Am I alone on this one?

[Daffney_Gillfin]

About 3-4 weeks into this, I woke up about two hours before normal time, purposely took off the mask, and went back to sleep without it for the last two hours. It was the worst day ever. I've never even considered doing it again.

However, I have been guilty of sleeping without the mask for less than 7 minutes in the morning several times. I hit the snooze, take off the mask, and then roll over. Some mornings I lie there awake until the next alarm, while others I do go back to sleep for a few minutes. I haven't felt any ill effects from this so far. Maybe I should stop doing it anyway.

[byront]

BT -

How the heck do you tape with your whiskers? Have you shaved them off?

- r

My apologies to all - I did veer a bit off track there. DreamStalker, I PM'd you with an answer to your taping question. And just for the record, the whiskers have been with me for 30+ years and will be buried with me - on my face . --- BT[/quote]

[gardenrodent]

Bob, I hope you don't take anything I'm saying as my being critical of you or how any person chooses to go about their own treatment. We each have to make our own decisions and consider what we think is the best advice....for us. Whatever you, I, or anyone do regarding cpap treatment, I hope we all get effective treatment that makes us feel well rested. Each person is different, and it's always good to hear different viewpoints about treatment. "Sleep" is a fascinating subject. I want to keep learning...

No offence taken at all Laura... I am here for the debate, and seeing your attitudes all radically different to mine means that perhaps I should re-evaluate. I quote what I have been told, and logically it seems to agree with what I take as read, maybe I'm wrong. But as you said, it is really about not feeling knackered and being able to work. So I guess what I am saying is, the damage is already done, I've probably been mildly like this for 20 years, I smoked, I've taken drugs, I am taking prescription drugs, I engage in risky sports, I drive too fast, I drink coffee, and most dangerous of all I annoy my wife and have 5 kids!

All I want is to feel better to manage to continue those items above I have not yet abandoned! And if I don't get headaches, and I feel less tired then I will doze without my mask... The other items above will get me first!

Bob

[rested gal]

"and most dangerous of all I annoy my wife and have 5 kids!"

LOL!!

A good sense of humor is a BIG help in all this stuff. Looks like you're doing fine.

[LDuyer]

The whole point is I don't sleep because of OSA, my body wakes me up and stops me dying!

I often tell people with untreated apnea that it's your body stopping you from dying. But sooner or later, that body will get annoyed, run out of energy, and not be able to do it some day. OR, the heart, which is doing a lot of the work to keep you from dying will overdo it from the exertion and have an attack or a stroke. They say people with untreated apnea are more likely to die during the night instead of the morning as is found for the general population. I'm not sure I want the paramedics to see my nightime wardrobe.


I've been bad too, not sleeping with it the entire night or whatever. And I know that is putting me at risk, whether or not I feel effects from it. There are increased risks with everything we do or don't do for our bodies. If cpap can buy me another hour on this earth, then I'll try my best to keep using it as often as I can.

We all have free will, we are ultimately responsible for ourselves. And then there are some risks that are out of our control. I feel it's better to control what you can. But you'd best not delude yourself, convince yourself that you are doing yourself no harm. And, I feel we should not try to convince others that forgoing any amount of treatment has no risks. For some people, those four hours when they should have been using their cpaps could be a major risk. They deserve treatment and not made to think they don't need it when they may well need it.

Just my two cents..... ok, five.


Linda

[Bones]

I have apneas even in stage 1 sleep, so I am basically afraid to sleep without my cpap. I will admit though,that there are times I really miss the "freedom" of sleeping while not "hooked up". Those are the times I have to remind myself what it was like before I began treatment. A while ago, my mask cushion tore in the middle of the night, so I just chucked it and slept for 2 hours without it. The following day was by far the worst I've had since about a week into treatment. That was enough to convince me that I need the cpap all night, every night.

Brian

[SelfSeeker]

Melissa thanks for starting this post.

It was either an eye openner or just a realisation concerning naps.

I was reading some of the post, and my husband asked the question about napping. Do I need to wear it for naps as well, or is this just going over board.

Then we read Rested Girls post.

It really drove the point home.

Recently, I have awoken while gasping for air, even though I take naps on the recliner. I have even awoken from a sitting up position gasping for air, when I fell asleep watching TV.

