My first night

[novatom1960]

Well last night was my first night trying out my CPAP machine and as expected, I didn't sleep a wink. And now I feel miserable, of course.

I did my CPAP test at the sleep clinic on Sunday night and used a full face mask. I cheated however, and used a sleeping pill. When I woke up about 5 hours later, I felt more refreshed than I had felt in years and the data proved that, indeed, I had gotten more REM sleep than from my first test (non-CPAP). I got my CPAP machine yesterday (Phillips Respironics). My setting is 6. The doctor recommended that I try the gel pillows mask first (Nuance) and see if that works. With all the data they collected on me, they couldn't confirm whether or not I sleep with my mouth open! I thought that was a bit strange. Anyways, I'm pretty sure I do sleep with my mouth open (I'm single so I don't have a partner who can confirm, but when I was home last week my mother heard me snoring). But anyways I thought I would try the nasal mask. While I think I'm getting full pressure, I'm just not sure. While I have more confidence in the full face mask, I still have a red mark on my nose from Sunday night and am concerned about how to handle the fitting so I don't end up with a permanent mark there (as well as pain and sensitivity).

It probably didn't help that I got a late start (12:30 am), but after nearly 4 hours of lying there (sometimes in a haze), I took the damn thing off. And even after taking it off around 4, I didn't get back to sleep. I was planning on going out tonight for NY eve but not sure how I'm going to be able to handle this.

I was optimistic but realistic earlier this week but now I realize that this may very well be one of the hardest things I ever do, but I have to do it, otherwise my quality of life will continue to suffer. I realize there's probably never a "best time" to try to transition to this new way of sleeping (at least I'm on vacation this week), but I so want to be able to get used to this by the end of January.

I don't have any particular question at this point, I just wanted to share my experience.

[szqnva]

I really hope that things get better for you, and from what I've read so far, I'm pretty sure they will. I have my cpap trial coming up tomorrow night, and my follow up next week, so I will be joining you shortly. I have been diagnosed with "moderate" apnea, and really have no idea what to expect, but so far all of the information I've been reading is overwhelming! Good luck to you, and hopefully some of the many helpful posts on this forum will be encouragement to you.

[Logies101]

I'm two weeks into CPAP therapy and I can attest to the fact that it WILL get better, just persevere in spite of difficulty, obstacles, or discouragement; continue steadfastly.

After my sleep study I was excited to get the machine and get started. I was optimistic and thought no problem I can do this. Then reality hit when I actually had to do it.The first couple of nights were awful for me, leaks, no sleep, nose frozen from the air hose, water dripping on my face, feeling like i couldn't breathe etc. I felt depressed that I had the rest of my life to look forward to with the CPap machine and disappointed in myself. Then I pulled myself up by the bootstraps and decided that others have adapted and I would too. So one by one I was able to overcome or change all of those things from the help of people on this forum. I also took matters into my own hands and learned how to change a few settings on the machine, like the ramp starting pressure and humidity.

I also took advantage of cpap.com by buying a different mask, chin strap and a heated hose. All of those things really helped me turn the corner and now two weeks out I'm getting fantastic sleep and feeling so much better overall. I'm sure there will be other problems to adjust to in the future and I'll have good nights and not so good night, but my mind is set on being successful and that is 95% of the battle. Just keep at it and try to work through the issues by asking for help on this forum. It WILL get better.

[mossytreesprite]

I'm still fairly new (6 weeks on CPAP and now 6+ weeks of ASV), but it really does get better. The best part is getting the fog helmet to go away. My headaches stopped too, which has helped tremendously. Imho, the mask stuff is by far the trickiest - I recommend trying as many styles as you can. I also find it strange that they weren't able to tell if you sleep with your mouth open - that's a big one. If you can get away with a nasal mask only, your life becomes a LOT easier. I do sleep with my mouth open, even when they added a chin strap. I've had good luck with the Innomed hybrid, because the bridge of my nose is not conducive to wearing traditional full face masks without swelling and big red sores. Did you talk to the sleep tech who ran your sleep test, or just your doctor? If you didn't talk to the tech, it might be a good idea to ask to talk to him/her, because they may be able to tell you whether you slept with your mouth closed or not. I can't stress enough how important it is to find this information out. I think there are ways to find out if you are sleeping with your mouth open at home based on the data provided by your cpap machine, so even if you aren't able to get the info from your sleep test, you should be able to try it out (I'm not the best person to tell you the best method to determine this though - I imagine it would be easily defined by whether your machine says you had leaks or not - mouth open = leaks). After several months of this, I can't tell you how much I wish I could wear a nasal mask only. The hybrid is a good option though to spare your nose if you have to wear a FFM.

Good luck! I'm still looking for the holy grail in face masks myself - I'll be sure to post it if I ever discover the secret .

[Logies101]

Mossytreesprite, I don't remember if you mentioned whether you tried taping your mouth at night? I heard it works pretty well thereby enabling a person to use the nasal pillows or nasal mask.

[szqnva]

Novatom...how are you doing? I had my cpap trial last night. Like you, I was convinced I was a mouth breather because I snore. Seems to make sense, right? However, the sleep tech told me that's not necessarily true. You snore because there is an obstruction to your breathing which cause you to try to suck in additional air. So...If you are getting the air that you need, you shouldn't snore and you may not open your mouth. I was almost positive that I was a mouth breather. Had even gone on cpap.com and picked out a full face mask that I planned to request. But at my sleep study last night, the tech suggested I try out just a nasal mask at first, which would tell him whether I was a mouth breather or not. If it turned out I was, then he would switch me to a full face mask. Guess what??? I woke up in the morning and still had the nasal mask on! Woohoo! So all along I was wrong. My mouth stayed closed all night because I had no need to open it. So...to make a long story short...you may not need a full face mask. From everything I've read on here so far, masks seem to be the trickiest part of reaching success. Try the pillows. And if that doesn't work, just keep trying.

