Getting back to normal...

I've been using my CPAP for about 2 years now and my apnea is well controlled. The problem I have is that I can't achieve the 7-8 hours of sleep I used to enjoy before I was diagnosed with OSA. The best I usually can do is 6 hours of solid sleep with CPAP which leaves me fatigued most days.

Have others had similar experiences? Potential solutions?

Hi, normally you'd expect to need less sleep once on Cpap - you were only sleeping more prior to using it because your sleep was interrupted by apneas, but in your case I wonder if you should download SleepyHead software (see 1st Announcement on main pg) so we can find out why you're still tired... your settings or other factors overnight may not be adequate.

searcher wrote:I've been using my CPAP for about 2 years now and my apnea is well controlled. The problem I have is that I can't achieve the 7-8 hours of sleep I used to enjoy before I was diagnosed with OSA. The best I usually can do is 6 hours of solid sleep with CPAP which leaves me fatigued most days.

Have others had similar experiences? Potential solutions?

I agree with Julie. Get the software and study the reports.......the answers may be in there.
I see you have the "Elite" model machine in your profile, so I presume that if that's the machine you're using, it probably isn't the pressure changes disturbing your sleep. But, there may be other clues in the reports.


Den

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Just to clarify, I'm comparing the number of hours sleeping with CPAP vs. the number of hours I slept when I did not have OSA. I wouldn't think CPAP should cause me to sleep fewer hours than when I was fully healthy with no apnea issues.

searcher wrote:Just to clarify, I'm comparing the number of hours sleeping with CPAP vs. the number of hours I slept when I did not have OSA. I wouldn't think CPAP should cause me to sleep fewer hours than when I was fully healthy with no apnea issues.

How long ago did you NOT have sleep apnea? We don't just go from "zero" to "severe" overnight. It can take many years to manifest itself and it's usually gradually. Some of us believe we had sleep apnea most of our lives (in some form of severity).

But, going from pre-therapy to therapy, the shorter amount of sleep time can be explained by the fact that we're getting better, more oxygenated sleep after we're on therapy.


Den

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searcher wrote: The best I usually can do is 6 hours of solid sleep with CPAP which leaves me fatigued most days.

My first thought was that maybe 6 hours is adequate but apparently it's not. I agree with the suggestions to scrutinize your data for possible clues. Are you on any meds thought to adversely affect sleep? Can you clarify if you wake up after 6 pretty solid hours or if it takes too long to fall asleep and you can only get 6 hours in before needing to get up? Just trying to get a picture of what your sleep is like. Sometimes the details hold clues.

My "normal" sleep before CPAP was around 9-10 hours, and then didn't always want to get up. I wasn't conscious of having apnea, didn't wake up panicky or anything, but was just way more sleepy than I now realize I should have been - for years. That's why you have to have a sleep test to diagnose SA, and why you can't equate anything back to "normal".

Thanks for the feedback so far. The suggestions about downloading data make sense as a diagnostic tool, but the main thrust of my question has gotten lost.

I'm 54 years old and was diagnosed with apnea about 5 years ago. As often happens, medical issues start popping up in middle age. Prior to 5 years ago I slept a regular 7-8 hours without daytime fatigue. For those who have a similar history with apnea, can you remember a time without apnea when you awoke refreshed? Given how enjoyable that is, I assume most people can.

So, during one's pre-apnea life they probably averaged X number of sleep hours nightly. The question is are those X hours greater than the sleep hours they average with CPAP now? (I'm assuming over a year of daily CPAP use, a correctly calibrated machine and no interfering meds.) That's been my experience and I'm curious to know if it's been shared by others?

I think most of us slept way more hours pre Cpap than we'd like, and none felt refreshed on waking up. It's hard to say (as was said above) though for individuals how long their OSA was around (some born with it) and a few of us did not feel particularly sleepy as a symptom to be able to track how long we've had it, tho' many women find it more obvious when menopause hits. So the point is that just figuring # of hours you sleep or not with or without Cpap is not everything... quality of sleep is, with and without Cpap, which is why we use software along with how many hrs we sleep and how well we feel (some who've had insidious or long term OSA don't really know what a good night's sleep feels like!

You can count hrs pre and post Cpap all you like, but it won't tell you much and peoples' impressions of how long they sleep can be very subjective. Have I still missed something?

searcher wrote:Thanks for the feedback so far. The suggestions about downloading data make sense as a diagnostic tool, but the main thrust of my question has gotten lost.

I'm 54 years old and was diagnosed with apnea about 5 years ago. As often happens, medical issues start popping up in middle age. Prior to 5 years ago I slept a regular 7-8 hours without daytime fatigue. For those who have a similar history with apnea, can you remember a time without apnea when you awoke refreshed? Given how enjoyable that is, I assume most people can.

So, during one's pre-apnea life they probably averaged X number of sleep hours nightly. The question is are those X hours greater than the sleep hours they average with CPAP now? (I'm assuming over a year of daily CPAP use, a correctly calibrated machine and no interfering meds.) That's been my experience and I'm curious to know if it's been shared by others?

No it hasn't.

You assume incorrectly. Most of our experiences are different.
For years and decades I was running on adrenalin. I can't or couldn't remember a time when I woke up "refreshed", so I can't tell you how "enjoyable" it was.
And, I was in my late 50's when it hit me the worst and was diagnosed, too.

What are your machine settings?

Are you using software to monitor your therapy? If not, why not? Is your "data" (including leak data) optimal?

Again....... If you're sleeping shorter hours now, it's probably because the sleep is actually better and more oxygenated than it had been in those times when you THOUGHT it was better..


Den

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Problem is - we don't know. Is your therapy optimized? Without the software reports, we don't know. Why are you sleeping less? We don't know. Is 6 or 7 hours enough for you? We don't know. Is fatigue caused by a lack of sleep or something else? We don't know.
As Den said, our fifties seems to be a time we find it harder to "maintain". I know it was for me. When I was younger, I could get by with little sleep, but as I got older, that became harder and harder to do. Your fatigue could be simply a side effect of aging and not directly related to cpap or apnea. We don't know.
So, I think you should get the software and make sure your therapy is optimized, so that you can rule that out. Then look at sleep hygiene issues and possibly meds and a complete physical with full blood work.
Even though there are increasing reports of "older" people not needing eight hours of sleep per night, I think that it just might be that older people have a hard time getting eight hours per night. (Older here refers to me not you ) I think it likely that your 6 hours is just not enough sleep. The question is why are you getting only 6 hours? The software is the place to start.
You can get it here https://sleep.tnet.com/main
But, to answer one of your questions...I generally slept less before the onset of fatigue which led me to the diagnoses of sleep apnea.