How long to fully recover?

[andy88488]

Hi all,

With the help of my new APAP machine, I am finally waking up feeling alert and refreshed. My AHI is down to about 1.6!

But I am finding that my energy wanes during the afternoon, and usually by 5 pm I am really wiped.

How long does it usually take before your body is fully recovered from decades of Apnea and acclimated to your new situation? Are there stages that are recognizable, or is it unique to each individual?

Thanks,
Andy

[sleepycarol]

It appears to be an individual thing.

For many of us we have secondary disorders that play a role in how quickly we recover. Others recover a lot faster and feel better almost immediately.

I wish I was one of the group that felt great right off -- for me it is taking time. I seem to feel better at times and then it seems like I slide right back to square one and feel awful. I do think I probably have some secondary issues I need to address and am trying to obtain my full sleep report to see if I can pinpoint it a little easier.

Good luck and hope it gets better for you soon!!

[hades161]

It is really an individual thing.

So many factors can effect the treatment that sometimes it just takes a long time to get adjusted. Some never seem to get that energy back and others get it almost well "overnight".

My advice is take it slow and easy and watch your habits and treatment closely. Best thing you can do is limit the random factors as much as you can and hope for the best.


Best wishes

[DreamStalker]

As others have noted, it is likely an indiviual thing. I think it may also be related to the severity of your pre-treated OSA condition too.

I was one of the lucky ones to notice the difference after the first night ... but I was an unlucky one to have had a really severe condition (AHI = 102 w/ AI = 99 and 60% O2 saturation) for many years prior. So I was literally half-dead before getting my life back.

As for stages, the only ones I noted were -

1) steep learning curve re: my condion and treatment
2) experiencing aerophagia (stomach gas)
3) experiencing rib, back, and chest aches
4) feeling so fortunate to have found this forum

[Flying_Norseman]

My experience is almost exactly the same as Dremastalker's -- right down to the list in order. My AHI was pretty bad too. It was somewhere near 70. I am six months in and I feel amazing although I am still trying to find the "perfect" mask. Hang in there it takes persistence.

[GrizzlyBear]

Hiya.

My own experience was that I found out I had sleep apnea after I told my doctor in passing (as a joke!) that I sometimes fell asleep at the traffic lights when driving home from work. I thought it was pretty normal, if funny, but he told me that he didn't think it was either normal or funny. My condition was nowhere near as bad as the guys above. After a couple of months of treatment, I still feel tired, especially towards the end of the day, but I don't seem to fall asleep at the traffic lights any more. So, while I am trying not to be TOO confident (I have only been back at work for a week or so after an extended medical break), I see that as an improvement. For some of us, perhaps improvement is in small steps.

Regards,

GrizzlyBear

[zorrro13]

Individual for sure. its taken me 11mths and 26 days to finally feel almost pre cpap. So many underlying factors to sort out but in my case my osa onset was instant going from fantastic restful sleep to instant insomnia ( so i thought) within 1 week so seems I caught it early. for the past year I averaged 5 hrs sleep with excellent stats but tired all day...only just dis covered taking a mild sedative at 3 am put me back to sleep an extra 3 hrs and now feeling 100% better but took me year to figure that out duh!
anyway this forum great and first site I visit when wake up and before lights out

[goose]

Like the others, it's totally individual.
My wife is an ER RN and sees my referring doctor on occasion and happened to mention to him that I seem to be sleeping a lot (8-10 hours a night) since I've been on xPAP....He told her that "He's got 20+ years of sleep debt to sleep off. He may be sleeping like this the rest of his life". Not particularly what she wanted to hear, but I can say that I do feel better. Certainly not great, but like you I don't fall asleep during the day anymore.
I'm usually pretty beat by early evening - doesn't seem to matter what I do during the day.
For "sleep assistance" I take a couple of Benedryl each night (secondary effect. I take it for allergies as well). Lately I've been taking some Meletonin mixed with other stuff (not sleep related) and that seems to be helpful in restful sleep.

Keep at it!!! Good luck.
cheers
goose

[Guest]

Very individual.

1) under diet regime (lost of green, minimum fats, muti grains ithe morning and vegemite, apple cider 1 spoon with honey, omega3 fish oil )and 2) exercise (3 times a week til you sweat 3)Right pressure and 4) Control leaks 5) no alchohol 6)Pray and should should be recovery in 6 months or less. Do you have eraction :) ?

