sick of a certain style of headgear (sometimes even just due to migraine), and just want a break for a bit, so I pull out an old mask of mine with different headgear for that night or week or whatever.
As for your sensitive nose... Have you tried the memory foam (AirTouch) F20? It's the only FFM that will stay sealed on my face throughout the night. And I love that it doesn't have to be cranked tight. I have a fatter nose, so I let the mask ride high on the bridge of my nose... so it is hardly touching my nose.
RE: 3 months into my therapy and need some advice about when to get out of bed
(04-27-2020, 07:46 PM)Hydrangea Wrote: As far as masks go... If you already own them, don't get rid of them. I go through phases where I like a mask, and then 6 months later I'm wishing for a different one. Or sometimes I've drank too much and can't keep my mouth closed that night, so I need a FFM just for that one night. Or sometimes I'm sick of a certain style of headgear (sometimes even just due to migraine), and just want a break for a bit, so I pull out an old mask of mine with different headgear for that night or week or whatever.
As for your sensitive nose... Have you tried the memory foam (AirTouch) F20? It's the only FFM that will stay sealed on my face throughout the night. And I love that it doesn't have to be cranked tight. I have a fatter nose, so I let the mask ride high on the bridge of my nose... so it is hardly touching my nose. Thats good advice, I was thinking about returning the one I got from the company thats covered by my health insurance since I dont use it but it cant hurt to keep it.
Havent tried the F20 - just looking at it makes me feel claustrophobic to be honest D:
04-29-2020, 02:06 AM
(This post was last modified: 04-29-2020, 02:12 AM by Hydrangea.)
RE: 3 months into my therapy and need some advice about when to get out of bed
(04-27-2020, 10:05 PM)vrapche031 Wrote: Thats good advice, I was thinking about returning the one I got from the company thats covered by my health insurance since I dont use it but it cant hurt to keep it.
Havent tried the F20 - just looking at it makes me feel claustrophobic to be honest D:
I have dealt with some claustrophobia as I've adapted to CPAP therapy.
In my quest, I've stuck with the nasal things (pillows/masks), but there have been some times where I've wanted or needed something to cover my mouth. I felt the F20 was one of the least claustrophobic because there's nothing going across the forehead, and the magnets at the mask release very easily.
But definitely mask choice is very personal and individual.
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