Taking My Mask Off

Hi!

I'm new here and plan on hashing through all of the past posts, but I wanted to get some support/advice for a problem I am having.

I have been using my CPAP for just over a month and have a frequent problem.

I put my mask on at night, turn my machine on, and go to sleep. Then I wake up (sometimes in the middle of the night, sometimes in the morning) and I find my mask hanging up where I put it during the day and my machine off.

Briarius wrote:Hi!

I'm new here and plan on hashing through all of the past posts, but I wanted to get some support/advice for a problem I am having.

I have been using my CPAP for just over a month and have a frequent problem.

I put my mask on at night, turn my machine on, and go to sleep. Then I wake up (sometimes in the middle of the night, sometimes in the morning) and I find my mask hanging up where I put it during the day and my machine off.

Hi Briarius,

Very timely post because I did it last night for the first time in months due extreme nasal stuffiness. So anyway, that would be my first question to you regarding nasal potency? How is it? Any nasal obstruction/stuffiness issues that could be causing you to take it off due to discomfort?

What about the mask? Is it comfortable or might you do better with another one?

Are your pressure settings correct? Many newbies are started out with a pressure range of 4-20 so if the pressure is too low, it might not be catching the breathing events in time causing you to feel like you're not getting enough air leading to you unintentionally shedding the mask.

Best of luck.

49er

Hi Briarius,

Welcome to the forum. 49er has some great questions to get to the bottom of WHY you're removing the mask.

I've seen several posts regarding this same issue, and a popular suggestion is to tape the mask on your face. Just a strip on each side, perhaps. The hope is that when you go to rip off the mask it should awake you.

Thanks for the replies.

The concern that I have is that I have absolutely no memory of doing it at all.

I do have seasonal allergies, which causes me to be stuffy at this time of year.

I chose this mask because I can't sleep with my mouth closed (I start getting panicky if forced to be closed). I have the Amara View

As to the pressure settings, I went through a titration study to get the right setting. Could it still be wrong?

Briarius wrote:As to the pressure settings, I went through a titration study to get the right setting. Could it still be wrong?

The titration study doesn't always get it right but they usually get at least close.
What machine are you using? Hopefully it is a full data machine so you can use the software available to make sure that the pressure settings are optimal.
See this for information on software
https://sleep.tnet.com/equipment

As to not having any memory of removing the mask...that's actually fairly common.
Is it related to the pressure settings possibly being incorrect? Doubtful. But again hopefully there is data available so you can see what happened (or didn't happen) at the time of the mask removal.

Even after 6 years of therapy I will still occasionally remove the mask and have no memory of it. We can do some funny things during the night and not remember them. If it is a frequent problem then adding a little tape to the straps on the cheeks might help at least wake you up enough to stop the unwanted behavior.
With time the brain comes to realize that the mask is a friend that it wants to keep around but for right now the brain sometimes says "I gotta get that thing off my face" so the mask comes off and we aren't awake enough to remember doing it.