New career due to apnea

[greatunclebill]

9PM British Time and Im off to work and on a Saturday night. No rest for the whicked ::

it's 3pm here in alabama in central daylight time. have a good night at work. to mess with the boss, wear your mask with the hose going under your shirt. LOL.....

[pk6301]

The first qustion I would have is, are you sleeping through the night on CPAP? Or are you only getting through 1/2 the night before you take the mask off, or turn off the machine. How are your AHI Numbers?, what do the results of the Rescan results show how you are sleeping?
I think resorting to moving to a 3rd shift job is a bit drastic at this point, most have gone to that type of shift due to cost reasons or reasons other than sleep problems.
It took me months to become used to sleeping with the machine and mask, but after awhile I felt better with more energy and was able to awake in the morning with no problems at all.

Well, i take a ambien to fall asleep. I usually have it on all night. But sometimes wake up to find the mask isnt on anymore. Or i may consiously take it off if its hurting my face. Ill also wake and find that ive had a bad leak rate many times. My AHI is around 12. I dont have the rescan software. Is that usefull?
How was your energy level prior to cpap therapy?

Thanks much!!
Chaddy

Well like the others I would reccomend trying to get off the Ambian to sleep. You might try Melatonin which can be picked up at the grocery store or drugstore.
Second having and AHI of 12 shows that you are not getting the full effect of CPAP. It is most likely down from where you began, but it should be down in the single digits if possible.
I see where you are using a full face mask, Is it uncomfortable to wear? is that why you are taking it off? You might try on your day off to wear just the mask and headgear while you watch T.V. or read a book, You will then become adjusted to having it on your face, that might elevivate your taking the mask off during the night.
As for the leaks and leak rate, that is a trial and error thing, try and adjust the straps a little, go for a couple of days, and if nessesarry do it again.
It took me almost 5-6 months before I became used to this type of therapy. It was alot of trying, but persaverance is the main key.
As my Signature says it was either CPAP or Death..I choose CPAP.

Patrick..

[chaddy511]

The problem you're experienceing is not that you can't awaken refreshed in the morning, it's that you can't awaken refreshed when it's time for you to get ready for work. To prove this to yourself, just look at what happens on your days off. Do you awaken refreshed?

Yes i caN see what you got in mind. But unfortunatly ive had to take the last four months off work because the fatigue was just too debilitating. I was tired on non work days as well.

[chaddy511]

Has anyone here had to change their worhours to graveyard shift because they are to fstigued to make it to work in the morning? Im thinking about finding a graveyard shift for the first timd. And leaving my career. Ive been on cpap for 3 months. And still cant reliably wake up in the morning. I think its time to follow what my body is telling me. Insted of fighting it, to get my old life back. Becaue that is causing me depression and everything else. But i dont know what type of good jobs there arevat nigh.

Chaddy.

simply put, switching shifts will in fact over time just switch your internal clock so getting up at 9 pm to go to a midnights shift will be no different thn getting up for a morning shift now. you'll still be working and sleeping and getting up.

Im worried about that. I wondered if that would happen. Or if my body clock has always wanted to be on the oppisite scheduale. I have work shift dissorder already from working as a music producer. But even when i was in elementry all the waythrough school i never wanted to wake up in the morning. And jut wanted to sleep. I just want out of all his depression and exhaustion. Thats being caused by the goal of trying to be on a normal persons scheduale. Maybe i was a owl in another life time, lol. But that makes me wonder if ive always had apnea. Just never knew about it. Ya know.

[chaddy511]

9PM British Time and Im off to work and on a Saturday night. No rest for the whicked ::

it's 3pm here in alabama in central daylight time. have a good night at work. to mess with the boss, wear your mask with the hose going under your shirt. LOL.....

Lol. That puts images in my head i never expected.

[chaddy511]

I would also like to jump on what others have said about nightshift and in a word "Not Normal" The reason I have been on it for so long is that I am also a carer for my family members (M.S. & Cerable Palsey. My Mrs and Daughter) I need to be round the house during the day, so you can imagine how bad my sleep patterns are. I couldnt tell my doctor the truth because of the problems it would cause my family. Again think very hard before going down this route, its a very big change to your lifestyle and can cause HAVOC.

No Sleep
You could end up on light therapy
Innsomnia
Noise
Exhaustion
Bad eating habbits
weight gain

The list goes on and on etc

Check with your doctor first before you do anything... Hope this helps

[chaddy511]

It is my opinion that it is the ambien that is making you feel so bad. I suggest talking to your doc about an alternative sleep aid than this.

I'm not surprised at all that you are tired in the morning if you are taking that.

