Feeling sleepy after Cpap

[Marktla]

Hello there,

I been having sleeping problems ( no problem falling asleep, just waking up feeling crap and daytime fatigue , sleepiness ) for a long time ( I guess somewhere in the last 5-10 years ) and recently started on the CPAP. Its been like 2 weeks and last night was the 1st time I have slept 7 hours with the mask. Resmed my air score was 99 but to me.. not even close to that.

Today, all day I was super sleepy and came home at 5 pm and took a 3 hour nap. Before I also had daytime sleepiness but it used to go away after some coffee around 11 am.. ( I am a late riser ) and only some sleepiness kick in around 4-5 pm and goes away again after dinner , usually 6-7 pm.

I believe Cpap makes me worse... however when I open my eyes in the morning, I feel better compared to before. Not better like I am fully charged or with energy... its just I feel less crappy. Hard to describe this feeling.

Before the Cpap my sleep schedule was like..( in the last 6 months ) go to sleep after 1:30 am. Mostly 2-2:30 am. Wake up naturally somewhere in between 6:30-8 am... stay awake for at least 1/2 hour.. sometimes 1 or 1.5 hours.. check emails, stock market, social media etc... since I don’t feel rested and dont feel like starting the day, I go back to sleep for another 2-3 hours.. wake up 2nd time around 10:30-11 am.. get up and start my day. Drink coffee to give me the kick ( 300 mg caffeine of coffee drinks ) repeat this schedule during the week and similar in the weekends.

With Cpap,

In the very first days, I was not fully comfortable with it so I tried the mask on and off for a few 15-20 minute sessions before sleeping and after my 1st wake up.

For instance, I put the mask on, close my eyes, set a timer on my phone, try to sleep with it for 15-20 mins.. repeat this for 2-3 times to get familiar with it, then take the mask off and sleep normally.

Then I wake up around 7-8 am.. ( my 1st wake up ) do my thing ( emails, stock market, social media ) then try the mask again for 1-2 15-20 min sessions.. take it off and sleep normally again for like my previous schedule in the last 5-6 months.

However, this time instead of waking up in 2-3 hours.... I slept for 4-5 hours.. woke up 1-2 pm and felt more sleepy. I did not even go to work.

So I felt using the mask and breathing thru it / against the incoming pressure made me more tired.. even it was for 2-3 sessions of 15 mins before the nights sleep and 1-2 sessions of 15 in the morning.

I started to keep the mask on for longer so finally last week I slept with it like 4-5 hours... woke up 6-7 am in the morning, took it off and slept again. I did not really feel any difference.

This happened 1-2 times more.. I used the cpap on my 1st sleeping session.. then took it off and slept normally. My myair score was getting high as I was sleeping more with the mask on.. but I did not feel an energy bump or waking up fully rested. ( on my 1st or 2nd wake up )

I ordered some new masks.. tried the new one in the last 2 days and last night, -finally- I slept like 7 hours with the mask on. I woke up somewhat better... ( still not with fully rested ) but I felt worse and very sleepy during the day. I did get my 300 mg caffeine in the morning... it did not help. I came home early around 4:30 pm and took a long nap without the mask for 3 hours.

Now I feel better after my nap without the Cpap mask... not sure if this is helping me.

I have Resmed Air Sense 10, using it with philips nuance nasal pillow mask. The doctor’s pressure settings are 5-15 but I am using it with 5-8 these days. I will try with 5-10 tonight and see if this makes a difference.

My question is.. is this normal? To feel worse when you first start out ?

3 of my friends have OSA and they all told me they felt much better after the 1st night with Cpap.

I feel I get more tired during the sleep... when breathing against the pressure. When I put the mask on first time.... I felt the pressure was too much even at setting 4. Now I kinda got used to it but don’t know whats going on.

My home sleep study showed mild sleep apnea. And It looks I have more hypopnea than apnea. My apneas were 1/2 Obstructive, 1/2 Central... but only 0.5 /h but 1.0/h when supine.

My hypopneas were 19.5/h Supine, it did not specify how much apnea or hypopnea.

I don’t know whats going on. I’ll keep using it to see if things improve but I am kinda disappointed as I was hoping to wake up rested and full of energy after the 1st night with it.

[kteague]

Sounds like you already know what some of the issues are. It might not be reasonable to expect appreciable results when one has not yet adjusted to the new sensations, is not certain their treatment settings are optimized, is not yet getting enough consolidated quality sleep, and/or is not using the machine for ALL sleep time. Once all the above is in place for a while and body has rested enough to recover from the assault of the time of untreated sleep apnea, then it will be reasonable to expect to feel better and less sleepy. If there's any question about making your settings more comfortable, there are people here who are really good at giving guidance on that. Maybe changing your exhalation settings would help make breathing out easier for you. Try not to give in to discouragement. Many of us struggled in the beginning, yet went on to be successful cpap users. You're in a good place to get the help you need, as others of us did.

[openheartmama]

Markita:

Don't have any advice, but can commiserate as a newbie!

I am on night two and have great sleep scores, but feel bone tired and foggy headed in the morning. I will be trying a different sized nasal pillow tonight (two days of the small, and I wonder if I can use the medium and have it sit a little further out.) I am so on-board with using it--made it until 3 am the first night and all night last night--that I was imagining feeling life-changingly invigorated after starting. I'm bummed that's not the case. Sounds like we're both going through an adjustment phase.

I've only learned about OSCAR today, so will be putting that to use!

Good luck!

[mjseydel]

Hello,

I'm new here and new to C-PAP.

I am so glad I found this post and am not alone. I used my C-PAP for the first time last night and feel terrible today. I slept 8 hours, bot up for two hours and couldn't stay awake. I felt very foggy headed and took a 4 hour nap. I was surprised/concerned by this so decided to look it up.

I'm glad I found this post. I will give it time, but was ready to give up after one night!

Thanks!

[arezius]

Glad I came here too! 8th days in with an Airsens 10 and a nasal mask.
Since the begening i'm able to sleep full night with mask on. But since monday, I have never felt this tired. Almost like I had two sleepless night in a row and ready to go to sleep.
It seems it's something normal related to "sleep debt". Someother says it can be related to the fact that your brain can't sleep deeply because of the mask, since it's new.

Don't know how long it'll take, but as long as I don't have the morning headache anymore, it's great!

[ChicagoGranny]

mjseydel

arezius

It would be a good idea to each start your own threads. There may be something wrong with your CPAP therapy - wrong machine, wrong pressure settings, high unintentional leak, ...

Just waiting for things to get better is often a poor choice.