[cathyf]

My husband sleeps with his mouth tightly closed, on his side. And snores like a freight train! So before I even arrived here I knew that the stuff about only snoring if you are on your back and have your mouth hanging open was myth. Oh, and according to my cpap, I snore quite a bit even with pressures in the teens.

[bv1800]

Mossytreesprite, I don't remember if you mentioned whether you tried taping your mouth at night? I heard it works pretty well thereby enabling a person to use the nasal pillows or nasal mask.

Speaking from experience, chin straps work. I didn't like my chin strap so my wife gave me one of her elastic headbands. Worked perfectly for me. Since then, I've taught myself to keep my mouth closed, so no need for the chin strap.

OP, good luck. Hang in there and it'll get better. I do have two suggestions, regarding what worked for me:

1) if you aren't already doing so, when you get in bed, watch TV or read while wearing the mask and machine is on. I had to use a pressure of 11 when I started. 20 min of reading with the mask on helped acclimate
2) I used benedryl as a mild "sleep aid" (it's the same thing that's in "night time" OTC meds like Tylenol PM). After a month or so, I didn't need the benedryl either.

[palerider]

My husband sleeps with his mouth tightly closed, on his side. And snores like a freight train!

time to put a cpap (aka muffler) on him too!

[Dirty Martini]

Just offering support and encouragement. I am 3 months in. Please believe me....it DOES get better. And your first night sounds similar to my own. I didn't make it 2-3 hours in my first couple of nights. I fully admit I resorted to TYlenol PM on nights 3 and 4...and it helped. I managed most of the pm with that and sheer stubbornness. (But then I had to go with mega coffee to fight through the sleephaze in the am...) I admit I used that approach for a couple of weeks, and then weened myself off the medicated intervention (from 2 pills....to 1 pill....to 1/2 pill....to cold turkey)

Somewhere around week 3 it improved greatly. I felt empowered by reading this site, learning to read the data, trying new things (like aromatherapy, alternative humidity, etc.) , and trial and error got me there. And I'm still in the process of doing that.

ALl this to say....don't give up, keep trying, keep asking questions and learning and trying new ways to address your issues. It will get better.

[novatom]

Thanks everyone for your encouragement! I've had the machine now for four nights, but I did skip New Year's Eve since I was out later than usual and drank more than usual and just didn't want to deal with associated issues (I suppose once I get used to the therapy, it could lessen the severity of a hangover, since I'll get more sleep).

Anyways, last night (Friday) was my best night so far but it probably helped that I took a sleeping pill (30mg of Temazapam), so that was the first actual time that I slept with it on. I checked the initial data on Sleepyhead and my AHI last night was down to 6.41 (still too high) with 0 leakage! My untreated AHI is 28 and my pressure setting is 6 (still trying to figure out how to complete my profile with this info).

The 0 leakage (2 out of 3 nights, with <.1 on the 3rd) was particularly encouraging since I most definitely want to stick with the Nuance nasal pillows and not go face mask. They're hard to get used to, but after reading reviews of the product, I'm beginning to realize how far the products have come just in the past few years, especially the nasal masks.

As for whether the clinic could tell me about whether I slept with my mouth open, it's possible that there was a lack of communication between the doctor and the tech who set me up with the machine. It's possible the doctor already knew that I sleep with my mouth closed but didn't communicate that with the tech. They did stress that this is a work in progress and that I may very well need to adjust my settings and use a different mask.

Using Sleepyhead is a new experience. The clinic didn't tell me anything about it. They just want me to bring my SD card with me when I go for my four week follow-up. Maybe they didn't want to throw too much information to me at once, but I'm glad I found it so I don't have to wait for them to tell me if the therapy is working.

[Krelvin]

Using Sleepyhead is a new experience. The clinic didn't tell me anything about it. They just want me to bring my SD card with me when I go for my four week follow-up. Maybe they didn't want to throw too much information to me at once, but I'm glad I found it so I don't have to wait for them to tell me if the therapy is working.

Not a surprise, I don't know any DME that will mention that you can access your own data. Most sleep dr's won't be interested either. My new PCP is the first to express interest.

Just about everyone else cares only about compliance as if that is the only goal.

[RogerSC]

I did my CPAP test at the sleep clinic on Sunday night and used a full face mask. I cheated however, and used a sleeping pill. When I woke up about 5 hours later, I felt more refreshed than I had felt in years and the data proved that, indeed, I had gotten more REM sleep than from my first test (non-CPAP).

Well, since you seemed to sleep well with a sleeping pill, you might try that again and sleep well again. I used sleeping pills for the first week of cpap therapy to get used to sleeping with the machine and mask. Otherwise I wouldn't have gotten any sleep with the mask and machine on. After about a week of that, I stopped using sleeping pills, and found that I was used to sleeping with cpap by then. So that really helped me get accustomed to it. Nothing wrong with using sleeping pills for a limited period of time...you should be able to stop using them and sleep fine after a few days.

On the snoring front, I used to snore. And when I started cpap I stopped snoring, and still slept with my mouth closed. I really don't know how much correlation there is between snoring (which a lot of people that suffer from sleep apnea do) and breathing through your mouth at night, but I don't think that's as common as your intuition might tell you *smile*.

Anyways, sounds like you have good motivation, just need to figure out how you're gping use cpap every night when you're sleeping. That'll come, most people that have strong motivation figure out what they need to do to make it work.