Ive had a couple people warn me about the ambien. I still remember the first time i took it. I wok up in the morning feeling great. I dont get that anymore. Now ive been using it to fall asleep with he mask on. And use it to try and flip my sched back to daytime. But i just cantvseen to get my clock flipped back to a normal persons hours. Before this apnea stuff got so bad. I had about 12 years there where i could run my plastering business during the day. Thdn work as a music producer at nigts till about 3AM. I started working more as a producer for 2 years. And that got me ibto the night shift. So im upside down as it is right now. I just took meletonin. And gonna see what it does for me. Did u take ambien?

[greatunclebill]

Has anyone here had to change their worhours to graveyard shift because they are to fstigued to make it to work in the morning? Im thinking about finding a graveyard shift for the first timd. And leaving my career. Ive been on cpap for 3 months. And still cant reliably wake up in the morning. I think its time to follow what my body is telling me. Insted of fighting it, to get my old life back. Becaue that is causing me depression and everything else. But i dont know what type of good jobs there arevat nigh.

Chaddy.

from greatunclebill:
simply put, switching shifts will in fact over time just switch your internal clock so getting up at 9 pm to go to a midnights shift will be no different thn getting up for a morning shift now. you'll still be working and sleeping and getting up.

From chaddy:
Im worried about that. I wondered if that would happen. Or if my body clock has always wanted to be on the oppisite scheduale. I have work shift dissorder already from working as a music producer. But even when i was in elementry all the waythrough school i never wanted to wake up in the morning. And jut wanted to sleep. I just want out of all his depression and exhaustion. Thats being caused by the goal of trying to be on a normal persons scheduale. Maybe i was a owl in another life time, lol. But that makes me wonder if ive always had apnea. Just never knew about it. Ya know.

apnea is a physical condition, not a sickness or disease that you catch. this is the easiest simple way i can explain it. when you go into deep sleep, your muscles relax and your saggy throat collapses and you stop breathing. when you stop, you wake into light sleep. then when you drift back to deep sleep it collapses again, etc, etc, so you never deep sleep and never get that restful sleep. when you were young, your body adjusted for this, but at some point the body couldn't adjust or keep it open and apnea started.

this is much like wearing glasses if you can follow along here. some people need reading glasses or bifocals at an early age because their eyes can't adjust or squint themselves. for most people, the eyes adjust or squint without you really knowing it. about age 39, the eyes can no longer adjust themselves or squint without you knowing it and you get headaches when you do it consciously. when you are about 39 and complain to the doc about headaches, he knows it is probably eyes. a quick trip to the optometrist and an new pair of reading glasses or bifocals and the headaches go away.

as you see with the eyes, the body gets to the point where it can't do it for you and you need reading glasses or bifocals. normally this happens + or - from age 39. i say normally because some people are exceptions. now, apply this thinking to the throat closing and the resulting apnea and you'll see that it's always been there and it shows up sooner in some than others. most apnea shows up in this same age range, with some sooner and some later.

[Jenny]

Chaddy511, I've been on CPAP slightly longer than you (started Dec 2011) and I've found the most important think for me is to make sure you're allowing for 7 to hours in bed (hopefully sleeping the majority of the time) and DO NOT sleep without the mask. I seem to keep making this mistake: I either take the mask off when I wake up in the middle of the night for a "break" and then fall asleep before putting it back on, OR, when I first go to bed, I lay down with the mask laying next to me so I can "regulate my breathing" first, but I wait too long and fall asleep without the mask! Sleeping without the mask for ONLY 1 or 2 hours seriously screws my brain up, meaning the apneas have come "fast and hard" and have left me feeling terrible for the next day. In fact, I am so sick of this happening that I took paper and black magic marker and wrote "GO TO BED AT 9 AND WAKE UP AT 5," and taped it to the wall next to my lazy boy. This note reminds me of a few things: 1) that I have to have a certain number of hours in bed, 2) I can NEVER take a nap (if I do, I will ruin my schedule because I will get insomnia in the middle of the night and this will waste my good sleep, 3) and the importance of keeping the dang mask on. This note tells my brain these things. Maybe a note in big black majic marker next to your chair will help you?

[bige94]

I find I feel worse after too much sleep. If i get my 3.5 to 4 hours ideally, I am good. I got 7 last night and felt like crap this am. My pproblem is that my wife gets P*ssed because I dont go to bet with her. She's in bed at 9 or 10 (likes to watch tv) and im up to 2 or 3am. Thats when I get creative and start new projects.

I also like the nose pillows. Cant imagine using a full face mask, but to each their own.

Ditch the ambien, and let your body tell you when its tired. It sounds like you are exausted, but cant sleep. That does suck. Maybe you need to wear out your brain before you sleep. Exercise also helps to knock me out.