Poll: how long before felt you had more energy?

[Moby]

If I go short of sleep though, it's back to the pre-cpap state in a matter of days.

[Knabino]

It's been 7 days for me on CPAP so far, and 2 of these days I felt awesome and well-rested in the morning. The other days I was confused and miserable as usual.

I'm excited, because if I have a mood and energy success rate of 2/7 in my first week, then it should only go up from there!

[robysue]

I'm with Zeke351 and elena88: Even N/A is not an appropriate choice for someone who at best is feeling no worse than starting CPAP and at worst is feeling much worse after using CPAP for say 6 months or so.

As someone who's not been using CPAP long enough to vote on the last "Been using 6 months or more and not feeling better" but who clearly cannot vote for any of the other options, I do feel left out.

[davecpap]

It took me about 3 months to feel better.

Two sleep docs told it should be a couple days and expressed great concern when I wasn't better after a week. Both wanted me to take Provigil.
A third said it would take up to 6 weeks, wanted me on Provigil after that.

I stuck it out and I feel pretty good most days, as long as I dedicate enough time to sleep and stick to my sleep schedule!

[JosephSchmoe]

Still waiting, but it's looking up. It took about six months before I could go to sleep easily with the mask on. I would wake up several times in the night with the mask next to me in the bed. Put it back on and try to fall asleep again. Then for several months could get no more than five hours sleep per night. Would sleep straight through for almost exactly five hours.

For years I've had odd energy patterns, where I was barely functional in the morning, increasing in energy throughout the day, and all bright-eyed by bedtime, even with as little as two hours sleep the night before. This continued with CPAP. Decided to get my energy patterns under control. Exercising in the morning instead of evening, dimming the lights about an hour before bedtime, and quitting caffeine. Formerly I would have only one cup of coffee in the morning and one about noon. Quit last Sunday. Since then I've had 6-7 hours of sleep each night. It makes no sense to me that coffee morning and noon could affect me at midnight, but I think it contributed to the skewed pattern.

Many factors can affect the perception of energy level, and not all have to do with apnea. Each person's solution will be unique.

[ZQuest]

I guess that i have been one of the lucky one's. Apap has been a good ride from day one,a few bumps on the road, sore nose,mask leaks just to name some of the bumps other than that it really has been GREAT. I now look forward to going to sleep and waking up feeling human again..

Just to name some of the change's that i believe Apap has contributed to in my life!

No More smoking ( after more than 25 yrs. puffing)( Quit Cold Turkey and not Looking Back)

No More falling a sleep at the wheel or taking afternoon nap's

No More waking up in the middle of the night with my heart pounding or cold sweats

Lost 18lbs. since starting on apap back in April of this year..YES! all this progress started Day One of being on Apap..With many,many thank's to the member's of this forum,for their Knowledged,Experience's and Wisdom that they have posted


Warmest Regards: Phil

[Geminidream]

It took three to six months to get a significant amount of energy back (and improved memory), but I don't feel like it all totally came back until about the 9 month mark. The morning headaches dissapeared immediately. I am approaching 1 year with cpap and what a difference a year makes. There was no way I could have pulled the schedule I am pulling now. (Full time job and attending college full time.) I am tired a lot of the time, but its mainly due to the lack of sleep time..not apnea related. Its a different kind of tired than before cpap treatment.

[Astrophytum]

After the first night I used the CPAP I get up fresher in the morning!

And now, after some weeks, I can say: it was a good decision go to the doctor...



Regards,
Astrophytum

[Roman Hokie]

I'm at 4.5 months and, while I don't experience the need for daily / eveningly naps, I'm not back to normal yet. Whatever that is.

[Captain_Midnight]

Interestingly, I came down with type A influenza on the day I picked up my cpap.<P>

I kept with it, though on the theory that my immune system will be stronger if I'm doing the machine thing (and I suspect that I was right).

Some two-three weeks after starting the xpap, I had more energy than before (even with a yucky residual cough from the flu).

Very shortly thereafter, I did more yard work in a few days than I had done in previous years.

Less than two months after starting cpap, I ran a 5 k race.<P>

Much more info on this, I'll detail in a about a month (my 5-yr aniversary)


.

[robysue]

It's now been 9 weeks of 100% compliance. And I'm still not feeling any better than I did before starting CPAP. And many/most days I'm still feeling worse than I did before I started CPAP. Still determined to make it work, though, because of the potential nasty things that untreated apnea can lead too.

But I also realize i'm very lucky: I have a PA in the sleep doctor's office who is patiently working with me to figure out why I'm still feeling so lousy, and without her help, I have to admit that I'd be getting close to throwing in the towel. And so I wonder how many folks who do abandon CPAP also feel like their problems with adjusting are just being blown off by the sleep doctor's office and/or the DME?

[larry63]

I'm with Zeke351 and elena88: Even N/A is not an appropriate choice for someone who at best is feeling no worse than starting CPAP and at worst is feeling much worse after using CPAP for say 6 months or so.

