POLL: How do many of us sleep at night?

[prefer2breathe]

Just thought this would be an interesting question to see how people are sleeping at night.

[DreamLady]

I sleep much better on cpap than without. I wake up a couple of times, but roll over and go right back to sleep.

[robysue]

Explaining my other vote here:

I have yet to sleep the entire night through. And I can't honestly say (yet) that I sleep better with the BiPAP than I did before I started CPAP back in September, although now I seem completely incapable of sleeping more than 15-20 minutes without the BiPAP on without waking up with a pretty severe startle of the sort that I hardly ever experienced in my pre-CPAP days. But none of the given options really describe the pattern I'm dealing with.

A "good" night for me with the BiPAP: Two or three awakenings in 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 hours of sleep. The awakenings occur for no apparent reason but still disturb my sleep. Not triggered by mask leaks. Not triggered by needing a potty break. Usually I do need to hit the ramp button in order to get back to sleep. On a good night, I'll get back to sleep in 5 or 10 minutes. Still I wish I wasn't waking up and I wish I knew what was waking me up. Feel almost like I used to feel pre-CPAP on these days, but by eveining, I'm still much more sleepy and much more tired than I was pre-CPAP. Can function most of the day, but not as well as I did pre-CPAP. On the next day, daytime sleepiness kicks in a bit around lunchtime (sometimes) and definitely around suppertime. Functioning in the evening is difficult. Staying up to my PA-dictated bedtime of 1:30 is an odd experience---there are waves of sleepiness followed by waves of high alertness off and on all evening.

A middling night for me with the BiPAP: Anywhere between two and five awakenings in 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 hours of sleep. Some of the awakenings are clearly caused by treatment issues---most typically a tinge of aerophagia; or exhaust flow chapping my lips; or exhaust flow blowing into my eyes; or a minor leak; or waking up with a dry mouth and nose; or needing to turn over and the hose has to be dealt with; or the noise of the machine wakes me up---particularly if I went to bed with a headache. But some of the awakenings may also appear to have no reason. Most typically none of the awakenings are triggered by needing a potty break. Some of the awakenings may take me as long as 20 minutes to get back to sleep. Overall on the day after these nights, I still feel noticeably worse than I felt pre-CPAP. On the next day, daytime sleepiness kicks in a bit around lunchtime (sometimes), comes and goes all afternoon, and continues all evening. Functioning in the evening is quite difficult. Staying up to my PA-dictated bedtime of 1:30 is again an odd experience---there are waves of sleepiness followed by waves of high alertness off and on all evening.

A bad night for me with the BiPAP: Severe bedtime-insomnia sets in when I TRY to go to bed. Two hours or more delay between first trying to go to sleep with the mask on and finally being able to go to sleep with the mask on. So total sleep time is sometimes as low as 3 hours and time to bed is as late as 4:00 AM. Often the severe insomnia triggers highly unproductive anger---at the BiPAP, at myself (for having the apnea in the first place and my seeming nability to adjust to the BiPAP in the second), at the world in general. At this point, I'm getting out of bed once I get angry in an effort to settle myself down. Sometimes my husband tells me to oversleep the PA's dictated WAKE-UP time of 7:30 AM, sometimes I get up "on-time" anyway. Functioning the next day is pretty much how you'd except a severely sleep deprived person to function. Sometimes I manage to function remarkably well---for a while---and crash and burn pretty seriously as soon as it's "acceptable" for me to. Needless to say, the day after one of these nights, I feel substantially worse than I felt before starting CPAP.

Fortunately the frequency of bad nights seems to be decreasing. Although last night was a rude reminder that the insomnia monster is still around and still a fearsome beast. And I'm deeply worried about what will happen when I try to go to sleep with the mask on tonight since I've got a nasty headache already---and that seems to increase the chances of me being overstimulated by the BiPAP when I lay me down to sleep ...

And I keep hoping that one day, my "good" nights actually will be good nights in the real meaning of the word good and NOT rare nights either.

[sister]

Most of the time I do sleep at night now but have not been doing that long.
I still do have nights that I just can't sleep at all.
An average night is 4-5 hours and I still wake up very early.

[Madalot]

I chose "other." I have no trouble falling asleep and have very few mask issues. I sleep very well -- for about an hour to an hour and a half, then I wake up. I turn over, go back to sleep and wake up again about an hour or so later. I do this all night long.

[DanOtn]

I think I dream more on CPAP.

[rested gal]

I chose "other."