APAP will need to be on when I plan on resting. I know this will be a big change for me. (I hope I will not need to nap when I am not home during the day. What about waiting to get in to see the Dr. )

Though my OSA is mild, I'm not real crazy about the idea of undergoing suffocation during a short nap, much less for an hour or two in the morning before getting up.

That four hour minimum notion is, as the others mentioned, for minimum number of hours to be covered by insurance. Even if a person lives in a country where there's no such thing as having to meet minimum compliance, the manuals are already printed up by the cpap manufacturers to speak about that minimum because it is so common in the U.S.

imho, any medical professional who tells a person, "As long as you use it at least 4 hours a night, that's good" is doing their patient a great disservice. Unless the health care provider is using that figure as an incentive to try to keep a person going who is about to drop out, I can't imagine any professional who really understands the seriousness of Obstructive Sleep Apnea thinking that way, or hinting that it's ok to sleep at ANY time without mask and machine.

Some use is better than no use, true. But no suffocation is better than some.

[cwsanfor]

I was getting systolic pressures in the 190's......and that was after 5-10 minutes after actual awakening. I suspect I was spiking over 200 systolic on some occasions......unmeasured because the pressure would quickly start dropping minute by minute.

I don't even want to know what my BP was at night, it was high even in the day. At night, it was so high that I had to go potty 5-6 times per night, now with treatment 0-1 times. The kind of BP that will put that sort of pressure on the kidneys is a Very Bad Thing. I'd frequently wake up with heart pounding.

To reiterate something I just posted, napping at lunch was how I was partially compensating for an AHI of 79, O2 nadir of 64%. I had not slept right in years. This is not a good approach: it was just enough to keep me from getting treatment, during which time I probably incurred additional tissue damage. It was actually the loss of a way to nap at work that forced me to seek treatment: without that nap I was falling asleep during important meetings, and such unacceptable behavior. I'm really glad I did seek treatment, and will not intentionally sleep for any period of time without the mask.

I've certainly engaged in bad health practices, but this is not one I choose to indulge. I keep one or more bad habits around in case the doctor says I have to give something up, but sleeping without xPAP is not one of them.

_________________

CPAPopedia Keywords Contained In This Post (Click For Definition): Awakening, AHI

[hoyle]

I to am a health care professional who does not know much about sleep apnea and am trying to become more informed. I to wish I could do without the mask at times. But the day I felt like taking a nap, it made more sense to use the cpap then not to use it. Simply put, I felt better after the nap. My eyes did not have that tired feeling, my brain was more alert and I had more energy. Also, I was scared not to because during my initial sleep study my oxygen saturations would drop to the 70's and low 80's.

WildIris

[gardenrodent]

Ok guys, as promised the official version:-

Unless you have a very SEVERE respiratory problem you will not die!

The head ache is either from the CO2 retention, or from the effort involved in/side affects of snoring. What I didn't realise here was that with a severe OSA you will retain some CO2, perhaps.

Feeling worse after sleep? Well it was put to me like this: If you sleep for 12 hours, 4 with CPAP and 8 without, you will feel crap afterwards. However 6 hours with and 2 without and there really is no bad side affect. The bottom line is that you really can't undo the good works done, as I guessed, this is real counter intuitive!

And that is about it. The only other piece of information I gleaned was that in theory you have caught up on your REM sleep after 3 weeks...

So there you have it folks, if you fel like a doze and you don't feel bad afterwards it is unlikely to be doing you harm...

Bob

[pandagirl]

I was getting systolic pressures in the 190's......and that was after 5-10 minutes after actual awakening. I suspect I was spiking over 200 systolic on some occasions......unmeasured because the pressure would quickly start dropping minute by minute.

I don't even want to know what my BP was at night, it was high even in the day. At night, it was so high that I had to go potty 5-6 times per night, now with treatment 0-1 times. The kind of BP that will put that sort of pressure on the kidneys is a Very Bad Thing. I'd frequently wake up with heart pounding.

I was waking up once an hour to use the bathroom--I had no idea that was caused by high blood pressure! That certainly makes sense--I've had high BP (treated with medication) for a few years.

[chunkyfrog]

If your apnea is positional enough, occasionally sleeping on your tummy may be mostly harmless.
Refer to your original sleep study. It should note your AHI in various positions.
My apnea is the same in any position, so no naked nights for the frog.