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06-04-2022, 08:16 AM (This post was last modified: 06-04-2022, 08:21 AM by daruki.)
Still waking up 3-4 times a night
I've been using CPAP since end of Jan, and have seen significant improvements in my overall life. I'm 28M and pre-CPAP was waking up ~10 times a night.
My average AHI is below 1, which I gather is very low
I was under the impression CPAP would eliminate all wakings at night, but i'm still waking up on average 3-4 times a night.
I can remember a handful of times I only woke up once a night, most nights I average 3
I have OSCAR data but I can't make any sense of it. My most recent night I had a couple CAs, OAs, Hs, and RERAs.
I'm attaching my last night's OSCAR data export. Not sure if this is the right way to export data. Also attaching a snapshot
Looks fairly decent. Once you're fully settled into the cpap, you could try sliding the pressure down a tad (or use auto within a range) to find your "sweet spot".
I think its normal to wake up and readjust your sleeping position a few times, or at least it is for me.
Signs that therapy is working are things like improved energy, less noding off, less brain fog, etc.
The one I loved getting rid of was that every-night 3am bathroom trip. That disappeared the very first day I started with cpap.
That was worth the price of admission on it's own.
I could be wrong since I am fairly new as well but the one thing I noticed in that data is that the events and the few snoring (which like you said is pretty good) line up at the same time you have mask leaks. Now I don't know what level of leak is within the range of acceptable, but my best guess would be that maybe you just need to readjust the straps on the mask to reduce that number? I am not sure what type of mask you are using wither it is a full mask or just nasal, I opted for the full mask because I know for a fact I breath through my mouth and that would cause leaks if using a nasal one.
Maybe those numbers are in a perfectly normal range, I wouldn't know because my leaks is always 0, but that would be my best guess as to what might be part of the issue.
But I mean honestly with such few events I would honestly guess that the waking up could be totally unrelated and be more due to just the habit of waking up or being uncomfortable in some random sleeping position or what have you because just going from 27 to currently averaging roughly 11 I have gone from noticeably waking up like every half hour to not noticing waking up at all (I still might be but not to a degree of being conscious about it apart from when I move a muscle wrong due to working a laborious job) Being at sub 1 it is highly unlikely that the waking up is due to that at all, but like I said with the leaking and snoring and events all overlapping the mask fit to prevent the leaking is the only plausible thing if it is related at all.
06-05-2022, 08:21 AM (This post was last modified: 06-05-2022, 08:36 AM by CorruptAlligator.)
RE: Still waking up 3-4 times a night
Number of awakening improving upon usage of CPAP? lol. I wouldn't expect that after my experience with CPAP. I actually woke up more than before CPAP. I had to address all the issues that CPAP was disrupting my sleep.
I recommend you give it more time. Your numbers of awakenings has improved from 10 to 3.
Consider if there is anything in the environment that is causing your awakening. I recently realized that a machine that causes a noise on and off is disrupting my sleep. I then started to mask that abrupt noise events with a white noise generation from my phone with an earphone. It masks the noise nicely.
Just out of curiosity, what made you go with fixed pressure? I went with fixed as well due to issues of multiple awakenings, and fixed has helped resolve the issue.
Hopefully, you're not getting any mouth leaks that's waking you up. I had to address this issue. It should be fairly obvious when it happens.
And lastly, 3 awakenings a night isn't bad. It's likely normal. How long are the awkenings would be the issue. Is it to the level of insomnia? If not, I wouldn't worry too much about 3 awakenings a night.
If you are having insomnia issues, check your sleep hygiene. Most important one is, use bed only for sleep.
Number of awakenings do not dictate your sleep quality. As long as they are brief and you get enough restful sleep, your sleep can be better than the avg person's sleep. No other wake activities like watching TV on bed or reading, etc..
Consider that there are people with 9 hrs of sleep with no perceived awakenings can have worse sleep than you. Just because they don't wake up doesn't mean their sleep quality is better. Some people can keep sleeping because they are tired during the poor sleep quality. Way back I had an instance of sleep quality being so good that my body would want to wake up because it wasn't used to the quality in the past.
(06-05-2022, 08:21 AM)CorruptAlligator Wrote: Number of awakening improving upon usage of CPAP? lol. I wouldn't expect that after my experience with CPAP. I actually woke up more than before CPAP. I had to address all the issues that CPAP was disrupting my sleep.
I recommend you give it more time. Your numbers of awakenings has improved from 10 to 3.
Consider if there is anything in the environment that is causing your awakening. I recently realized that a machine that causes a noise on and off is disrupting my sleep. I then started to mask that abrupt noise events with a white noise generation from my phone with an earphone. It masks the noise nicely.
Just out of curiosity, what made you go with fixed pressure? I went with fixed as well due to issues of multiple awakenings, and fixed has helped resolve the issue.
Hopefully, you're not getting any mouth leaks that's waking you up. I had to address this issue. It should be fairly obvious when it happens.
And lastly, 3 awakenings a night isn't bad. It's likely normal. How long are the awkenings would be the issue. Is it to the level of insomnia? If not, I wouldn't worry too much about 3 awakenings a night.
If you are having insomnia issues, check your sleep hygiene. Most important one is, use bed only for sleep.
Number of awakenings do not dictate your sleep quality. As long as they are brief and you get enough restful sleep, your sleep can be better than the avg person's sleep. No other wake activities like watching TV on bed or reading, etc..
Consider that there are people with 9 hrs of sleep with no perceived awakenings can have worse sleep than you. Just because they don't wake up doesn't mean their sleep quality is better. Some people can keep sleeping because they are tired during the poor sleep quality. Way back I had an instance of sleep quality being so good that my body would want to wake up because it wasn't used to the quality in the past.
While you do make a good point about some people being more sensitive to the noise than others, just pointing out that that 3 wakings is 3 times he wakes enough to realize he woke, odds are there are still plenty of other times he wakes up without waking enough to be conscious of it.
At the end of the day some people respond well others respond mediocre and others it doesn't help at all (or helps but then causes other issues like being sensitive to the noise like you had brought up), the fact it went from knowingly waking up fully every 45min-hour to knowingly waking up fully every 2-3ish is still a great improvement but doesn't necessarily mean he is even waking up less frequently because maybe he is waking up just as frequent but not enough to be mentally aware of having woken up.
All in all it does sound like it is helping even if not perfect, but I do like your suggestion of the noise because that is something I wouldn't have thought of since I am not all that sensitive to noise though I know others are.
