Losing awareness

[bilnap]

Here I am 47 day into my usage and I am still aware of the air pressure, the sounds, etc. How long does it take until you are comfortable and lose that awareness?

[kteague]

Are you using the setup every night all night? Otherwise the adjustment time can be prolonged. Is it an awareness that bothers you and keeps you awake, or just an awareness? Differences in the sounds and sensations of machines, masks, and pressures can make comparisons difficult. I've heard higher pressures make more noise, and some masks have a reputation of being noisy. I would think the getting used to process probably really begins once a reasonably comfortable, well fitting, and non leaking mask are the norm. For me, even something so simple as replacing a mask with one just like the old one can reheighten my awareness of the sound changes for a few nights. I've been fortunate to have had quiet machines. I've read where some expressed difficulty getting used to the inhale and exhale sounds of a bipap, while another has said the sounds lull them to sleep. Different people, different sensitivities. Hope you adjust soon.

[torontoCPAPguy]

Here I am 47 day into my usage and I am still aware of the air pressure, the sounds, etc. How long does it take until you are comfortable and lose that awareness?

Just ignore it and it won't bother you.

There is no definitive answer; for me I am at 6 months and I still notice the mask, the air pressure, the face and other farts, etc. But you start to get used to it as the body becomes accustomed to it being part of the regular routing. You need to ensure that you are one hundred percent compliant and be in the right frame of mind or mindset as otherwise you will NEVER get used to it and it will never become transparent.

I have just upgraded from S8 to S9 ResMeds and it has made a huge difference for me personally. Firstly my pressures are lower while my events are the same or actually have been lower too. And this blower is dead quiet... if it were not for the air pressure at the mask I would not know it was on. My wife can't hear it. It is a wonder. Especially if you put it on top of a couple of computer mouse pads and insulate it from your furniture.

THE MASK was the key for me. First mask was too hard and needed to be tight to work without leaks; I had blisters (that was a great ploy on the part of my DME MediGas) so I upgraded to an Activa LT nasal pillow and that worked worth beans as every time my nose hit the pillow it smooshed the nasal pillows and my nares and voila.. airflow stopped. Next I came onboard here and the Mirage Activa LT was recommended so I bought one (three) online and it is marvellous. So is my softgel (almost as good). And I have just ordered four more masks to try out. I can't imagine any one being as good as the Activa is for me, but I want to give it a try. Like I say, the mask is my KEY to compliance and comfort.

And the results are worth it nontheless. So for $50 or so a mask I am trying a few. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Keep at it and eventually it becomes like a part of you at night and you wake up refreshed generally. I actually wake up groggy these days where I used to be wide awake in seconds. It is a sign of deep sleep; you can set a bomb off under my kids and they won't wake they sleep so soundly. Ditto the wife. Me, I am now getting to be the same way now. Deeeeep asleeeeep. At first I was worried about burglars I was sleeping so deeply, but we have a dog that barks only at intruders on the property and stops barking on command; we installed a top notch perimeter and interior alarm system, monitored and responded to by armed guards and police. (Fire and ambulance). And we have 'hardened' our perimeter to slow the bad guys down a bit with steel doors and resistant windows, etc. Lastly, we own protection... a tactical shotgun amongst the lot. So anyone entering at 3 a.m. without an invitation and by force is going to be leaving feet first I am sorry to say. I sleep even better now that we have invested that money and it paid off last year when we had an attempted home invasion by armed thugs. The dog barked, the alarm system panic button was pressed and set off flashing lights downstairs and outside so the police could identify both our home and the bad guys, we gathered up the family and we were protected should they have entered and told the police as much on the phone to 911 (they have it on record that we have firearms anyway where we live). I now know that the system works and I sleep well from that aspect. Some lose sleep over money, business, kids, burglars, taxes, etc. I say to hell with everything but one's health and that of one's loved ones and everything else is secondary and can be dealt with should it arise. Like burglars. We used to be able to sleep here with our doors unlocked and windows open to get a cross breeze but those days are long gone, even out in the country I am afraid. But with all the protection and the dog we sleep like babies once again, thanks to CPAP. And so does the whole family, knowing that they are protected. We even installed reinforcing locks and pins in addition to the deadbolts.... and all are easily defeated but from inside in the case of fire or need to escape the home.

So, take care of your demons. Get the best gear that money can buy whatever it takes. Dedicate yourself to compliance and you will get used to the nosebag and blower before too long and your nights will be the best ever. I have not dreamed in 45 years up until CPAP. At first it was unerving and awoke me! Then I had nightmares as my day's worries entered my dreams. Today I dream about tearing my wife's clothes off and having animal relations like in the old days and I awake in a cold sweat. But soon it will all settle down, I promise you that.

