Sleeping 9.5 to 10 hrs a night

[GreenFrog]

Hello, I have been using cpap for about 18mths now and the settings/set up seem to be optimum for me.
However, I am finding that I still need to sleep for about 9.5 to 10 hrs a night otherwise I will feel tired during the day.
Is this normal or typical for people with treated sleep apnoea?
Do other people find they still have to sleep for quite a long time each night still?

[Big Guy]

We turn in around 10 pm or so. We usually sleep in until about 9 am. Not all the time, but frequently. Doesn't matter to me, as I still feel tired only after being up for around 1-2 hrs. 

Being retired, I have the luxury of napping if I want. Not all the time, but often enough. That usually takes place in the early afternoon. It usually lasts anywhere's from 30-45 minutes. 

If I get up and stay busy enough, I can do w/o a nap. That happens, but not often enough.

[mesenteria]

I get an average of 6.0 hours each night.  I'm often up to 0100 hrs, and don't awaken until near 0700 or occasionally closer to 0800.  I feel great during the day, and my cognitive function, if you don't rely on my wife's assessment, is pretty solid.  It's what works...for me.

Similarly, if you aren't on any medications that are reported to have an effect on sleep, and you find yourself getting more than nine hours, I guess that's what your 'normal' is...at least, these weeks.

With that stated, there is some evidence that sleeping too much, whatever that means, has indications for poorer health and for shortened life-span.  Just as too much food has it's obvious and well-known drawbacks, too much sleep generates it's own set of problems.  So, you might benefit from the counsel of a neurologist or from an internal medicine guy/gal, maybe even an endocrinologist.

[Geer1]

I have only averaged 6 hrs while on treatment and its already better than when sleeping 8-9 before I started treatment, still not feeling ideal but feel I am on the right track and if I can start sleeping longer I imagine will start feeling even better. 9.5-10 hrs seems a little high but sleep duration is very dependent on the person so isn't a great way to try and figure out if your treatment is sufficient.

I see you have posted some OSCAR graphs, and based on them and your sleep study(which was similar to mine, consisting mainly of hypopneas) I assume your average AHI has been low indicating what most would consider adequate treatment. Your graphs don't show what most consider to be bad levels of flow limitation but they do show some and it might help to try and reduce them. To do so you would increase pressure and EPR.

Regarding EPR it is not clear what yours is currently set at but I would set it to full time and 3 if it is not already. EPR makes it easier to exhale and it eases the breathing process which increases breathing efficiency. One thing to note about EPR is that it will only ever lower the exhalation pressure as low as 4 cm so with your current pressure set at 6.2 you will only ever get a maximum of 2.2 cm of EPR. Increasing your minimum pressure to at least 7 will give you the full benefits of 3 EPR which may make CPAP more comfortable for you and help you feel better. 

You could also try increasing your pressure even higher than 7 and seeing if that makes you feel better. The benefit might not necessarily be measurable in AHI etc but if it feels more comfortable or like you sleep better then you might as well use it. If it feels less comfortable or if you start having centrals then come back to a lower pressure. My results were adequate at a min pressure of 6 but I increased mine as high as 12 before settling at 10 which I believe to be the most comfortable and provide the best sleep (for me).

[GreenFrog]

Thanks for each of your replies.
Yes I have just had a week off work for the holidays and was enjoying being able to sleep until I woke up naturally but I started back at work this morning so will have to start waking up earlier again.
I really wish I didn't need to sleep as much as it does make it hard for work and I end up not going to many/any social events.
Mesenteria thank you, you reminded me that I am on medications for bipolar/depression so there is a good chance they will be influencing my sleep- I think this might be the next step to re-look at this with my doctor to see if they need to adjusted now I that I have been on cpap for a while.
Geer1 thanks for the information about possible adjustments- after my last set of posts I have been gradually titrating my setting (but I have not yet updated my profile sorry).
I have increased to 7 with the EPR of 3 and I feel like I am sleeping better with this change! I have been continuing on this setting for a few weeks now and had thought about trialling going up a little bit more but have just been taking it slowly.

Thanks again to everyone for your replies and support.

[JoeyWallaby]

Nine hours is not an excessive amount of sleep, ten is a bit high however.

[farnsy]

You likely have other sleeping problem aside from apnea. I am confident that I do. I often am in bed for 10 hours or more but I wake so many times in the night that the actual sleep I get isn't that much or that good--I'm always tired. I thought the problem would go away with the CPAP, but it really just changed. Before using CPAP I got up a million times to pee in the night, with nightmares, and with sinus pressure. The CPAP instantly stopped all those problems but now I get up in the night lots of times to adjust my mask. I'm just a crappy sleeper, even if I'm breathing fine.

One thing that will kill my sleep quality is eating anything after, like 4:00pm, especially sweets or corn chips. I got one of those under-mattress wedges that elevates the head of my bed and it stopped the GERD as far as I could tell, but eating still screws up my sleep. Unfortunately, I'm not that great at food discipline.