Headaches and feeling breathless the morning AFTER cpap

Does any one else feel like they can't catch their breath the next day after xpap therapy?

Also have had migraines (which I am not prone to having) everyday this week, with two yesterday.

A lot people report that they feel suffocated at settings below 8. Try either turning off your ramp or setting it to 6 and shorten the ramp time.

This happens after I take the mask off. I hardly even notice the airflow when I'm wearing the mask, and it hasn't been a problem. It's after I take it off in the morning and then spend the next few hours feeling like I can't quite catch my breath--or I'm not breathing right.

There is no low. I am at 8 all night, except for my ramp from 4

lynbarnes wrote:Does any one else feel like they can't catch their breath the next day after xpap therapy?

You chest muscles have to work harder to breathe out so they are sore and complaining. Sort of like after you exercise a lot it feels like your legs don't want to move and feel a bit weak the next few days.

Also have had migraines (which I am not prone to having) everyday this week, with two yesterday.

Check your straps. Some people have issues with straps tight on the back of the neck.

Migraines are a bitch and can be triggered by all sorts of things, including the stress of change, lack of sleep, too much sleep, pressure on the neck or back.

Don't forget that you can have other medical problems not related to CPAP or that you can develop new problems when on CPAP.

How long have you been on CPAP? Some people feel various strange symptoms after starting CPAP. I think some of these are because your body makes adjustments to being strangled in your sleep and having low O2, stress hormones, and poor sleep. Even if your CPAP is working perfectly in terms of breathing, your body may be "out of balance" for a while until it adjusts to your new situation.

Some people have headaches when starting CPAP. I'm guessing it has to do with different oxygen levels.

I'm less familiar with feeling breathless after CPAP.

Just wondering; do you check your blood glucose?
Not everything is related to cpap.

44 yo male on CPAP two years.
high blood pressure - managed (120/80 now)
cholesterol - managed

Noticed breathlessness doing minor activity immediately after starting CPAP. Seemed to get better.
Took 20mg propranolol for anxiety/panic - resulted in complete exercise intolerance due to breathlessness.
Off propranolol for 1 month now (tapering) am down to 5mg per day.

Had breathless feeling this morning. Took ativan. When researching propranolol and CPAP "breathless" I noticed when 10 minutes into reading that I became unaware of breathless sensation.

*Believe* this could be about a psychological condition about anxiety/panic, related to a fear of having a heart attack (persistent fear of mine).

DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT AN MD. NEVER assume breathlessness is *just* a side effect or psychological or from exertion. Breathlessness at rest or from light exercise could be from a potentially life threatening problem. See a doctor ASAP at the onset of breathlessness and/or dizziness and rule out serious heart, lung or other problems.

My breathlessness and yours may have completely different causes!

LynBarnes,

Are you on oxygen? I found out by accident one time that my headaches stopped after the Hospital sent me home on 02. Later on I was DX with 101 AHI with central apnea. You have to have 02 with that type.


seajay

It is possible that after you wake up, you are processing things that happened while asleep and this is causing the feeling of not breathing. On my CPAP machine there are lots of settings AND I find that I am quite sensitive to most of them AND I usually misinterpret what is happening NAD they tend to drift or change over time AND sometimes when I change one setting I will need to readjust another setting. So while trying to tune my CPAP I was getting this feeling of not getting enough air that was stopping me from sleeping, with advice from this forum I found the solution: Turn Smart Start BACK on AND increase the pressure that defaulted to 4 (not enough air for me) 5.6 worked for a couple days and then last night I upped it to 5.8, but I may have to drop it back to 5.6 as this change did not seem to impact my difficulty getting to sleep last night.

Bottom line is you may be reacting to something that needs to be tweaked on your machine.

As for your heart attack concern, I had my 95% blocked "widow maker" event this last December, 7 months BEFORE being diagnosed with sleep apnea. So by using CPAP you are doing something to prevent a heart attack. If you want to feel less anxiety about a heart attack may I suggest that you make sure you know how to recognize one (sure thought I did and I almost did not go to the ER), make a plan of what to do if it does happen, make sure you are doing what you can in addition to CPAP to help lower your risk. Your best chance of surviving one is to get to the ER as soon as possible and an ambulance can start treating you on the way there. I can personally tell you that heart attack pain is like nothing you have ever felt before, but not always more pain that what you have experienced. So chest pain should cause you to ask "Have I felt THIS before?" and not "Is this a heart attack?". Strong, persistent, and not like you have felt before.

Using CPAP is not something to worry about, not using it is.