Please Help!! Haven't slept at all for 2 out of last 3 nights with CPAP

[JamesD0079]

Hi there,

I'd be so grateful for your help please.

I have been using CPAP for nearly a year and for the most part, it has been going well. I literally can't sleep without it, so anything is better than nothing.

However - 2 out of the last 3 nights, I have been unable to sleep at all... as soon as I start to fall asleep, I wake up straight away and it's just brutal.
Looking at the data, it looks like as I fall asleep, my flow limit increases and the pressure ramps up and I'm waking up straight away - I can't tell whether it's from the pressure or from an OSA that basically doesn't get registered because I wake up.

I have been playing around with the settings, but generally I am 6.6min-10max and EPR 3 (although I dropped to 2 following camping for a bit and seemed to work ok until the other night).

It has been quite hot and dry here and it kind of feels like no matter what pressure, my throat/soft palate is just clogging up. I've put humidity to highest and not making a difference. 

I would be so thankful if someone could give me some advice here - it's getting pretty dire, not sure how many more nights of this I can do.

I have posted the two awful nights, and then a night a few days prior which was relatively decent.

Thank you in advance so much for reviewing this and your input.
J


   
   
   

[mesenteria]

I'm not a medical professional, so take what I say with a healthy dose of skepticism.  

This is new and precipitous. It's almost certainly emotional, and it is probably anxiety.  You may need to see a counselor or a therapist whom you trust, who has a very strong reputation in the medical community, and with whom you should plan to attend at least six sessions over the next six-eight weeks.

I had much the same thing after having a catheter ablation of the pulmonary vein ostia to isolate that area electrically from the rest of the host left atrium.  This is typically the cause of atrial fibrillation.  (It may turn out that this is what you have, but you can't really tell...you just feel that something is amiss, but it isn't a given...just a possibility).  The success rate for first catheter ablations is about 75%, with variance from surgeon to surgeon.  Mine was not successful.  Within a few days, I could tell, especially since I ended up in the ICU for observation within six days.  I began to lose sleep...a lot of sleep.  I spoke with my GP who reluctantly prescribed exactly five Zopiclone tablets.  My pharmacist leaned over the counter and asked if my GP knew I had OSA.  When I replied yes, he leaned even closer and suggested that I take one half a tablet, and not the whole tablet.  That was excellent advice.  In fact, the second time I resorted to Zopiclone, about three days later, I cut the half into halves, and took only one quarter tablet.  Surprisingly, it worked like a charm.  And still does because I tough it out for days before taking it again...and I do mean at least a week.

Get some help.  Something is interfering with your sleep, and maybe all you need is time and small doses of melatonin and/or Zopliclone now and then.  Works for me.