Good luck and have a good night of sleep if you can, even if only for a short while. Last night I slept 9 hours! Straight. With one hypopnea event at 4 a.m. for ten seconds. where my breathing got very shallow (not unexpected). But overall my numbers are the best ever and my sleep is the best ever and I am making up for lost sleep and feeling good I think. Problem is that my clock tells me at 3 a.m. that I have had enough sleep and to get up. Generally it is 5:30 a.m. But I have found if I darken the room, remove all sounds and trust my dog and alarm systems and hardened entry to the house, I can sleep 9 hours without a problem. It's just starting and I am at the six month mark. I am willing to bet that at the one year mark I will wonder how I ever managed without CPAP. I have friends on CPAP and they have not had a single night without the blower in almost ten years.

Good luck. Good night.

[dave21]

Here I am 47 day into my usage and I am still aware of the air pressure, the sounds, etc. How long does it take until you are comfortable and lose that awareness?

I guess the answer is that you're always aware, it just depends on how tired (or not) you are. Most nights it doesn't bother me nearly 5 years in but some nights it gets annoying because I'm listening to myself inhale and exhale. When it becomes annoying it's like listening to one of those waterfall or rain sounds that loops every 15 seconds, you get to hear where the loop point is and get used to it.

Sometimes I just put on a podcast / talk radio and let it turn off in an hour or two, that sometimes helps me tune out, especially if there are other background noises like in a hotel with doors slamming.

BTW, love what you did with the avatar!

Thanks
Dave

[mamaguinnie]

Here I am 47 day into my usage and I am still aware of the air pressure, the sounds, etc. How long does it take until you are comfortable and lose that awareness?

Good question -- I'm over 2 years into it. It still bugs me. Hubby was used to his within the first 2 weeks.

[BlackSpinner]

Here I am 47 day into my usage and I am still aware of the air pressure, the sounds, etc. How long does it take until you are comfortable and lose that awareness?

Good question -- I'm over 2 years into it. It still bugs me. Hubby was used to his within the first 2 weeks.

The more you acknowledge its existence the more aware you stay. Try thinking loving thoughts about it rather then that it annoys you. Feel appreciative of the purr and the feel of the air, give thanks for the lifeline to good health and good sleep - make the air and sound your security "blanky".

[torontoCPAPguy]

It's a REAAAAL pain when you wake up at night and foget you have the nosebag on and try and take a drink.... it's like painting your walls with a spray gun. Or when your lips open slightly during the night after having a heavy garlic caesar salad for dinner and you are pointed at your better half. Or when you have that whatchamacallit when you swallow air and (politeness censored) break wind all night... destroys the window coverings and slams the bedroom door it gets so bad. Or when you roll over at night and forget about the hose which gets tangled and pulls the whole contraption onto the floor from the bedstand. Or when you sneeze into your mask due to allergies. Or put vodka into the humidifier instead of distilled water by mistake (yeah, right). Or.....

My point is simply this. There are a lot worse things than the feeling of a light mask or nasal pillows on your face at night - a lot worse things than the sound of gentle air blowing. For instance, NO feeling of nasal pillows or mask on your face gently. NO hearing the sound of air gently blowing. Spend three weeks on full life support, two with a tube down your throat inflating you and deflating you automatically. The farting thing? You thing gentle air blowing in your face gives you a farting issue? Try life support. It's the farting thing, the stomache bloating, the intestinal discomfort, all in (not just spades) but a royal flush. And it's not just air being expelled. Then come back to me and tell me about how that wee mask on your nose is a pain and stops you from sleeping or how it makes you fart or whatever.

The fact is, that your body will adapt and eventually you will take it as normal. Problem is that we don't know how long this will take. One thing I can tell you for sure is that I managed to sleep with not only a tube rammed down my throat, veinous taps all the way up one arm and across my chest and arterial taps all the way down the other arm; electrodes on everything except my weenie; and the general noise that one has in a critical care section of a hospital. I still slept when I was tired enough as bad as it was.

One must perservere and take it all in stride as best one can. Eventually it will setlle down into a routine and it will feel normal (just like having an intestinal bypass bag... my friends that have it or have had it all sleep well or slept well). It will eventually be a situation of your losing awareness or desensitizing to its presence. In some cases it takes a long time but the general advice is always compliance, compliance, compliance. That's the only way yourr body will densense to it.

Hang in there. It DOES get better. And more improtantly, your body will thank you. You will be healthier and feel better. I have reached the point where the gentle air against my nose is a comfort at night and I notice when it is GONE. The sound of the S9 is almost non-existent. It is the other things that are now beginning to take their place instead; like sleep hygiene, eating hygiene, arthritic pain from sleeping so deeply and soundly that I don't move at night and my body locks up. Things like that. And I will get adjusted to these things as well as we move along. Look at it as a personal challenge and stick with it. I have never felt so good on so many days as this in my entire life, or at least since I was a youngster. Losing awareness will either come or you will change your mindset for the most part to where you take comfort from the data, from the gentle air flow, etc. And you will take great comfort in knowing that you are getting healthier, you are going to live to a ripe old age and have much more energy for doing the things in life that make life worth living. Hey, for the first time in a year, I took my son out to the range this past week and we took his friends who had never been shooting and spent four hours with them having a ball. I had so much energy left and we were having such a great time that when his friends left us, we moved on to another range that we are members of and spent the whole late afternoon and well into the evening hours in the desperate heat having a ball shooting there and ragchewing (speaking) with guys we hadn't seen in a year or more. Had a ball and came home tired and hungry. Slept well with the fan going to both cool down the room and give me some white noise background to mask the outside and inside noises. My next job is to hang blackout curtains over our blinds so that the sun rising doesn't both me. LOSING AWARENESS is not so much the be-all and end-all in and of itself. It will come eventually for most of us. More importantly is becoming comfortable with what you have to put up with (and I say that in a good way). Take comfort from it rather than looking at it as a nuisance. Take it all as a challenge in personal wellness and if you can do all of this you will find that before to long you are sleeping better than ever and feeling better than ever and are healthier than ever and will likely live to a ripe old age.

