Power went out in my neighborhood last night

[SleepingBeauty]

I woke up this morning and immediately had a headache as if I had been beaten with a baseball bat. I had a hard time sitting up, it was so painful and I felt so strange. When I looked over at my alarm to see what time it was, I saw the clock blinking. Hmmmm. I thought we must have had a power flicker or something.

Then I put my card in the reader and see that the power had been off for 1 1/2 hours! I went to sleep with my mask on and woke with my mask on. Could I possibly have left that mask on with no air coming through for an hour and a half?? Rebreathing all that old air? I assume I must have breathed through my mouth since I'm alive. I have always just assumed I'd wake up if my machine stopped in the night.

Anyone else have their power go out in the night? Did you wake immediately?

I wonder how many brain cells I killed last night! And just that hour and a half made a difference in my focus and concentration all day today. I ended up coming home from work early because I lost the same paper work 3 times. I have no idea where it finally ended up. That's when I realized I needed to leave before I did some real damage. I'll hunt it down tomorrow.

[Wulfman]

This was my experience last year.

viewtopic.php?t=24585

Den

[JeffH]

I always wake up the instant the power goes off. Being on rural electric for the last several years, I've had too much practice at it. We moved into town this last fall, so hopefully the flow will be more consistent. I don't understand how anyone with OSA could sleep without the air flow.

JeffH

[j.a.taylor]

I wonder how many brain cells I killed last night! And just that hour and a half made a difference in my focus and concentration all day today. I ended up coming home from work early because I lost the same paper work 3 times. I have no idea where it finally ended up. That's when I realized I needed to leave before I did some real damage. I'll hunt it down tomorrow.

That was one deep sleep! Thank goodness it wasn't permanent. Sometimes a high leak rate might be a good thing.

You may have killed a few brain cells, but get some good REM sleep, and you can create new neural pathways . . .

. . . and find that piece of paper later (or forget you ever lost it).

I always wake up if the machine goes off . . .

I don't like the alternative . . .

[SleepingBeauty]

Well, I guess I'm the only idiot who sleeps through a power failure. I still don't understand it. Especially one of such a duration. I don't want to be a statistic - woman discovered dead from carbon monoxide poisoning - apnea related.

I searched on line and found an audible alarm that give s an 80 dB alarm the instant the power goes out. That is something the manufacturers of these machines should consider adding as a feature.

It is only $32, and in my case, a necessity. It can also be used as a flashlight.

[paloa]

I have my apap connected to a online Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS). if the power goes out it beeps, as the battery drains it sets off an alarm.

a few nights ago the power went out. my wife woke me up concerned about the apap not working. I reminded her that i added a ups so only to wake me up if the alarm fails to wake me. fortunately the power was only out for a few minutes. I would not have noticed if she had not woken me.

Note this is a short power failure solution. Long failures require additional equipment.

[Guest]

If you exhale carbon monoxide, you've got bigger problems than OSA. Sorry, I know it was just a typo, but it made me chuckle.

[sburke91]

The electricity went out on my my very first night on cpap. Luckily I had a nasal mask (ComfortGel) on, 1/2 work up, feeling like I was breathing through quicksand.

I woke up a little more, the brain kicked in and I thought "hey idiot, open your mouth", then did so.

[Guest]

If you exhale carbon monoxide, you've got bigger problems than OSA. Sorry, I know it was just a typo, but it made me chuckle.

See! That information was in one of the brain cells that I killed!!!! Now I don't know my monoxide from my dioxide!

[rested gal]

Then I put my card in the reader and see that the power had been off for 1 1/2 hours! I went to sleep with my mask on and woke with my mask on. Could I possibly have left that mask on with no air coming through for an hour and a half?? Rebreathing all that old air? I assume I must have breathed through my mouth since I'm alive.

Since you weren't wearing a full face mask, yeah, you probably breathed through your mouth during that whole hour and a half of no power.

Mouth breathing during that time may also be why you didn't wake up. Had you been wearing a FF mask, you'd have gotten some air through the emergency valve in FF masks that stays open if no cpap air is flowing. It's not a biggggg opening though, so wearing a FF mask you'd have likely felt stifled enough to wake up sooner.

That you felt bad in the morning may have been more a consequence of not getting treatment for that 1 1/2 hours. By unfortunate coincidence, the power outage might have been partly during one of your longer REM cycles of the night when apneas hit most people hardest and heaviest.

Even breathing through one's mouth (as you almost certainly were doing, wearing your nasal pillows mask) can't get air through if apneas are blocking the airway. You probably weren't breathing your own exhalations. You might just not have been able to breathe well at all much of that time.