Breathing question

[boblong]

So, I've been on CPAP for about 10 nights now. I am most comfortable with the LT Nasal pillow, but decided I should try another nasal mask for backup purposes. The last couple of nights I've noticed a more pronounced breathing problem. When I first start to wear the mask, I take some very deep breaths and several shallow ones. As I begin to drift off to sleep I find my rate of breathing slowing to the point that I don't immediately start to breathe in after exhale. After a couple of minutes of this, I seem to awake in a panic, trying to catch my breath. Its almost always with the nasal mask, not the pillows

Are there some tips on breathing, am I just still in the 'getting used to it' phase?

Bob

[Julie]

Well, even if you are unconscious, your body will automatically breathe for you, unless you're dead, so you may be just having adjustment anxiety and not trusting things to work well yet. I don't know your machine, or masks, but I wonder if you've been short of breath or having problems breathing for so long, you've forgotten what it's like to breathe normally, more relaxed and not gasping for the next breath? Cpap can cure more than just "apnea"... it really has made a difference to my allergies, and having a good source of air all night (with more 02 in it of course) has also renewed some other small things (hair growth) that were a problem. Hopefully others will write here with more knowledgable answers. I DO realize you said your problem is that you wake up trying to breathe, but I'm ascribing some of that to 'newbie nerves'. However, if you're using the ramp feature (slowly accelerating the pressure over 20 mins or however long) you might find that either not using it at all, or shortening the time could help. A lot of machines 'default' low pressure is 4, at which I'm convinced no sane human can breathe at usefully, and raising that to e.g. 6 even if you still want to use the ramp, may help you feel better.

[boblong]

Thanks, Julie. I have my machine set at 11 with a 5 minute ramp up from 8. I didn't like waiting for the pressure to come up. The new mask is a Resmed Activa nasal mask.

[betty303]

The same thing was happening to me as I was drifting off to sleep - I was not breathing in and it would wake me back up. I an a very light sleeper in the first stages of going to sleep and had a long time of not being able to go to sleep for a long time each night - with all the mask noises, cricks in my neck, wrong body position, pillow in the wrong place etc. etc. so this breathing issue was impossible to ignore.

After asking what was happening here on the forum, I learned that it is common to actually have a brief central or two, where your brain doesn't tell you to take an inbreath, in the phase of drifting off to sleep.

It still happens, but my attitude has changed. Now I see it as - whee! I am just about past all the distractions and almost asleep - so I relax and just about every time, I am immediately asleep.

[boblong]

good feedback, thanks Betty. Sounds exactly what I'm feeling....