About how long to adjust to sleeping with CPAP?

General Discussion on any topic relating to CPAP and/or Sleep Apnea.
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InnerGlow
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About how long to adjust to sleeping with CPAP?

Post by InnerGlow » Fri Oct 20, 2017 1:00 pm

I realize that everyone is different and there is an adjustment period to using CPAP therapy, but I'd like to get a sense of how long it takes someone to be able to sleep through the night with CPAP. I've been using mine for just over 3 weeks, about 4-5 hours a night, and I have a lot of difficulty getting to sleep and staying asleep during those hours.

So how long did it take you to adjust to sleeping with your CPAP? Should this be getting easier or am I just too impatient?

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knothead
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Re: About how long to adjust to sleeping with CPAP?

Post by knothead » Fri Oct 20, 2017 1:11 pm

You may be a little impatient, ALL people are different, some take to cpap like ducks to water, others have to work at it. I had to work hard at it, this was just me. A little over 2 months before my brain realized the foreign thing on my face was my friend. My biggest scare was not being able to breath if the power went off. I fixed that problem by wearing my mask watching TV un hooked. Breath just fine. Good luck with your new friend...

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MaxINTJ
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Re: About how long to adjust to sleeping with CPAP?

Post by MaxINTJ » Fri Oct 20, 2017 1:27 pm

InnerGlow wrote:I realize that everyone is different and there is an adjustment period to using CPAP therapy, but I'd like to get a sense of how long it takes someone to be able to sleep through the night with CPAP. I've been using mine for just over 3 weeks, about 4-5 hours a night, and I have a lot of difficulty getting to sleep and staying asleep during those hours.

So how long did it take you to adjust to sleeping with your CPAP? Should this be getting easier or am I just too impatient?
I'm beginning to think some of it has to do with just how much new "stuff" is on your face and your preferred sleep position. I was able to keep the mask on all night after a few days, but actually sleeping with it on took a week or two. Now I can "sleep" all night with it, but am still waiting for the magical benefits to take affect...
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Tovi
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Re: About how long to adjust to sleeping with CPAP?

Post by Tovi » Fri Oct 20, 2017 3:23 pm

For me, I needed to problem solve what was bothering me and work on each issue one by one. As another poster wrote, fear of not being able to breathe was one. The mask feeling weird was another so at first I wore it awake while watching tv. The ramp feature also helped me. I also went through a couple different masks. I used to be a mouth breather, but with a full mask, I swallowed a ton of air, which made my GI issues worse. I went to nasal pillows. I tried a chin strap and that didn't really help. Then I taped my mouth shut and then finally just learned to keep my mouth shut because the mouth breathing was a habit I picked up when I wasn't getting enough air.

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Last edited by Tovi on Fri Oct 20, 2017 4:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Okie bipap
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Re: About how long to adjust to sleeping with CPAP?

Post by Okie bipap » Fri Oct 20, 2017 3:36 pm

For me, it took three nights. The first night, I left the mask on for about three hours. The second night, I left it on for about five hours, and the third night, I went the entire night. Several people complain they cannot breath at low pressures. My initial pressure was 20 - 25 cm with pressure support of 5 cm. Many people have trouble breathing out at the pressure I started with, but it did not bother me because it felt about the same as trying to breath while having an asthma attack.

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Lucyhere
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Re: About how long to adjust to sleeping with CPAP?

Post by Lucyhere » Fri Oct 20, 2017 3:55 pm

Hi and welcome... 3 weeks isn't enough time to get used to a very weird thing on your face. It's been awhile but I remember sleeping an hour or two longer every week or two. I remember vividly waking up one morning 3 or 4 months into it and jumping outta bed because I thought I had forgotten to put my mask on. When I reached up I realized it was on my face; had slept the entire night with it, and didn't even know it was there.

That still doesn't happen often... I usually wake up to go to the loo at least once. But, please realize this is a work in progress and for most of us, it didn't happen as quickly as we would have liked. Now there are a few people who say they slept through the night the first night, but we know they are nutso. You'll get there... you just have to give it time.
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DreamStalker
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Re: About how long to adjust to sleeping with CPAP?

Post by DreamStalker » Fri Oct 20, 2017 4:39 pm

Unlike some, I did not sleep well on the night of my sleep study ... it was a split-night study in foreign sleep quarters, wires tethered all over me, some lab tech jacking with the pressures all night -- not to mention my first time wearing a CPAP mask.

