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I've been on CPAP therapy since November. However, I've had a persistent issue where I take the mask off while I'm asleep, after about an hour. I have no recollection of the event, I simply wake up later with my mask removed.
I've tried
1. Adjusting Pressure (originally was 4-20, moved to 7, then to 8-15)
2. Changing mask (went from full face mask to Airfit p10, which seems comfortable to me while I'm awake, anyway)
3. Taping the mask to my face
4. Weighted blanket
5. I turned off the auto stop setting so I have to manually press the button to shut the machine off
6. Taping my mouth shut
7. Wearing the mask before bed (I used to spend an hour or two before bed on CPAP while awake, while playing games or watching something to wind down)
However, I still always remove the mask after about an hour, like clockwork. I never have any memory of turning it off. For whatever reason, my unconscious self is shockingly dexterous.
I am at wit's end, I was thinking about getting a night vision camera to record myself removing it. But I heard about this forum, so I wanted to try posting here to see if anyone has any ideas. Maybe someone has gone through similar, or is familiar with this situation. I've attached a few screenshots of my OSCAR data from the previous nights.
Overall your charts look quite good. Bravo for managing to find good pressures on your own.
Most times we have members who take off their masks it is related to pressure being too low, but that does not seem to be the case for you. It may be more related to comfort and getting used to things.
How is your sleep hygiene? Give this a read and it may offer some insights.
Consider turning off smart start. That will force you to shut off the machine manually which will make you aware you took it off.
Other than that I do not see anything I would change. Give yourself a pep talk often about how much CPAP helps and reminders to keep the mask on. Even if you just increase usage a bit every night, it is more time you will be receiving therapy and will upon past successes. Don’t dwell on it if you do remove it, it happens to all of us.
Worst case, medical tape it on. You’ll know right away if you try to take it off. A bit of mouth tape appropriately applied will do the trick.
07-20-2024, 09:32 AM (This post was last modified: 07-20-2024, 09:34 AM by ftfu.)
Help reviewing OSCAR charts
Hi,
I got sleep study done in November from Lofta, and have since tried to adapt to CPAP. Recently, I got the F40 and for the first time, I was able to get through most of the night wearing my mask.
However, my OSCAR charts look surprisingly busy, like I have a lot of clear airway events, and I also wake up with aerophagia. I don't really know what to make of my charts, if they were obstructive it would make more sense to me, but there are a lot of events that I don't really understand.
When I was using a nasal mask, I could never sleep through the entire night with it, I would always remove it, but my charts were much less active.
Attached are my OSCAR charts from the past two nights. I have a PDF of my sleep study if it's helpful to attach, but I think I can't attach PDFs until I make 4 forum posts, so I just attached a single page.
Thank you very much for the help.
Note: on 2024-07-18 chart, around 00:50 I was dealing with some rainout, so that area is a little weird.
Your 2 threads were related to your therapy. For this reason, I have merged them. This provides the reader a history of your past settings and results. Having the ability to see past attempts and their results will help to form better recommendations. Please use this thread for all your therapy related posts. I have changed the thread title to, "ftfu - Therapy Assistance" to be more inclusive.
- Red
INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AS MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEB SITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
07-20-2024, 10:41 AM (This post was last modified: 07-20-2024, 10:42 AM by Deborah K..)
RE: ftfu - Therapy Assistance
It looks like you tightened your pressure settings too much. You now have it at 8-10. I suggest you change it to 7-16. I also think you should turn EPR back on full-time, set at 3. I'm not immediately sure what else would help, but make those changes and we'll see what happens. Someone else may have more ideas.
Your pressures are still too low. I suggest you set 9-20. The higher starting pressure should be more comfortable and help you get to sleep faster.
Did you have a lot of CAs in your sleep study? If you don't know, attach a redacted copy of your sleep study. If you don't have it, ask your doctor's office for it. By law, they have to provide it if you ask.
Yes, you do have positional apnea. You already realize that this is caused by chin tucking. Some folks can solve this by sleeping on a much flatter pillow. Most end up wearing a soft cervical collar. Drugstores usually offer a few. Amazon offers tons of them. When I wore one I much preferred the Caldera Releaf Collar, as it was more comfortable and worked as well as the others I tried.
Don't be discouraged. There are lots of good people here, and we will get you tuned in for good therapy and comfort.
I'm not an expert on CAs but with an AHI of 13.2 including 1.6 of CAs, I don't think your CAs are a big issue. In April your CAs were 0.0, 0.0, and 0.9 Now in July they are 4.09, 4.82, and 5.32. I have no idea why they changed so much. Do you have any idea? In any case, make the settings changes, and work on the positional apnea, and we should see good results from those.