Hang in there. Sleep well. We are here by your side... we band of brothers and sisters.

[Finally-Good-Sleep]

I have found that if I have a fan blowing on my face and chest area at the lowest speed, I sleep much better and don't feel claustrophobic. I totally suggest you try this, even if you aren’t claustrophobic, as it seems to make the who mask awareness become a non-issue.

[Jaylee]

BTW, love what you did with the avatar!

His avatar gives me the creeps.

[Janknitz]

I started CPAP in February, and I noticed these last few weeks I'm just about getting to that point where I don't seem to hear my breathing or feel the mask on my face anymore. I pretty much drop to sleep shortly after my head hits the pillow.

In the morning, dead silence and total comfort. Even though I can hear the conducted noise in my mask and tube at night, I hear only the faintest inspiration sound in the morning and I'm totally comfortable with the mask.

It took me a long time, but Ive found that sweet spot. Even so, I do have some bad times when the mask weighs heavy on my face, leaks or sounds just too loud. I worse comes to worse, I hook myself up to my iPod Shuffle, shift my focus to a podcast, and suddenly it's morning and I'm waking up feeling fine.

[torontoCPAPguy]

How about MY avatar. You cannot possibly imagine how breathtaking the view was on my first outing after leaving hospital last summer; I could barely lift my camera (a tough gig for a professional photographer eh?) and walked with the aid of a walker (even the cane is gone now but I still have to watch my horizon or I slip into a stall and sideslip into a tailspin). God I feel GOOD these days, even without CPAP I would say that. Nothing like watching them wheel out the corpses at 2 a.m. to liven things up a bit.

TAKE CHARGE! If I can do it anyone can. I can't believe that I'm still alive and keep pinching myself. That avatar is the first picture I took after hospital and three weeks on life support. They were about to call it a day on me, stuck a regular oxygen mask on me and I managed to suck in enough to keep going. A week later I was out.

This CPAP stuff is small potatoes once you've been through what I went through and only if you have been though that would you realize how much fun it is to take charge and be able to help yourself as opposed to being in a critical care bed wired like an F18 and in diapers. This stuff is important and you need to stick it out (no pun intended).

I promise again that it gets better. We are having a thunderstorm so I will probably lose my internet connection momentarily here in Richmond Hill.... I am going out on the back porch to get wet and appreciate God's gift to man of thundershowers. This also means it will probably be good gliding weather tomorrow and I am going to take my son up soaring with the eagles north of here.

LIVE-LOVE-LIFE (in any order you wish)

[stanta]

It's a REAAAAL pain when you wake up at night and foget you have the nosebag on and try and take a drink.... it's like painting your walls with a spray gun. ........ Take it all as a challenge in personal wellness and if you can do all of this you will find that before to long you are sleeping better than ever and feeling better than ever and are healthier than ever and will likely live to a ripe old age.

Hang in there. Sleep well. We are here by your side... we band of brothers and sisters.

Bravo brother bravo!

[bilnap]

BTW, love what you did with the avatar!

His avatar gives me the creeps.

My avatar.......well they say you start to look like your dog, ours is a mini chocolate Dachshund. What can I say?

[rubymom]

I'm 16 months in and I have realized with some annoyance the past couple of nights that I'm still very aware of the sounds. The pressure--not so much. I sometimes have to pull my mask (Liberty) away from my face to be sure it's still on. Usually I just fall right asleep. Last night for some reason (perhaps that I'm on vacation and took a nap during the day ) that I took longer to fall asleep and the sounds were aggravating. Plus my ears tend to be on alert for leak sounds. But I still can wake up in the morning and lie there in wonder at the silence. Makes me crazy!

[Jaylee]

How about MY avatar. You cannot possibly imagine how breathtaking the view was on my first outing after leaving hospital last summer; I could barely lift my camera (a tough gig for a professional photographer eh?) and walked with the aid of a walker (even the cane is gone now but I still have to watch my horizon or I slip into a stall and sideslip into a tailspin). God I feel GOOD these days, even without CPAP I would say that. Nothing like watching them wheel out the corpses at 2 a.m. to liven things up a bit.

Yes, yours is very nice.