Sleepless in New York, Please help

[leftlane45]

I have never really had much trouble getting to sleep until I was given my new cpap machine. Now I can lay in bed for a long time with out falling asleep. When I do finally fall asleeep I find myself waking up in the morning with the mask wrapped around my head or just lying on the bed. What am I doing wrong, Please help!!!

Thanks to all who help out all the people in this forum, if it were not for all you guys there would be an awful lot of unanswered questions, Thanks for doing a great job.

Jerry

[jnk]

I have never really had much trouble getting to sleep until I was given my new cpap machine. Now I can lay in bed for a long time with out falling asleep. When I do finally fall asleeep I find myself waking up in the morning with the mask wrapped around my head or just lying on the bed. What am I doing wrong, Please help!!!

Thanks to all who help out all the people in this forum, if it were not for all you guys there would be an awful lot of unanswered questions, Thanks for doing a great job.

Jerry

I don't know if this is your first machine or if you are just starting out or not, but if so, it may be you didn't have much trouble falling asleep before because you were totally exhausted from lack of effective sleep. And now your body has to learn that it is OK to fall asleep and remain that way with a hunk of plastic strapped to your face blowing pressure up your nose. Most bodies learn that stuff in time, if you keep at it and are patient with yourself.

In the meantime, google the phrase "sleep hygiene" to read suggestions on how to ease your body into sleep mode and train it when to sleep. Some docs suggest getting up and moving around if you don't fall asleep within 20 minutes or so. Other people find it helpful to quietly rest in order to train their body that sleep time is sleep time.

I know I went through some similar things at first, myself. I found it hard to fall asleep and found myself waking up eyes wide open after a few hours. I dealt with that for weeks. But I eventually got there. It seemed like my body took a while to understand what was happening. So it may not be that you are doing anything wrong, if you are making slow but steady progress toward keeping your mask on all night. If you keep the mask on 5 minutes longer eacn night than the night before, you will be sleeping with it all night in no time, really. Keep trying different things to see if they help--different mask. Rerouting of hose. Experiment if you feel you aren't making progress with it.

If you post your equipment, your settings, and other information like that, some may have more specific suggestions that might be of help to you. Other than that, search this forum for earlier posts that may address more specific concerns if you haven't done that already. I still search back to read earlier posts for answers to some of my questions, sometimes several times a day.

Don't give up. It means life.

jeff

[leftlane45]

Thanks Jeff, I was just recently diagnosed with mild sleep apnea my doctor recomended Respirionics M series with heated humidifier and smart card. He perscribed a setting of 10/6. This is my first machine and was only given the machine on 12/08/08. When I went for my sleep study, the tech came in my room after a while and told me I was mouth breathing so he changed the mask to a FFM. I felt as if I was in a car with my head out the window @65mph.
Anyway when I received my equipment this past Monday, I was suprised to find an Opus nasal pillow instead of a FFM. Icalled my DME and questioned them, they said it was what the doctor prescribed, but would send me a FFM quattro medium on Monday. So I quess I will get it by wednesday and give it a try.
Thanks for your input, i really need the advice.

Jerry

[cflame1]

which version of the Mseries did you get?

There are a number of them. It should tell you with a sticker (or some kind of writing) on the top of the machine.

[deerhound]

One thing I noticed, for most nights when I started, was that I thought I was awake all night. It would seem like all I was doing was listening to myself breathe and then rolling over t the other side. I did not think I was getting any sleep. My wife said I was sleeping and I was feeling better, but it seemed like I wasn't ever falling asleep. One thing though, even though I thought I was awake, the night didn't last as long as it would have if I really was awake. Those nights seem interminable. Good luck.
Dale

[Goofproof]

Go to control panel upper top left of page, fill in your profile in text form not Iconney, with the correct equiptment you use.

XPAP treatment is part mind over matter, if you can't get your mind over treatment, the treatment might not matter.

Use the machine and mask while awake, until you mind makes peace with the equiptment. A "Can Do" attitude is a must. It's the quality of your life ahead of you, you have to take control. Welcome! Jim

[Colin Southern]

You may have trouble believing this - but you WILL get used to it. It just takes time. I've been on a Resmed for 226 days now - after trying quite a few masks I've discovered that the Quattro FFM is the one for me, and although being strapped to a mask all night / everynight will never be my first choice, the benefits outweight the inconvenience to such a degree that it's become something I actually look forward too.