As someone who's not been using CPAP long enough to vote on the last "Been using 6 months or more and not feeling better" but who clearly cannot vote for any of the other options, I do feel left out.

Same here. It's been between 4 or 5 months of therapy for me, so I could vote N/A I suppose, but that category doesn't really mean any thing.

Felling worse. I had hopes after switching masks - had 2 or 3 great days, but then sunk back.

Like you Roby Sue, my general doctor is working with me on this.

I agree with others in that causation does not equal correlation. Just because someone is feeling better or worse after CPAP, does not imply that CPAP was the cause. I suppose that's
especially the case with people like me, elena88, and robysue, who are feeling worse. it could easily be just a coincidence, and something else is going on.
CPAP is just one small thing in the myriad of health problems a person could have.

For example, it one were to draw a graph (I guess the math kind with nodes and edges),
perhaps with the following nodes (just as one random example):
- throat physiology
- Sleep Apnea
- CPAP treatment
- expectations of treatment results
- good sleep hygiene
- depression, anxiety
- environmental factors (physical or psyhological)
- stimulant use (caffeine)
- hypnotic use (ambien, benadryl)
- exercise
- high blood pressure
- excessive weight
- fatigue
- productivity (concentration, etc)
- some other chronic illness

.. and draw all these nodes (circles) with the edges (lines) between each of them, with arrows at each end indicating which can cause which,
I bet that most of the edges can have arrows at both ends.

So it's not so easy to draw conclusions. A classic case with me is that I go through phases of exercising and not-exercising. Naturally, I feel worse
when not exercising and more fatigued. But that doesn't mean that exercise makes me less fatigued. It could be the other way around, in that I
have to be feeling energetic enough to be motivated enough to go the gym to begin an exercise program.

[SnoozyQ]

It's now been 9 weeks of 100% compliance. And I'm still not feeling any better than I did before starting CPAP. And many/most days I'm still feeling worse than I did before I started CPAP. Still determined to make it work, though, because of the potential nasty things that untreated apnea can lead too.

But I also realize i'm very lucky: I have a PA in the sleep doctor's office who is patiently working with me to figure out why I'm still feeling so lousy, and without her help, I have to admit that I'd be getting close to throwing in the towel. And so I wonder how many folks who do abandon CPAP also feel like their problems with adjusting are just being blown off by the sleep doctor's office and/or the DME?

I think we are in similar boats....except for that helpful PA

To answer your question from my experience, it's quite tempting to chunk the machine back where it came from. I get frustrated and think that I'm on my own, no one understands, I don't have much support (other than this forum!).I don't feel any better and no one can tell me why, so what's my motivation to continue? Honestly, I'm not sure....I guess I'm still hoping for that day when I wake up and think "FINALLY!!!". Who knows how long I can hang on to that nice thought....

[jabman]

It is not quite 6 months for me, I think it will be 6 months in January. Even so It only took 2 weeks for me, once I got my Blood sugars back to a more normal range.

[larry63]

It's now been 9 weeks of 100% compliance. And I'm still not feeling any better than I did before starting CPAP. And many/most days I'm still feeling worse than I did before I started CPAP. Still determined to make it work, though, because of the potential nasty things that untreated apnea can lead too.

But I also realize i'm very lucky: I have a PA in the sleep doctor's office who is patiently working with me to figure out why I'm still feeling so lousy, and without her help, I have to admit that I'd be getting close to throwing in the towel. And so I wonder how many folks who do abandon CPAP also feel like their problems with adjusting are just being blown off by the sleep doctor's office and/or the DME?

I think we are in similar boats....except for that helpful PA

To answer your question from my experience, it's quite tempting to chunk the machine back where it came from. I get frustrated and think that I'm on my own, no one understands, I don't have much support (other than this forum!).I don't feel any better and no one can tell me why, so what's my motivation to continue? Honestly, I'm not sure....I guess I'm still hoping for that day when I wake up and think "FINALLY!!!". Who knows how long I can hang on to that nice thought....

Mu humble and personal and medically uniformed opinion would be to _not_ hold to that nice thought! You tried CPAP. You're not feeling any better.
Why would you not look into other causes?

I've gone through this before, back in the 80's, with an ailment that was a popular dx at the time.

I'm just trying to issue a word of caution. Don't buy into any particular diagnosis. Actually, take that last sentence with a grain of salt.
If your sleep study shows really apnea, then so be it. But on the other hand, mine showed that 80+ % of events were hypopneas, and that my minimum oxygen
saturation during the night was 83%. And eyeballing the graph or ox sat, it looks like my average ox sat was around 90 B%. Not great, but not
too shabby considering that I also have pernicious anemia.

I don't know what country you're in, but in the USA, spleep apnea is a growing business. I would say, just be
careful, and understand that in the US, medicine is more a business then a science.