A couple of weeks later I was given a CPAP machine and mask to take home to learn to use. After that first night, I awoke from the dead feeling like superman ... it was the most awesome feeling ever and I was hooked. The next day I started doing internet research on this new CPAP fountain of youth and found this forum. It's been life altering as I quickly picked up my health and mind where I had left them 20 years previous.

Everyone is different but the correlation between all those who succeed with their therapy is that they don't give up and they're all members of this forum.

Best of luck to everyone new to this therapy and hang in there!
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AMESS
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Re: About how long to adjust to sleeping with CPAP?

Post by AMESS » Fri Oct 20, 2017 5:02 pm

Here I am 6 weeks into it and still not sleeping well -if at all. All the stuff on my face--hate it. Hopefully it makes me better.

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Okie bipap
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Re: About how long to adjust to sleeping with CPAP?

Post by Okie bipap » Fri Oct 20, 2017 6:27 pm

AMESS wrote:Here I am 6 weeks into it and still not sleeping well -if at all. All the stuff on my face--hate it. Hopefully it makes me better.
I made a decision to do what ever it took to learn to use the machine. My only other option was to continue to use supplemental oxygen while sleeping. If you think it is inconvenient to carry a CPAP machine while traveling, try to travel with an oxygen concentrator.

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Re: About how long to adjust to sleeping with CPAP?

Post by Mogy » Fri Oct 20, 2017 7:10 pm

I have averaged about 3 hours per night over the first 7 months of APAP therapy. It has made a big difference and I feel a lot better.
Only this last week have I been able to use the machine for 6 hours a night. How I feel continues to improve. Mornings are great. I must have had sleep apnea for many years. I didn't know I could feel this good.
Using weight loss, general exercise, and tongue/throat exercises I managed to get my AHI down to approx 5.
Not using a machine currently.

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Bertha deBlues
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Re: About how long to adjust to sleeping with CPAP?

Post by Bertha deBlues » Fri Oct 20, 2017 7:21 pm

Okie bipap wrote: I made a decision to do what ever it took to learn to use the machine.
Same here. It wasn't easy, but I was determined to make it work. It took maybe 3-4 months before I felt I was getting the hang of it. We're all different. Now it's like an old friend.
And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make. - Paul McCartney

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Grace~~~
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Re: About how long to adjust to sleeping with CPAP?

Post by Grace~~~ » Fri Oct 20, 2017 9:04 pm

I was given the machine without a sleep study or any guidance whatsoever through a fustercluck of insurance, maybe a DME - whatever that is? and weird circumstances.

In the beginning all I was told was about compliance and so when I couldn't sleep with it right away I just decided to cheat and wear it whenever I was on the computer or just whenever I could 'put in some hours'. Getting that burden of 'compliance' out of the way took the stress off. I got to get familiar with my new sleep partner on my own terms. I could explore. Be creative. Learn to trust what feels good and reject what feels bad.

I had a horrible mask at first. It makes me hate whoever forced that on me. (I'm a bit of a Love/Hate girl)

...but I found my way here to cpaptalk pretty quick and got the dreamwear mask and that was the beginning and I just tried everything and anything to improve and really enjoy the process.

I decided early on that the cpap air *to me* felt like sleeping on the deck of a luxury yacht so I got a waterbed and fans to blow on me hard so that whatever was going up my nose was less than the air I felt on my cheeks. I found I loved the scent of Dr. Bronners peppermint soap and so I use a drop to wash my nose piece.

I've tried things that didn't work and let them go and kept things that felt good. It was all worth it. Getting great oxygenated sleep is a really, really REALLY good thing.

...but boy do I still hate that first mask. And the entire "system" of the insurance and medical community surrounding cpap.

Which is why cpaptalk is so insanely valuable!
Or at least it has been to *me*.
Began XPAP May 2016. Autoset Pressure min. 8 / max 15. Ramp off. ERP set at 2. No humidity. Sleepyhead software installed and being looked at daily, though only beginning to understand the data.

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JeffL
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Re: About how long to adjust to sleeping with CPAP?

Post by JeffL » Fri Oct 20, 2017 9:52 pm

I don't know if I could ever adjust to a full mask, but I was set up with nasal pillows, and took to it the first night.

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InnerGlow
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Re: About how long to adjust to sleeping with CPAP?

Post by InnerGlow » Sat Oct 21, 2017 12:31 pm

Thanks for all the replies. I guess I'd better settle in for a longer adjustment period.

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Nick Danger
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Re: About how long to adjust to sleeping with CPAP?

Post by Nick Danger » Sat Oct 21, 2017 12:57 pm

I fall into the "a few months" bucket. Now that I am comfortable with it, I find it difficult to go to sleep without it.

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