Additionally, you'll almost certainly find a whole host of "tips and tricks" that make the experience better for you - little things that collectively add up to a much better experience (for me things like an ice cream stick to get to itches without taking off the mask - dental floss to create a makeshift swivel/elbow joint seal - putting the unit under the bed and routing the host over my head and down the back of the bed (with the hose placed under one of the headstraps) - to using buckwheat pillows - to using a humidifier, but leaving it switched off and using refrigerated distilled water in it - to learning new and more comfortable sleeping positions).

So stick with it - try to adopt a positive attitude - and try to work through issues one by one.

Cheers,

Colin

[GaryGarland]

as long as your doc approves, to me there's nothing like good ol' tylenol pm - not addictive, supposedly doesn't make you sleepy in the a.m. (a little debateable) and it can knock out some aches and pains without hurting your stomach. i'm a fairly large fellow and i only take a 1/2 dose when i need it (1 pill)
before the machine, that pill would put me in a near coma , and even at noon i was zonked - my wife didn't understand why (nor me either)
the 2 nights i did take it since the machine, i've woken a bit groggy in the a.m. but quickly snapped out of it
the post about mind over matter is head on - at the sleep lab (and first night at home) i was angry i had to use the "stupid machine" - in a few weeks it has become my "friend" (and my wife's best friend)
make sure your straps aren't too tight, and consider pur-sleep aromatherapy and maybe a book for those times you awaken in the night. i suspended my tube with a velcro "string" (my bedboard is slatted) and that keeps the tube off my head. i keep my humidifier as high as possible before i get rain storms (rainout) and i bought a hose cover that helps a tad - it's softer and helps a little with rainout.
there have been a lot of times (before and even with the machine) that i'll bitch to my wife that i haven't fallen asleep, etc. - and she assures me i've slept plenty when i thought i didn't (not saying quality sleep, but you may be sleeping more than you think)
i also personally found that sleeping on my back causes less mask leaks, though after a number of hours my back is killing me (6 month old bed, so we'll see if the mattress is under warranty)
positive attitude!!!! good luck!

[leftlane45]

Thanks to all who read my post and gave some advice, I can see from all the different posts within this forum that it is all a matter of trial and error.
I look foward to reading all these posts with the hope of reading one which has similar symptoms as mine, so that I don't think I going nuts. And picking up tips for the future.
Again thanks to all,
Jerry

[leftlane45]

I have not read in any post so far about tylenol PM, I would use it if I knew more about it. Anyone else use tylenol PM

Thanks
Jerry

[rogermx]

Ditch the mask - the cannula stays on better and is less intrusive.

Another thing that helps me sleep is burrowing under the covers. I stay warmer, the environment is darker, and it becomes easier to manage the hose and the cannula.

Disable the ramping feature. With ramping, I felt like I was gasping for breath while waiting for the machine to reach full pressure and that kept me awake. I now put it on at full pressure and I adjust to it much quicker.

Don't give up - once you surmount the technical problems, you will go to sleep faster and wake more rested.

[NeurosurgeryNP]

Hello fellow Long Islander, in fact Suffolk County resident!

I have been on CPAP for almost 4 years now. It has dramatically changed the way I live for the better. With that being said - I did have the same problem for the first week or so when I got the machine. This is what I did - I spoke with my sleep physician and expressed my concerns about sleeping the first few nights on the machine. He kindly gave me a prescription for a sleep pill to use for the first few nights. I used it for the first 2 nights and then transitioned over to Benadryl for the rest of the first week (the active ingredient in Tylenol PM without the tylenol because i didn't need it). This worked for me. Once my body was accustomed to sleeping with the mask and realizing what good sleep I was getting, I didnt' need it any more. Here I am almost 4 years later, not knowing what I would do without my CPAP.

Although cumbersome, the full face mask should help - the Mirage QUattro is a nice mask - what I used if I am congested and can't use the nasal mask. YOur other options are a nasal mask with a chin strap which is what I use on most nights. Without the chin strap, I would have my mouth open all night!