Reaching that dang 4 hour mark.

So I am hovering at 3 hours 20 to 3 hours 45 minutes of use of my machine per night. My issues is I take the mask off in the middle of the night with out knowledge, It is comfortable to sleep in, I have no leaks and fall asleep with out a problem. When I wake up the mask is off and by that time it's time for me to go on about my day so I don't get those extra 20 to thirty minutes to get me at 4 hours. What are the tips to increase this? Right now I will be trying to do the whole setting an alarm a few hours after I fall asleep. My machine has a face mask alert but it apparently does not wake me any help and advice would be awesome if not I guess it's time to break out some duct tape so that I can reach the 4 hours and be in compliance for the DOT (department of transportation) so I can get my medical card.

Put your mask on early in the evening before bed time and then continue when you go to sleep. You should be able to get another hour or so each day.

Try taping the straps to your face so that when you go to pull it off, you'll wake up long enough to stop yourself and go back to sleep.

I tried medical tape and I still ripped it off it's very frustrating.

Ditto

taping the straps worked for me... I needed the tape for about a month to stop me from removing the mask

Julie wrote:Try taping the straps to your face so that when you go to pull it off, you'll wake up long enough to stop yourself and go back to sleep.

Correa,

Do you have Auto ON/OFF turned on? In other words, is your machine set to turn itself on and off based on whether it is detecting breathing?

If the Auto ON/OFF settings is turned on, that might be part of why you are not waking up until it's time to get up. A cpap that's blowing air all around because there's nobody attached to the hose end can be quite noisy. So you might try making sure the machine's Auto OFF setting is turned OFF so the machine doesn't turn itself off when you take the mask off. Maybe the sound of the air blowing all around would be enough to wake you up so that you can put the mask back on and return to sleep.

In addition to taping the mask on your face, you might also want to use some bobby pins or barettes to clip the headgear to your hair. Maybe that would make it difficult enough to rip the mask off in your sleep.

My brother got those sleep masks at Walgreens (about $8) and put it on his mask and around the back of his head because he kept taking the mask off at night. It turned out to work splendidly to keep his mask fitting better (he has a beard), so he's done that ever since. He's been able to sleep comfortably with his mask for 5 years since he discovered that. I'm just putting it out there as an idea.

Just watch TV while wearing it. When it's running, it counts.
It's not smart enough to know if you're asleep, and soon you will be.