pulled off mask without knowing it

Have any of you ever pulled off your mask without knowing it? Last night I woke up at like 3 am without my mask on to find it was on the floor - looking at sleepyhead it looks like I removed it at around 1:30 am but I have no recall of this... I woke up this morning feeling extremely tired and when I experienced some vertigo several times which was really weird I don't usually get vertigo.

That happened to me a few times - and there was one time when I remembered doing it, but had slept for several hours afterward and did not remember why I took it off. It's common for that to happen to people when they are beginning this journey into cpapland, but once they've fully adjusted to it, that behavior stops.

Place some "mild" medical tape on a few spots and place the tape with one end of the tape on the strap with the other on your face. If/when you take the mask off the tape will awake you.

Sheriff

bennyhur wrote:Have any of you ever pulled off your mask without knowing it? Last night I woke up at like 3 am without my mask on to find it was on the floor - looking at sleepyhead it looks like I removed it at around 1:30 am but I have no recall of this... I woke up this morning feeling extremely tired and when I experienced some vertigo several times which was really weird I don't usually get vertigo.

I have positional vertigo which is quite likely what you are experiencing IF you have never experienced vertigo before and/or have not been diagnosed.

There are several reasons for Vertigo, but the most common is mine and the least problematic. Its an age related problem. Sometimes if we have had a bad hit to the head in our youth, an accident, etc, when we hit 40 and up, a microscopic piece of your ear drum floats around the ear canal, causing the vertigo.
When it first happened to me it was severe on 3 occasions for a matter of hours each time and went away.
It took me some time to realize that it only happened when I slept on my right hand side of my body.
It was in THAT ear so sleeping with my ear down, causes it.
If I am lying on my back and suddenly turn my head to my right, the room spins.
When I go to the dentist, she knows she cannot grab my head and turn it to her quickly, as they tend to sit on our right........or the room will spin and i will have to stop for a minute and get centred again.

In my case I only used to sleep on my side that but that stopped once I got vertigo and my body instinctively ONLY sleeps on its back now.
LOL so with Sleep Apnea you can't really win

If you have not had it before or have not been diagnosed, do NOT take my own description as your own.
You must see a doctor and be diagnosed as it can also be Menieres Disease which can be quite debilitating for many.

Worse, it can be MS.
In fact, one of the first things you will be given is an MRI.
Many MS sufferers suffer symptoms that are all different and very hard for the doctor to diagnose.
So many MS sufferers will go for years back and forth to many doctors and never fid out what it is they have.
Its only when they start to get Vertigo are they the diagnosed so the doctor will look at your history and IF you have been back and forth to doctors over the years and no one can tell you whats wrong with you, which your records will show, they will then immediately look at you for MS.
The vertigo is the trigger that tells them you aren't crazy but have MS instead ;(


Only you know if you fit that or not. In any event, you need to be diagnosed even if it is most likely Bi-Positional Vertigo.


BTW, every night for 2 months I took my mask off just 90 minutes into my sleep and neatly placed it on my other pillows as i have a king size bed so i put it in a place where i could reach over for it if i woke up again.
The first 2 times I did it while sleeping but was aware of it in the morning, remembering vaguely having done it
I quickly learned to do it in my deep sleep without waking up. ;(

In my case I was getting stuffed up in my nose, was unable to breathe properly and took the mask off to do so.
Once I started to use MediRinse I think it is called, a little package of salt you put in a plastic tea pot thingie and then tip your head, and pour it into one nostril so it cleans out the other, and vice versa, I stopped taking my mask off and began to sleep through the nights immediately which I have now done for 2 ½ weeks and have finally gone from 57 AHI to 3.02 AHI

Figure out if your nose is stuffed up, causing you to take it off, the mask, that is...

Interestingly my nose stays nice and open when I have the mask on with the humidifier - when I take it off only then does it start getting stuffy.

I'll check into the vertigo thing some more - didn't know it could be a potentially serious indicator. The ear thing makes sense and is probably the cause (probably not what you have with something floating around though). Sometimes I wake up and my ears will be hurting for a couple hours afterwards because my pressure is so high (bipap 20/24 cm h20) but not every time.