Falling asleep - new challenge

[Cinders]

Does anyone have trouble falling asleep with headgear on? It takes me 1 1/2 -2 hours. Do you take a sleeping aide?
Also in my deepest sleep when my auto cpap ramps up past 9, my minimum toward 12, my maximum, it automatically wakes me up. This is usually around 3:30 am. What good is it if I can't stand the pressure change? I just want to sleep.

[Sheriff Buford]

How long have you been using cpap? If it is a short period of time, it will take some time getting used to it. I often take some melatonin and magnesium to help me fall asleep. They are both a natural sleeping aid and sold over the counter (in the store's vitamin-area). One of the issues with the autopap is that it can awaken folks when the pressure changes. If you can't get used to the pressure changes, then try the cpap mode and see if that helps.

Sheriff

[robysue]

Does anyone have trouble falling asleep with headgear on? It takes me 1 1/2 -2 hours. Do you take a sleeping aide?

IBack when I was a newbie it would take forever for me to get to sleep and it seemed to me that I slept fitfully, although hubby would say it seemed as though I sleep well enough----and it was very, very difficult to wake me once morning finally came. I wound up putting bedtime further and further off in an effort to try to not lie in bed not sleeping and I wound up fighting an insomnia monster that was the fiercest I've ever had to tangle with. It took a good six months of cognitive behavior therapy for insomnia to finally rein it in (sort of) and I still would not say that I sleep well or easily. I did finally get to where I could fall asleep within 5-10 minutes of masking up---if I was sleepy enough when I went to bed. I still have a great deal of difficulty falling asleep with the headgear on if I am not almost asleep when I go to bed and put it on. And I get very uncomfortable lying in bed waiting for sleep to come if I'm still awake after a mere 20 minutes.

This past summer my sleep schedule got so out of whack with what I need it to be for functioning at my job that my sleep doctor did persuade me to start taking 2.5 mg of Ambien at my nominal 1:00-2:00 am bedtime regardless of whether I'm feeling sleepy or not. That does allow me to get to bed and get to sleep before I would finally start to feel sleepy enough at 3:00am to get to sleep masked up on my own without the Ambien.

There are plenty of people who do use a short course of sleeping pills during the adjustment period to help them get over the hump of learning to sleep with the mask on their nose. In retrospect I sometimes wonder if I might have had an easier time adjusting if I'd not been quite so resistant to the idea of taking a sleeping pill. Then again, I still don't like taking the Ambien and I still have problems feeling hung over in the morning at times.

Also in my deepest sleep when my auto cpap ramps up past 9, my minimum toward 12, my maximum, it automatically wakes me up. This is usually around 3:30 am. What good is it if I can't stand the pressure change? I just want to sleep.

It could be that you'd be better off using a straight pressure setting instead of the Auto mode.

It could also be that you are waking up just after a REM cycle and you only think the pressure change is what woke you up. Lots of people---including those without OSA---wake up briefly after the end of each REM cycle. But the typical normal person quickly determines there's nothing out of the ordinary that triggered the wake and they snuggle back down in the bed and return to sleep, and they probably don't even remember the wake in the morning because it was so short. But in your case---with the CPAP mask on your nose, there's a whole lot more "stuff" going on that is still really novel to your brain, and hence there's good reason (right now) for your brain to become far more awake than it needs to be: Your brain is waking up to sort out what's going on, you're noticing the pressure has increased, and you're dealing with all the physical stimuli coming from the machine and all that tends to make the wake last long enough for you to have some trouble getting back to sleep and for you to remember it in the morning.

[Cinders]

Thank you Sheriff and Robysue for your input. Of course I am a newbie and you both knew it! LOL 4 nights now
Too early in the game to be whining. I wrote the post when I was tired and crabby from another bad night.
I am going to take a sleep aide tonight and see if it helps. I am also going to ask them to put me on one air pressure.
Before I was diagnosed with Sleep Apnea I slept soundly for 8-9 hours feeling refreshed all day. Now 5 hours of sleep and tired all day. Seems backwards to me. But I had a lone A Fib back in May and they think it was caused by Sleep Apnea.
Thanks again! Cinders

[Todzo]

Does anyone have trouble falling asleep with headgear on? It takes me 1 1/2 -2 hours. Do you take a sleeping aide?
Also in my deepest sleep when my auto cpap ramps up past 9, my minimum toward 12, my maximum, it automatically wakes me up. This is usually around 3:30 am. What good is it if I can't stand the pressure change? I just want to sleep.

Getting my breathing under control is the first thing I do as I work to go to sleep. I use modified eucapnic breathing techniques. The machine tries to make me breath more, these help me keep that tendency under control.

I think that anyone new to CPAP and anyone having trouble with CPAP should spend some quality time during the day with the machine. Some on the bed learning to breath quietly as you should be while asleep and some of the time with light distraction such as TV, music, radio. The machine adds a whole new aspect to how you breath and so the new reflexes need to be developed. Try an hour a day for a week.

I used to use an old cassett recorder to have voice or music to go to sleep to. Now I use an MP3 player with a built in sleep timer ( http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Sansa-Cli ... 002MAPT7U/ ). I even have speakers set up on my bed to use this system (powered computer speakers). I usually set the sleep timer for between 45 and 60 minutes and keep the volume sort of low. I am often asleep within minutes. Choose music or audio you love.

[sleepinglass]

I slept just fine on my cpap machine when I first got it.

I did not take any sleeping aide.

My sleep technician said to do the following and I slept like a baby.

1) exercise as much as safely possible, walking gym etc every day if you can

2) limit the amount of time you stay in bed for the first few weeks till you and the mask/machine become friends, no more than 6 hours in bed!

3) not napping.

It worked really well I slept like a log from the first night! i just could not wait to get to my bed.