What Triggered Your Need for CPAP?

[kteague]

My discovery was complicated by Periodic Limb Movement Disorder, which causes many parallel symptoms associated with sleep deprivation. I had all the classic symptoms. What distinguished them was waking with heart pounding and short of breath, waking choking, potty trips sometimes up to 10+ times a night, and dreams all related to respiratory distress, and obnoxious snoring (so I was told).

[loggerhead12]

I woke up on the floor of my office with the door closed with no recollection of how I got there.

[dvejr]

I fell asleep at inappropriate times, in barber chairs, dentists chairs! I snored, and my wife noticed that I often stopped breathing while asleep. Nasty morning headaches.

But I resisted getting tested because sleeping with a CPAP? I pictured a WWII gas mask. no way.

Then at my busy medical office I was seated "to wait for doctor" in the wrong empty office. Doc came in and we quickly discovered I'm not his. He was, coincidentally, their sleep guy, and he sold me on a 2-night study reminding me that sleeping with a CPAP was an entirely different decision to be made later. Like some, I could sleep on railroad tracks, so night 1 was a snap. None of the "I can't sleep in a strange bed in a strange room with wires" bothered me.

No big deal. Then night 2. I went to bed murmuring that there was no way these chumps were ever going to get me to buy a CPAP and sleep in a mask. I woke up the next day a new person. Colors were brighter. Stairs were less steep. City blocks were half as long. It was like going to bed with astigmatism and waking up wearing glasses. By noon I was FURIOUS that I had to wait a week to get a machine.

[zorki1c]

My wife had been on CPAP for several years. She said I should get tested but I didn’t think I could wear a mask. Then she got a mouthpiece and I thought, hey I could do that. So I tested and the doc said he didn’t think a mouthpiece would do me any good. So I got a CPAP and after seven years I don’t feel comfortable sleeping without it. I’m not saying I feel like a new man but I don’t toss and turn all night. Also my mate has gone back to a machine. Her mouthpiece didn’t work for her. I think my apnea really started when I quit smoking and put on about 20 pounds.

[milboltnut]

Pretty sure I've had it since I was a kid. Always falling asleep in class. All the way even through college. I never got tested because I have never been a snorer. It was only a last resort after other various tests by my PCP that I got my first sleep study. Opened my eyes. It makes me wonder what life might have been like if I'd been tested much earlier. Shoulda coulda...

Chris

It makes me wonder what life might have been like if I'd been tested much earlier. Shoulda coulda...

I hear that !! I was too headstrong.....The last job I got fired was over something so frivolous and ridiculous that could have been avoided. When the Dr. I saw asked me and my wife who's idea was it to come in, I said me...and my wife backed me up, and it was me... why this long??

[Midwest_non_sleeper]

In May of 2018, I was driving in to work and I fell asleep while driving. It was spontaneous, there was no "nodding off", one second I was awake, and the next I was asleep. Miraculously, I didn't die, and when I "came to", I was still behind the wheel and going maybe 1mph with my right side tires scraping the curb. Once my bosses (yes, plural) found out, I wasn't allowed to work until I had been medically cleared.

I don't get shaken very easily, but that sort of shook me up a bit. I took off that day from work and made an appointment with Doc, got referred to sleep clinic. Within a week, I had my positive test results showing apnea. Another couple of weeks and I had my machine. Very glad for it, was a life changer for me for sure. It's likely that I had been suffering for years and years, just undiagnosed, and it finally caught up with me.

[AussieBob]

I have won the award for most unpopular house guest all my adult life with a snore so loud that I began handing out earplugs to all other occupants wherever I stayed. My beloved begged me to get a sleep study around 10 years ago which confirmed that I had apnea, but unfortunately, one of our children run into some issues around the same time so treating my issue got pushed aside.

2019 Christmas break with the kids turned into a break from the gym and no breaks from the beer fridge, which of course equated to an extra few centimetres to the equator. One night I found myself unable to sleep, which continued to get worse to the point of getting anxiety leading up to bed time. This rolled into being unable to focus on anything throughout the day, fatigue and then a visit from the black dog.

