Second night - when will I feel better/lose weight?

[LCG]

I don't mean to be unreasonable since this will only be my second night with my cpap machine. However, I would like to know when I'll begin to feel better and will I really lose weight? My Doctor talks about the improvement he has seen in his other patients and things seem hopeful but I'm still wondering if my weight and energy level will change. I've already begun to exercise and change my eating habits but I've also read about the hormones related to sleep and weight gain. Could it be true?

[Guest]

I am one month into bipap and have just reached the point where I am sleeping well at night. No weight loss or real increase in energy yet. I expect that if we are going to see benefits on weight, blood pressure, energy, etc., it is going to take a pretty good period of time (6 months or more) of effective sleep therapy.

[RafterRattler]

Well I can only speak from my experience, but I'm sure others will chime in.

With CPAP, if it's working correctly, you should already feel better. I felt better with the first night of use. I was no longer falling asleep driving or in meetings. In fact, I felt great the morning after my titration. Are you getting a good mask seal? Do you FEEL like you are sleeping well?

As far as losing weight, given that you are exercising and eating better, it should just make it easier to lose weight. Don't get your hopes up that CPAP alone will make you lose weight. If you do, you'll be setting yourself up for a disappointment. My personal opinion is that getting better sleep helps you improve your metabolism and your eating habits - which is why I think so many folks lost weight. When I started on CPAP, I also changed my diet. Within about 6 months I had lost 30lbs, and it just seemed to come off easier....

By the way, welcome aboard. Do spend some time reading - there is a wealth of information on this site. Check out the 'Our Wisdom' link above as well...
Mike

[yorkiemum01]

Goodness, thought I was alone in my 'immediate gratification world'! Glad to have company.
For myself, the therapy tooks weeks of tweaking, probably becoming acceptable in 'my terms'
at the end of month 3. My family is full of CPAP users, who couldn't understand my
difficulty in adapting, so I turned to this forum for the answers. With time, patience,
and persistance, I became educated, and found a regimen that FINALLY worked for me.
Never thought I'd embrace this therapy, but I'm pleased to say progress has been made, and
I attribute alot of that progress to this forum, therefore I remain here. The support/advice
available here is tried and true, and I'm extremely grateful.

[LCG]

I've thought about what you said. I realise that I did not feel as tired when driving home this afternoon and I did not have to take a nap when I got home. Maybe it has already begun. Yeah!! The mask seems to fit fine, but I'm concerned about breathing through my mouth when I sleep. I've seen other types of masks and chin straps so I'll look into those just in case.

[RafterRattler]

Granted, this is my opinion, but I'm pretty sure a good night's sleep is a good night's sleep. If you had a good night, I think you should feel rested in the morning. I can see other parameters - like weight, bp, etc. - taking a while to improve. However, if it takes weeks or months to start feeling rested, then in my mind it means it took weeks or months for you to get the right therapy. This could be because of mask leaks, mask discomfort, having to sleep in different positions, wrong settings, etc...

Again, my opinion and I'm not a doctor. Do you know if you have a data capable machine, and if so, do you know how to pull your results?
Mike

[RafterRattler]

I've thought about what you said. I realise that I did not feel as tired when driving home this afternoon and I did not have to take a nap when I got home. Maybe it has already begun. Yeah!! The mask seems to fit fine, but I'm concerned about breathing through my mouth when I sleep. I've seen other types of masks and chin straps so I'll look into those just in case.

Great! Sounds like you are making some progress then! I'm a mouth breather too - and yes, it can definitely lead to reduced (or no) therapy. If you're like me, you'd also have severe dry mouth in the morning if you were breathing through your mouth. There are LOTS of tips here about that. You could try a chin strap (or one of the many variations available), or you can try moving to a full face mask. They both have their downsides though. I went to a full face after a couple of years of struggling with chin straps, and it turned out to be the right decision for me...

