My 90 day CPAP report

[Jason S.]

1. No longer very sleepy (napping) after lunch, but been yawning the last week or so.
2. Had a few days with energy burst early on, but nothing since
3. Aerophagia is sporadic but its seems to be positively correlated with energy level.
4. No increase in memory (it still sucks)
5. No increase in mental alertness
6. Slight weight gain (due to winter inactivity?)
7. Overcame nose bridge sores after 30 days (tougher nose?)
8. Waking up less at night to adjust mask
9. Either less leaks, or not noticing leaks
10. Morning wood returns from sabbatical
11.Now feel terrible in morning if don't use CPAP
12. Less morning headaches, but more frequent lately
13. Dry mouth even with full face mask
14. Still had a couple of back-sleeping apneas - woke up gasping
15. Diminishing returns - or par for the course?

[bdp522]

It sounds like you're doing ok to me. It takes time to pay back sleep debt. Once you get used to sleeping with all this stuff and get all your numbers dialed in you have to pay back all those nights of poor sleep you've gotten for years.
Increases in memory and mental alertness depend on the person. I know many people without sleep apnea that have trouble in those areas!
Your nose does seem to toughen up over time and sometimes it's just a matter of breaking in the mask.
What does your data say about the leaks?
Dry mouth happens when you breathe through your mouth. With a FF mask you can still breathe through your mouth. Try turning up the HH.

Brenda

[Georgio]

Congratulations on 90 days! You are now fully compliant!

No. 10 should be a good indicator!
No. 11 tells you you're in this for good! ( A good thing.)
No. 12 ditto on raising the humidifier, since you have a full face mask. Alternately, if the problem persists, you could go to a nasal interface, and tape your mouth for awhile. You won't have dry mouth then! Some people's mouths learn to stay shut that way and they can discontinue, or partially discontinue tape. (Worked for me.)

No. 14 I have the impression that you are flying by the seat of your pants, and have no data to make your decisions by. Data would be a huge help to you to ascertain the effectiveness of your therapy at your present settings. If you have been at the same setting forever, if it were me, I would consider raising my pressure .5 or 1 for a week and see if I felt any improvement. I just bumped my min. setting on auto by 1 and I think I am feeling better.

Give my regards to Angelina.

Georgio

[Jason S.]

Georgio, great analysis and I agree with everything you wrote. My machine is not data capable unfortuneately, and since I just paid for it I won't be changing it anythime soon.

One question I have is I tested moderate for side-sleeping (which I mostly do) and severe for back sleeping (which I rarely do). So I assume my 8 cm calibration is set for my side sleeping and not high enough for my back sleeping. This is OK, because I really need to stay on my side. This will give me the proper therapy and keep my setting as low as possible.

[glfredrick]

Find a purpose-made pillow for side sleeping (or make one like I did). Works wonders.

I've also noticed some diminishing returns from early gains, but I've stuck with it faithfully now for a year, and I expect that going off the machine would only maky this aging body WORSE. I find myself now falling asleep while watching televison after work (this went away for a while), so I may simply be needing more sleep (I average 5.5 hrs over a year -- all w/machine).

One thing I've noticed... People tend to concentrate on the one thing they're currently working on as far as body health is concerned. If on a special diet, people tend to focus on the effects of that. If on sleep equipment, on that, take a vitamin or suppliment, drink more water, etc., etc., etc. Life probably needs to be, overall, more balanced, and EVERYTHING is tied to everything else. No one thing is going to be the magic bullet that we all so desperately want. That, and we're all just getting older every day.

I've found that I can have the positive symptoms you describe from any number of different things I change in my life -- from a low carb diet and loosing a few pounds to better sleep. The week I get all of those things dialed in, all at the same time, I'll be back in my 20s...