Newbie with questions

[Kallippide]

I just started using my ResMed CPAP 2 weeks ago.
The first night I lasted 2.5 hours with a full mask. I felt claustrophobic. The very next day I swapped the mask for a Swift nasal pillow.
The second night I lasted 4 hours with the nasal pillow. The stretchy bands kept slipping on my head. I swapped the regular nasal pillow for a Swift FX nasal pillow.
Nights 3 through 14 I've slept between 6.5 and 8 hours. The Swift FX has made all the difference.

I believe I'm on the right path. I've been using "My Air" and my numbers look good. However, I've noticed that many forum users are using a software program called "Sleepyhead."

What are the benefits of the Sleepyhead program as opposed to My Air?

Also, if the electricity goes off during the night and the cpap machine shuts off, will an alarm sound? Is there any way that a person can smother while using a nasal pillow with no air flowing.

Thanks for reading and responding to my questions.

[Julie]

Sleepyhead gives more information that you can use to optimize therapy.

If power goes out, your body will awaken you... your mouth will also open and you'll breathe that way, plus there's usually (at least on FF masks) a vent on the mask to allow air in for emergencies. But in any case, your body won't let you down and will react to the lack of air by waking up.

[Kallippide]

Thank you Julie. I know that sounded like a stupid question, but it's been on my mind since the first night when I wore the full-face mask and felt like I was suffocating. Since then, I thought my body would respond automatically. However, I have learned not to assume anything anymore!

I'll continue to read the Sleepyhead posts/comments to learn a little more about the program before I download it and try to use it.

Thanks again.

[OkyDoky]

If you are really concerned about the power failure you could plug something like this in the same outlet as your CPAP. It will definitely wake you up.
http://www.amazon.com/Protectors-PowerO ... lure+alarm

[Kallippide]

I hadn't thought about an alarm like that, but that's a great idea. Yes, something like this will definitely wake me.
I believe that first night with the full-face mask caused a lot of unfounded fears as I tossed and turned.Thanks OkyDoky

[Cannuck 1]

I just started using my ResMed CPAP 2 weeks ago.
The first night I lasted 2.5 hours with a full mask. I felt claustrophobic. The very next day I swapped the mask for a Swift nasal pillow.
The second night I lasted 4 hours with the nasal pillow. The stretchy bands kept slipping on my head. I swapped the regular nasal pillow for a Swift FX nasal pillow.
Nights 3 through 14 I've slept between 6.5 and 8 hours. The Swift FX has made all the difference.

I believe I'm on the right path. I've been using "My Air" and my numbers look good. However, I've noticed that many forum users are using a software program called "Sleepyhead."

What are the benefits of the Sleepyhead program as opposed to My Air?

Also, if the electricity goes off during the night and the cpap machine shuts off, will an alarm sound? Is there any way that a person can smother while using a nasal pillow with no air flowing.

Thanks for reading and responding to my questions.

Hello, I think you got a excellent start.
You got two of three things that are important for the basics that I have learned, you have a reasonable cpap device, swift fx- excellent nasal pillow and now the software will give you more information- sleepyhead and Rescan 5.5 are what I use.(a good support forum is another part of learning.)
There other important issues that others will bring forward.

[Pugsy]

Using one of those power alarms will ease your fears for sure and it's cheap insurance for those worries.

But to also ease your fears let me share my experience one morning when I woke up and the power was off and my mouth was still shut and I was breathing with the Swift FX with only the vent holes for air movement.
It was not nearly the struggle that I thought it would be and since it was time to get up anyway I got up and immediately checked my wake up time on my cell phone because I wanted to see when the power went off to see just how quickly I woke up with the power off.

Once the power came back on I checked my software reports to see the time the machine quit recording and it was nearly 30 minutes from the time I actually woke up. Bear in mind that when I did wake up it wasn't a stressful wake up where I was in a panic and feeling like I was suffocating. It was more of a "gosh it's quiet and how come it am having to breathe a little harder" feeling. The vent holes on the Swift FX will allow for considerable air exchange even if no power is on. It may not be all that comfortable but it allowed me to not feel any distress. I don't know how much mouth breathing I may have done but my mouth wasn't dry and when I woke up the lips were closed and usually the least little mouth breathing will dry out my mouth.



It's really no different than what happens when we have nasal congestion...eventually if the breathing is restricted enough we will open our mouths to breathe as a reflex action no matter if we are asleep or not.