Progress, but still hard to get back to sleep

[mrstevegross]

Ok, I'm at the 6 month mark with my CPAP. Overall, it has definitely improved things: The mask is comfy, I breathe deeply with it, and I've solved the various noise issues that everyone wrestles with.

So, here's my routine these days:

* Go to sleep at midnight (sleep latency is pretty good; I probably need about 15 mins to fall asleep);
* Wake up sometime between 4-5 am.
* Toss-and-turn till 8:30; get up; go to work.
* Moderate sleep deprivation during day.
* Come home, nap 30 minutes, feel normal.

So this is definitely an improvement on my pre-CPAP life. However, the wake-at-4am-and-toss-around-for-4-hours isn't too pleasant. Any ideas? I cannot seem to figure out what triggers this awakening; my AHI is between 1.5-2.0 overall, which seems decent anyway. My sleep doc prescribed additional drugs (nuva-something), but I'm reluctant to add pills to my life.

Your thoughts?

Thanks!
--Steve

[Duckie]

It could be a learned behavior to wake up at 4:00. Try no nap and get up at 7:30. My sleep Dr. put me on sleep restriction. She cut me from 10 hours of sleep to 7. Those 10 hours consisted of 1.0 hr nap. Sleeping from 8:30 pm to 10:30 pm, then toss and turn and check the clock every half hour until 5 am. I now go to bed at 10 pm and I am up at 5. I can't believe the energy I have gotten doing that. The sleep MD feeling is we only need 6 to 8 hours of good sleep. If you aren't sleeping solid to get up and begin your day. It takes a month or so to get regulated but it has seem to work for me. I now look forward to bed and don't feel it is a battle ground. I am so thankful to finally be diagnosed with OSA and to be treated with a APAP, since it lead to a great night sleep and energy!

[Mary Z]

You could give the new med a trial run and see if it helps you establish a pattern of sleeping through until if time to get up. If it dosen't help, if you feel you shouldn't take it, don't.

[Janknitz]

Before CPAP, I thought I was in "perimenopause". I'd wake about 4:30 a.m. every morning in a puddle of sweat, heart pounding, panic and negative thinking.

Then I started CPAP and these "hot flash night sweats" disappeared. Hmmm.

I was having great results from my CPAP--AHI went from 77 to 0.2! I felt better.

Then the night sweats started again, waking me about 4:30 every morning. My numbers were great--0.2 to 0.5 AHI, no leaks. The doctor and sleep tech said "yep, must be perimenopause--CPAP doesn't cure that.

So I got software. I have an autoset and it was being run 8 to 13 cm. Even though my AHI's looked great, when I could see the graph, what I found is that around 4:30 a.m. my pressure went up to 13 and hung out on that ceiling if I managed to sleep again. We increased my top pressure 2 cm. to 15 cm.

What do you know? No more "perimenopause". I sleep through the night, 7.5 hours at a stretch.

My point is that something may be happening to wake you at 4 a.m. You should take a good look at your data, not just the AHI, and see if anything shows up. You might also want to do an overnight pulse oximetry and see if that tells you anything. I didn't have the benefit of a pulse oximeter, but I know something was happening that an increase in pressure took care of.

Maybe you can cure your perimenopause, too.

[jonquiljo]

So I got software. I have an autoset and it was being run 8 to 13 cm. Even though my AHI's looked great, when I could see the graph, what I found is that around 4:30 a.m. my pressure went up to 13 and hung out on that ceiling if I managed to sleep again. We increased my top pressure 2 cm. to 15 cm.

What do you know? No more "perimenopause". I sleep through the night, 7.5 hours at a stretch.

My point is that something may be happening to wake you at 4 a.m. You should take a good look at your data, not just the AHI, and see if anything shows up. You might also want to do an overnight pulse oximetry and see if that tells you anything. I didn't have the benefit of a pulse oximeter, but I know something was happening that an increase in pressure took care of.

Yeah, that hundred bucks for the Encoreviewer software is really worth it if you can afford it. You really can see a lot of what is going on. I wish the data was even more detailed but for $100, I think that's all you can expect.