Mike

[Birddog]

I've found alot of people i've known for years have been on cpap and i never knew it until i brought up i found i had sleep apnea. The ones i know talk about cpap like they found a new religion and what life changing events have happened to them since using the machine. I'm new and have about 115 hours on my machine and i feel like part of my life where i was always tired and sleeping away my days off was given back to me.I though it was because of the hours of truck driving but now i wake up with a energy level i never had before even though i was drinking 2 plus pots of coffee a day trying to get through.I have needed less coffee now which i though was impossible and been back out riding the mountain bike which will make the weight start to come off.So hang in there and it will happen for you.good luck

[LCG]

I'm using a REMstar Auto M Series with A-Flex and I'm supposed to do to my doctor in about 1 month to check the data on the smartcard.

[crossfit]

Some things you will notice right away. Other things, like weight loss and blood pressure lowering, will take longer. I find it helpful to log things when I notice a difference. Since it can take a long time to really catch up on years of sleep deficit, it is helpful to look at my notes when I get discouraged. I am in my fourth week of CPAP and have begun to lose weight. Only two pounds but that is a nice, healthy weight loss since I have only been working at it for one week (a healthy weight loss is one to two pounds per week - more than that and your losing more than fat - your losing muscle which is needed to burn more fat).

It can be hard to be patient. I feel like I should be better NOW! I have been trying to figure out what is wrong with me for years so why can't it be NOW!? Well, our symptoms took years to develop even while we were looking for a cure/treatment/diagnosis. So it might take a bit to get totally healthy again. And some of us might not gain back everything we lost. Our hearts and brains may never function like they once did due to the cumulative damage over years. Still, you will start to feel better. If your not feeling some changes after a week or so, then something is wrong. maybe leaks, maybe the wrong pressure - just come here and ask for help.

[Volcanomom]

I've been using mine for two weeks today. It took me a few days to get used to it because I kept feeling my exhale vent & thinking I was leaking. Now I know the difference, so I only wake up for potty trips I've managed to do without naps, which were a daily occurence during the summer (I'm a teacher), and I had to make a 7 hour round trip drive on Wednesday and for the first time I can remember, I didn't not have to punch or pinch myself to bruises in order to stay awake while driving. And I've never made the round trip in one day before! I did take a nap today because I was frantically working getting my classroom ready today so I worked HARD!

[lusciousg77]

hello! i'm just hitting over 2 months on my apap, and i feel SO much better than i did even a month ago. i was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea, so i'm just thinking it's taking a long time for me to catch up on sleep. i've heard that advice from a lot of people on here. i've even had to use the chat program on here a couple times just to ask questions and it's helped a LOT! who knows how many years i've had this.. and 2 months of treatment is just the beginning. it's so amazing to actually be awake in the morning and not feel like i HAVE to lay back down for more sleep. good luck!!!

[hobbs]

Cpap or no cpap, you will lose weight when you burn more calories than you consume. 5+ years on cpap and the same weight!

[LCG]

I agree, being patient is tough. When you've been ill and then seem to have found an answer (a way to get healthy) you can't resist wanting to get started and see results right away. I do realise that my weight won't disappear without some work on my part but I have read about some hormone related stuff and was not 100% sure how it worked. I got the impression it was hormones that controlled satiety (feeling full) and something else. I'll look for the article again.

By the way this is the morning after my second night. I feel rested but I also slept for more than 8 hours. I've had nights when I've slept this long and still felt tired. May be in time I will improve.

Am I supposed to feel air escaping from the back of the mask? The part above where the hose is connected to the mask.

[echo]

LCG - yes there's a link between interrupted sleep and the two hormones (I can never remember them either). One is Leptin the other is Gh... something. Try googling Leptin and OSA / sleep apnea - there are quite a few articles out there on that. When you get good sleep, the hormones are well regulated. When the sleep is disrupted, the hormones are out of whack making it more likely to gain weight. Or some such

BTW, your mask is probably the 'bottom of the barrel' - no offense! That's the one they gave me at the hospital, and it leaked allll over the place. Very quickly I bought the Activa and it changed EVERYTHING - no leaks, confortable seal, no need to tighten it til my brain froze up.... So you might want to start looking for a better quality mask. If you have too many large leaks then your therapy will NOT be effective. Also watch out for mouth breathing / leaking, becase if the air is escaping from your mouth, then you're losing all your therapy out of your mouth.

All masks have a natural built-in vent. This is to allow the exhaled carbon dioxide to leave the mask. For that mask, yes it's the part above where the hose connects to the mask. .. so what you have is normal. But you should not have air escaping from anywhere else.