abzcpap24 - Therapy Thread

[Expat31]

Hi, following on from Deborah's observations, you really need to have a much less fragmented night.

Have you any idea what might be waking you up, and keeping you awake for such  long periods?

   -  Is your FFM causing the problem, too cumbersome?  - If you are not a mouth breather, your could try a nasal mask, or even a  minimalist pillows mask.

   - Discomfort to pressure?

   - Anything else that comes to mind?

In your current environment,  REM sleep cannot kick-in to "repair" the general rigours of the day, and consequently your. circadian rhythm gets out of sync.

Headaches are often caused by insufficient oxygen, due to lack of uninterrupted therapy time to let the machine do it's job.

It may be useful to look through the mask primer which gives lots of tips.

In addition the general sleep checklist to review.

I believe if you can find the root cause of  these interruptions,  you will be well on the way to feeling better.

[abzcpap24]

Hi Expat,

Thank you for taking the time to provide support.

I’m not sure what’s happening with my CPAP therapy treatment. I’ve noticed a common pattern: if I change CPAP pressure or EPR, I feel a world of difference for a few days to a week, but then I start feeling worse. On the good days, I only need 4–7 hours of sleep and maybe a 15-minute nap during the day. On the bad days, I’m almost bedbound, sleeping 9–16 hours and waking up feeling like a zombie, with headaches, mood swings, and no energy.

The chart shows gaps because I keep sleeping and waking up during the day and night, sometimes with a couple of hours in between.

At the moment, I feel like my life is over. I’m so down, and I can’t even work most days. This is my second time trying CPAP in three years, and I’m not sure what to do anymore.

Thank you.

[abzcpap24]

Sorry I missed out few details, I beleive the mask is okay, sometimes I breath from nose/mouth, my nose can be congested so full face mask helps. I believe the pressure level is okay, I can handle the mask, I am used to it now, its been over 6 month now.

[Deborah K.]

I think you have to force yourself to stay in bed through the night other than for bathroom breaks. Getting up so often trains your body and brain to believe that you must get up, but you really don't need to. If you wake up, tell yourself that you are going to stay in bed and be hooked up to therapy and wait to fall back to sleep. This may seem hard, but you can do it, and given time, your body will thank you.

I'm praying that you can adjust and finally sleep well.  

[abzcpap24]

Thank you for the advice and kind words, I will continue forcing my self to stay in bed.

[abzcpap24]

I’ve noticed a pattern: if I change my CPAP settings to APAP, with 11–16 cmH2O and an EPR setting of 2, it works wonders. I no longer feel fatigued, I’m full of energy, and it’s almost like I’m a completely different person. But after about a week with the same settings, I stop feeling the benefits. I start needing more sleep, yet I’m still fatigued. The migraines kick in too.

[Expat31]

Have you considered you might be having nighttime (subconscious) anxiety?  If so, you could try to "break the cycle" by asking your doctor for something like Seresta.

It could give you a breather to get your therapy started.

Check with your doctor. Care must be taken with sleep apnea, but your doctor will know best of course...

I think at this stage all options need considering.