I wake up 2 to 4 times a night. I turn over and go right back to sleep.

Those are wakeups I'm aware of. There may be other wakeups that aren't long enough for me to be aware of them.

I always feel rested and refreshed in the mornings whether there were just a couple of brief wakeups or three or four wakeups (that I'm aware of.) I don't think I have any night that I simply sleep all the way through without at least two "I'm aware of waking up" wakeups. I never have any trouble going back to sleep, thankfully.

[Big S]

I have been sleeping 5-6 hours straight. I used to wake up after 3 hours and then sit for 20 minutes before going back. I would usually then fall asleep for another 4-5 hours. My eyes are the weak link for me, if they are sore, I need more sleep. If they're not sore I probably have had a good night and am ready for my first coffee.

[rested gal]

And what gets you ready for a pina colada?

That drink in your avatar picture sure looks tasty!

[rosiefrosie]

And what gets you ready for a pina colada?

That drink in your avatar picture sure looks tasty!

Sure does!

I wish I was one of those that sleep through the night without problems. I wake up at least once a night and usually end up getting up for an hour or so and then go back to bed and sleep until morning. Sometimes I will wake at 3 to 4 in the morning and not be able to get back to sleep. Sometimes I have trouble falling asleep. A few years back I decided to quit obsessing about my sleep patterns. I have no shame about using a "sleeping pill" if I need to as I do want to sleep. When my attitude changed I started feeling better, more rested although the only thing that changed was my mind set. I usually just roll with whatever is happening that night and feel rested most days. Sometimes after those early morning wake ups where I am not able to get back to sleep, I may start dragging early in the evening. My hats off to those of you who are able to fall asleep when your head hits the pillow and the next thing you know it's morning. I haven't slept like that since before kids and that's been quite awhile ago! Anyway My choice was other.

rosie

[DreamOn]

I chose "Most nights, sleep all the way through without any recollection." It did take me quite a few months to get to that point. Before CPAP, I would toss and turn a lot. I also needed to get up to use the bathroom several times during the night. The bathroom breaks stopped after one month on CPAP, but it did take a few months more for me to stop turning frequently during the night. For a while, my joints felt very stiff and I needed to shift positions every few hours, but I don't have those aches anymore.

[BlackSpinner]

It takes me a while to fall asleep but that has nothing to do with cpap therapy but with the stress in the rest of my life.

[Jersey Girl]

I chose "Other" because, while most nights I am fine, there are some nights when I wake up at 3 am wide awake and then it takes me until 5 am to get back to sleep, but this is not good because by 7 am I have to wake up for work and then I feel tired, as though I hadn't slept at all. This has nothing to do with cpap, though. Most nights are wonderful on cpap and my waking up has nothing to do with the machine...sometimes I just wake up at 3 and other times it is my painful knee that wakes me up.

Regards to all,

Jersey Girl

[Big S]

Rested Gal wrote:

And what gets you ready for a pina colada?

That drink in your avatar picture sure looks tasty!

It certainly was a pina colada RG! You don't miss anything, very impressive. It was consumed on Waikiki in the not too distant past. You'll never know what will tempt you on that stretch of real estate! The sunset was about to occur just over my right shoulder. Our favorite spot on Oahu is on the North Shore by Turtle Bay, absolutely fabulous. Last time there we were having breakfast at Ted's Bakery, a small but popular place toward the end of the North Shore near the Bonzai Pipeline (I think) and Terry O'Quinn ("Lost" actor who played John Locke) pulled in to have breakfast. He sat at the picnic table right next to us. Lot's of talk, extremely friendly, nice to everyone - great time was had. (I never watched a whole episode of the show but I knew who he was, oh well).

[Cindy Lou Who]

Just thought this would be an interesting question to see how people are sleeping at night.

I have a 'mixed bag'. Sometimes I have trouble getting to sleep when I first go to bed, ie. I lay there for over an hour before giving up and taking several aspirin or Ibuprofen to (relax) knock myself out so I can sleep. Normally I get up several times to pee, and go right back to sleep. Other times I wake up for no reason and am wide awake for 1/2 an hour: that happened before getting the machine, and it's beginning to happen again now, after 9 months of therapy. It could be that I have an event and the S9 increases pressure abruptly to open my airway, and that wakes me.

My 45 year old brother had a stroke last month and I have a lot on my mind....I keep myself awake as I often mull over problems while in bed (and sometimes get solutions which is a good thing).
Here's a good nights sleep for everyone!
Cindy