Increased pressure = zombieism. Help?

Okay, so I've been dealing with some Issues recently, in that I was back to taking 4-5 hour 'naps' in the afternoon (with cpap) in spite of also using it at night for 7-8 hours. So my doc sent me for another sleep study. Yay, right? My new pressure is 15. My old pressure was 10.

Besides having the usual problems of waking up with a stomach full of air (cure: seltzer) and the lung discomfort from increased pressure, I am now also DEAD TIRED. All the time. I spent the night at the hospital on Thursday, and was so tired on Friday that I had to come home from work. I fell asleep on the bus, which I never do, and zonked out for six hours when I got home (having changed the pressure to 15). I was awake for five hours, slept for another ten (!), awake for a few hours, slept another five, up for four hours, down for another 8. Each time I wake up, I can only stay awake for a few hours before I keel over again because it feels like I haven't slept for days. It's as bad as before I started treatment at all. I have no idea how I'm going to make it through work tomorrow at this rate. And I know I'm not just breathing it all out my mouth, because I wake up when I have blowouts and started taping my mouth again after the first home session.

Is this supposed to be happening? Should I go back to my old pressure, where at least I was able to function? I don't remember what it was like when I first started treatment (~2 years ago). But I'm feeling the opposite of energized and well rested, and I hate it. I've got stuff to do, but I'm not sure if I should just let myself sleep because I'm catching up on a deficit, or if this is something I should be trying to fight.

Thoughts?

There are several possibilities. The increased pressure could be causing Central apneas or your pressure could still be wrong. It could also be some other issue. The other issues I would check are vitamin D levels, iron levels and TSH levels. Any of these could be causing this.

To verify the efficacy of your sleep apnea treatment, I would either borrow an APAP from your DME or buy one myself and start checking my data on the machine and see what it says. Is your AHI reasonable? Are your leaks ok? What pressure is the machine using to stop the apneas?

The other items are blood tests your doctor can have performed.

I think you may be having problems with your mouth opening when asleep, and a higher pressure will aggravate it. You need to look into a full face mask that will let you mouth breathe without losing the Cpap air. To test it out, search "taping" on the forum and see if you can try it out for 1-2 nights, whether it helps or not.

Certainly you should check out the other possible medical problems already suggested.

It could also be that a change in pressure of 5 cm all at once may be too much for you body.

Perhaps you should set it back to 11 cm or perhaps 12 and work up gradually. It is also possible that the sleep study was not correct (many of them are not) and you don't need it quite that high.


You can try starting at 11 or 12 cm and working up to the setting that makes you feel best. If you do this, leave it at each setting for 5 to 7 days before raising it again. You will be better off adjusting to a pressure difference like that gradually, in my opinion.

Do get those other things checked out while you are trying this.

Thanks for the suggestions. I actually am having some bloodwork done, as soon as my medical card turns up in the mail (hopefully this week), so that's that taken care of. (I'm looking into an APAP, but that won't be for a while yet)

I know for sure that I'm not sleeping with my mouth open, because I have been taping. And I taped for a long time before this. The additional pressure causes blowouts liek woah, so I've been ubertaping to make sure nothing gets out. The seal is still solid when I wake up, so, yeah. Not that. (I mentioned taping when I was at the clinic, and the tech looked at me like I was CRAZY. She was like, 'not chin strap?'. No, sorry. Chin straps don't happen to hold my lips together when my tongue comes away from where it should be.)

I'm thinking I might do the graduated increase. Now that I know I can go up to a certain point without having doctors and whatnot come down on me like a ton of bricks for messing with my pressure, I have some leeway to twiddle with things on my own.

Thren wrote: . . . my doc sent me for another sleep study . . .

Did you get a copy? If so, what did it say, besides the pressure change? Any hints concerning the zombieism index, for example?

Do tell you doc. how tired you are, and ask about having you oxygen saturation recorded during the night. Its a service DME's are supposed to give for free -- but only when a doctor orders it.

O.

Have you changed any meds lately? A while back I was doing fine with about 8 or 9 hours sleep then my DR. changed
me from Lipitor to Simvastitan. Then I too had to have a little 4 or 5 hour nap during the day after sleeping a full 9 hours at night. Changing back to Lipitor didn't cure my daytime sleepiness but it helped a whole lot.