Newbie Needing Direction

Hi All. I have been using my CPAP for about 3 weeks. I went from nasal pillows to full face and now back to the pillows. I am finding the pillows comfortable and leak through my nose is almost nil. Every night I am waking up around 3:30 to my mouth leaking ever so slightly. I get frustrated and take the machine mask off. I have a chin strap which works well but is not staying in place. I find myself very irritable and grumpy during the day. I am also much more tired than before I was using the CPAP. My events per hour have gone from 11 to 1.5 so the machine is working well for treating the apnea.

My wife asked me if I thought there was any point in sticking this out if I was going to remain so miserable. I would really love to start getting my 8 hours of sleep again. Any suggestions or support would be kindly appreciated.

Ryan D wrote:Hi All. I have been using my CPAP for about 3 weeks. I went from nasal pillows to full face and now back to the pillows. I am finding the pillows comfortable and leak through my nose is almost nil. Every night I am waking up around 3:30 to my mouth leaking ever so slightly. I get frustrated and take the machine mask off. I have a chin strap which works well but is not staying in place. I find myself very irritable and grumpy during the day. I am also much more tired than before I was using the CPAP. My events per hour have gone from 11 to 1.5 so the machine is working well for treating the apnea.

My wife asked me if I thought there was any point in sticking this out if I was going to remain so miserable. I would really love to start getting my 8 hours of sleep again. Any suggestions or support would be kindly appreciated.

Put it back on and try going back to sleep. Try taping your mouth shut with 3M Blue Painter's Tape.

You're essentially nullifying your therapy by removing your mask.


Den

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Have you looked at your data? what does it say you leak rate is at 3:30?
If it's not much of a leak then maybe you are waking from something else and just hearing the slight leak and assuming that is what woke you. It might be or it might be something else. It could be that you are just not comfortable with some CPAP setting and it takes until 3:30 for the discomfort to be enough for you to wake up

PoolQ wrote:Have you looked at your data? what does it say you leak rate is at 3:30?
If it's not much of a leak then maybe you are waking from something else and just hearing the slight leak and assuming that is what woke you. It might be or it might be something else. It could be that you are just not comfortable with some CPAP setting and it takes until 3:30 for the discomfort to be enough for you to wake up

I just looked at my data at 3:30 and it shows that I hit my highest pressure of 9.7 at that time. The curve really shoots up steadily between 3:20 and 3:30. The increased pressure is likely why I am getting some leakage.

More sleep with the mask on would probably help, even if you feel like you are getting some leaks. If the mask leaks and / or high pressure annoy you so much that you can't keep the mask on, maybe get up for a few minutes to clear your head, then go back to bed with the mask and CPAP..That happens to me sometimes and a break from the bed for a few minutes seems to help me. I have also tried turning the machine off then back on to get to the lower part of my APAP pressure range, but that doesn't work as well as a break for me.

It appears you are using an Airsense 10 machine. The first night I used mine, after 5 years of using a Phillips Respironics machine, I woke up extremely irritable. I was not used to waking up from CPAP feeling irritable. In my case, the DME has set some things such as ramp and EPR in ways that did not work for me, so I changed those settings after finding out how to get into the clinician's menu, then went back to sleep. After a few more hours sleep after a little break, I felt much better and have not experienced the irritability since. You may need a change in some of the "comfort" settings. The A10 has many available adjustments that may help you sleep better. You may need to experiment a bit to see what works for you. It also sounds as if you need more sleep per night. I hope you find a combination of settings that improve your CPAP experience.