Once I recognized the depression, I arranged for another sleep study as I figured it was the root of the problem. Sleep Doc confirmed and I ordered my CPAP that afternoon. 3 weeks into it and life just keeps getting better.

[Blocksom]

Hey everyone!

For me- no matter how much sleep I got 5 hrs to 12 hrs. I am ALWAYS tired. Drowsy driving. Falling asleep on the couch watching tv. No energy. Loud snoring to the point my wife has to scream at me to wake me up to stop. I have felt like this for years now and so glad I finally got diagnosed recently and started on my cpap on April 17th, 2020. I cant wait to start seeing the benefits. I sometimes feel better and more awake during the day since I started but still have moments of being pretty tired. I was so tired of being tired. lol. and hope to see results soon!

[Rob K]

For me it was getting old and flabby. Up to nearly 40 years old I did a lot of hard labor and continued with more activities through the evening also. Burned a ton of calories, ate well and I didn't have an ounce of fat on me. The metabolism started slowing down pretty quick around 40 years old, everything started to hurt a lot and I started to sit or lay down after work. Resting in the evenings and snacking I quickly put on weight and lost muscle tone. I was 170lbs and in great physical shape, now I'm 190lbs and flabby and stop breathing when I sleep on my back. I felt absolutely terrible and started having all sorts of medical problems in addition to being completely sleepy and exhausted all the time. This led to many doctor visits and sleep studies that said I had apnea. Used the machine for few years with no results until I found this forum and got the pressures adjust properly, then things started to improved. Still not sleeping or feeling great, but don't have one foot in the grave anymore which has been a blessing.

[billbolton]

I was studying for a Master's Degree in Technology Management at the Macquarie University in Sydney. As one part of the program of study, a couple of senior Resmed business managers ran a case study on how they managed the technology components in their business model, which included a brief overview of what obstructive sleep apnea was, including the symptoms and Epworth test, and how CPAP was able to successfully treat it.

From that presentation I realised that I had a least some of the symptoms, though it took a couple more years until I did a sleep study and had my suspicions confirmed, and started using a Resmed S7 device.

[chunkyfrog]

. . . a visit from the black dog . . .

I had not heard that expression--but it is so apt.

[MizLizzie]

I would wake with hellish migraines that then continued into the daytime. The neurologist kept me on Imitrex and other heavy duty migraine drugs for years, even though I asked him early in the process if it could be oxygen deprivation, given that (1) I snored and (2) I had a mom and sis with OSA. Nope, he said. You are too young and too thin.

Fast forward 5 years, and I began to wake with my heart POUNDING, jacked full,of adrenaline for no reason. Worse, I began dreaming of being held face down in water and drowning. I had no sleepiness, no memory issues. But I knew it was OSA. When I finally took the Epworth test, I scored about a 2 and met none of other parameters re weight, neck, etc. So all my insurance “allowed” me to have was a take-home heart & oxygen monitor. When I turned it in, eyes rolled, and they basically handed me a CPAP on the spot.

Beyond that, I’ve never had a sleep study. My machines are my best friends. They have been utterly life changing. I loved CPAP from the moment I strapped it on. And now I’m old enough and fat enough to pass all their d@mn tests.

[palerider]

Nothing "triggered" my "need for cpap", I was b orn with it, my grandfather snored so loudly that my grandma made him sleep on a different *floor* for many years.

What triggered my *getting* a CPAP was my brother going through the hell of the "system" and telling me I needed one, because I was falling asleep on the couch every night.

I tried it, after he bought me one off Craigslist, and I never looked back.

[milboltnut]

Nothing "triggered" my "need for cpap", I was b orn with it, my grandfather snored so loudly that my grandma made him sleep on a different *floor* for many years.

What triggered my *getting* a CPAP was my brother going through the hell of the "system" and telling me I needed one, because I was falling asleep on the couch every night.

I tried it, after he bought me one off Craigslist, and I never looked back.

falling asleep on the couch every night.

That's it? after a full days work, it sounds normal to fall asleep on the couch. Was it when you were a kid? Or was it as an adult?

[chunkyfrog]

. . . sounds normal to fall asleep . . .

This is the problem--it is not, SHOULD NOT be considered "normal".
Work should not be all you can bear--there is more to life.
If not, why bother?