Sleep Debt

[sleepsound85]

HI There

First week is in the books i am on a Phillips dreamstation with the dream mask even with my AHI going from 58.4 to average of 5-9 i am still so tired when does the tiredness kick over into energy oiiii

[Okie bipap]

A few lucky ones find it stats with the first night. For me, it was a slow process. After two or three months, I noticed I was no longer falling asleep while working the crossword puzzle in the morning paper. I could sit and read and not fall asleep, and I could watch TV without falling asleep. It just snuck up on me slowly. After being on bipap for almost a year now, I feel really great for my age (73). We are getting back into riding our Terra Trikes now that it has gotten warm. We normally ride at least 5 miles a day.

[Mudrock63]

I've been on "good" therapy since mid-February, AHI's below 2.0. There are definite differences. I don't have to drag myself out of bed in the morning anymore. But I still get fatigued sometimes. And still nap (with the machine) sometimes. I do find when I comply with most of the sleep hygiene requirements, I do better. If you aren't familiar, google sleep hygiene. I am 52 and have had severe apnea for years. So I suspect I'm still in the adjustment period.

[sleepsound85]

I've been on "good" therapy since mid-February, AHI's below 2.0. There are definite differences. I don't have to drag myself out of bed in the morning anymore. But I still get fatigued sometimes. And still nap (with the machine) sometimes. I do find when I comply with most of the sleep hygiene requirements, I do better. If you aren't familiar, google sleep hygiene. I am 52 and have had severe apnea for years. So I suspect I'm still in the adjustment period.

Tell me more on this sleep hygiene ??? Like i assume keeping the machine and you and your bed clean etc is just common knowledge

[kteague]

Hopefully you will register your exact machine and mask along with current settings. Some see their AHI decrease as they settle in to the treatment, but it may be that something could be done now to get that AHI down. An AHI of 5-9 is not low enough to consider your treatment optimized. Once you get your AHI consistently to your personal best, are using the machine faithfully, and are getting adequate hours of sleep, you should start seeing some results. Our situations have too much variability for a reliably predictable timeline. You could get a dozen stories of what that might look like, yet none of them look alike.

There's no arguing that after being sleep deprived or having extended poor quality sleep, it's reasonable to expect the body to need some time to recuperate - like after any trauma. It's easier for me to consider the entire period after beginning effective CPAP treatment (and until one has some sense of their new normal) as a recovery period. In my mind repaying "sleep debt" is the first phase of recovery. Initially I craved this new good sleep like it was a drug. I felt in a stupor, under its spell. At some point my need for huge amounts decreased and the fog began to lift. The first time that I awoke naturally, feeling distinctively alert and ready to face the world, I knew I had reach some sort of milestone along my recovery timeline. Had I repaid my sleep debt? Who knows?

It's so hard to not know what's coming or when. It's rare that nothing good comes of treatment. Sometimes all we can do is be diligent and trust the process. And just maybe get pleasantly surprised somewhere down the line. That was my hope, and that hope was realized. Good luck to you.

[Mudrock63]

https://sleepfoundation.org/ask-the-exp ... ep-hygiene

Chicago Granny has a better list, but this covers some basics.

My biggest problem is I am naturally a night owl, but work early day shifts. So if I let myself revert to my night owl habits on weekends, it costs me during the week. I don't drink very often, but I have found when I do, it takes a toll. Since I started treatment, I stayed up through an entire night and the next day one time. That wasn't a great idea, and took a few weeks to recover from. Then there was the trip to Vegas, where I only had time to catnap before catching the flight home. And I fell asleep without the machine. That also took a toll for a few weeks. So, all of these things were my fault and lessons learned. I find when I am on treatment and behave for a few weeks I generally feel much better. Best advice I can give you is never sleep without the machine. Never.

[Julie]

And it simply may be that your doctor set your low pressure to the default machine's low of 4 - they do it all the time thinking the machine can deal with problems at any level, but it can't if they're too high - takes the machine too long to respond, so many of us end up raising the pressure by a couple of cms at a time for a few days to see where it likes to be most of the time - and you can do that if you use Sleepyhead software - do you?