[thimarine]

Andy--- I was diagnosed with severe OSA and have been on the machine since April, 2007. My AHI has been as low as 0.6, has gone up as high as 1.8 and now hovers around 1.0. It seems that there are so many variables that can change your numbers (weather, type of pillow you sleep on, sleep position, etc.) that you have to experience them and then make the proper adjustments. It all takes time.

It's interesting that you mention feeling tired at 5:00 p.m. I also frequently have the same experience. The only difference now is that I can recover from that tired feeling and have a good evening while prior to cpap i would have fallen asleep in my chair and slept for 2 or 3 hours. I wasn't even aware I was nodding off. I take the fact that I know I feel tired as an encouraging sign. I also was nodding off at stop lights and during business meetings and was not even aware of being tired. I'm happy for those that feel immediate improvement. I wish I was one of them. For me it's been slow but better each day. I've probably had OSA for 20 years. I figure I've got a lot of catching up to do.

Good luck.

[TiredTex]

Hi all,

With the help of my new APAP machine, I am finally waking up feeling alert and refreshed. My AHI is down to about 1.6!

But I am finding that my energy wanes during the afternoon, and usually by 5 pm I am really wiped.

How long does it usually take before your body is fully recovered from decades of Apnea and acclimated to your new situation? Are there stages that are recognizable, or is it unique to each individual?

Thanks,
Andy

I am glad I read this 4 days on the machine and about 3 00 I start to fell like a hang over . It starts with loss of energy then what I wouud call raisen head( silght Head ake). I did not think It was CPAP related. It is sounding like it is.

[KAZ]

I came home from hospital on a walker in mid May of last year. I had a trachea tube in place for sleep. I was better, but after my sleep study and a bi Pap set at 20 I experienced a return to a high energy almost at once. I started walking and was soon up to 3 miles a day, and waking up at 5:00AM. By 6 or 7:00PM I was crashing. Then I broke up my walks, a 2 mile in the morning, and 1 mile in the late afternoon. It has really helped, and now I can stay up until 10 or 11:00PM if I choose. Of course I don't know if an afternoon walk will reset things for you, but maybe worth a try. Regards

[alnhwrd]

Andy,

Congratulations on your success so far! Yes, it is an individual thing, but there do seem to be some benchmarks for success. Please check out the Yellow Light Bulb at the top of the page for some of the "Collective Wisdom" there. Under the Help for New or Struggling Users section there is an article titled the Seven Stages of of CPAP and another that follows on how to know when you are better that may be helpful to you. Keep up the good work!

[sharon1965]

i also agree with the underlying issues thing, which seems to be true for so many of us, and in my case, the reason for not feeling any appreciable improvements for some time

i started cpap therapy one year, one month and 6 days ago, lol...i was dx'd with severe OSA, but had also had a diagnosis of fibromyalgia 12 years ago...after six weeks on cpap, my sleep doc. also prescribed me requip for severe periodic limb movement disorder; as you can see, having 3 separate sleep disorders has made my case a little more complex than i first realized, and has certainly contributed to slowing my recovery down more than i would like, obviously...i also believe that i have had osa most of my life, and the damage to my body runs deep

the most noticeable improvement has been my ability to get up in the morning (not yet feeling rested, sadly) and stay up all day...gone are the days when i would take 3-4 hour naps (a term i should use lightly, lol) between getting home from work and dinner...and i can stay awake through an entire movie with my kids, something i think they really appreciate!!

so while i don't really FEEL much better, those closest to me tell me they can see a difference...so i have faith in this therapy, and i definitely feel safer going to sleep each night...

congrats on waking feeling refreshed! best of luck--i wish you more wonderful improvements!
sharon

[arthuranxious]

I found that the night sweats stopped immediately, so did the feeling groggy when waking up from a nap. Within 6 months my blood pressure and cholesterol levels improved.
But I believed that there would be meaningful improvements, and really only opted so eagerly for CPAP because I thought they would happen. I was hoping I would have a higher energy level, be more cheerful, find it easier to lose weight, find it easier to get up in the morning, and so forth. No sign of any change for the better in those areas. After 18 months I think they are the same or worse.
My sleep doc says that since I did not feel that bad with untreated OSA I cannot really expect to notice an improvement now that I am using CPAP and should be thankful that it is keeping me alive and well with much less likelhood of stroke heart attack etc.
SO every case is different.