Waking up...getting back to sleep question??

[rholmack]

Got some good news first...went to my family doctor today and she saw how much my blood pressure went down and she adjusted my medicine down...YEAH!!

I have this problem most of the time when I wake up to use the bathroom at night. I can't get back to sleep because I feel like I can't breath enough air in when I put my mask on. My routine is to take mask off, turn machine off, use the bathroom, come back, put mask back on and then turn machine on. I have to turn the machine off because it wakes my wife if I don't. But when the machine comes back on, I feel like I don't have enough air coming in to breath. My low setting is 8.5. I found this setting works good for going sleep at night. 9 seemed too high. I was wondering if their is a way to turn up the pressure manually so I could go back to sleep easier in the middle of the night? My machine is listed below.

[cflame1]

might be easier... to set it up to 9 now... and ramp up when you think that 9's too high.

[archangle]

Are you using the ramp function, or are you talking about the starting pressure for autopressure?

[rholmack]

The starting pressure for auto pressure. I've never used the ramp function. I don't know what it does.

[avi123]

You're an electronic engineer and don't know about setting this damn machine?

Since starting CPAPing 8 mo ago I been getting up two or three times in the 6 hours sleep to pee and rinse my mouth. Two weeks ago I was given a prescription of Flomax to find out if wake up b/c of an event or I really need to pee. It's still in the experimental stage.

About not being able to fall back to sleep, in my case, it's due to too many nappings during the day. In such a time I shut off the CPAP, start the TV and watch until I fall asleep without the CPAP. On my next wake up, I just shut the TV, put the mask on and start the CPAP without going to pee. It works for me.

[Pocblue]

Ramp feature allows the machine to start at a lower pressure and "ramp" up to the highest pressure which allows you to get used to having the machine on. I use my ramp feature but have adjusted it up after I was on cpap for about a month. I kept feeling like I couldn't breathe when I first put my mask on.

I am sure one of the more experienced posters can give you more information.

Good luck.

Karen

[rholmack]

Read them manual last night and discovered what the ramp function does. Don't think I'll use that.

However, but, I did discover what the problem is. I'm running out of water in my humidifier. My sinuses are drying out, I'm waking up congested. For last night, I refilled the humidifier by flash light and went back to sleep. Tonight I'll set the humidifier setting down from 5 or put less or no salt in the water and see what happens.

[Julie]

Why are you putting salt in the water?

[rholmack]

The distilled water has no impurities in it so it boils at a higher temperature. I wasn't getting enough moisture in my sinuses and I was only going through 1/4 of the tank every night. I add the salt to lower the boiling point of water so I could get more steam into my sinuses. I have chronic sinus problems and the moisture helps me. The salt also makes the water more conductive for some kinds of humidifiers that use the water as a conductor, but that's not the case here. My humidifier has plate at the bottom that heats up the water. Like heating water on a stove. In this case, the salt lowers the boiling point; hence, it boils off faster. I'll try lower the humidity number down from 5 and try 3 tonight.