Still Tired from a Newbie

[Tiki]

Hi Everyone

I'm new here. I was just recently diagnosed with mild sleep apnea (AHI 13) however I'm tired all the time so it feels severe to me. I've known that I've had mild sleep apnea for a number of years but wasn't excessively tired so didn't choose to treat it. Over the last 6 months, I've suddenly been very very tired and have chosen to pursue treatment and thus had a sleep study and now have a CPAP machine. I've had my CPAP machine for just over one week. I've been sleeping with my mask 8 hours each night and my machine tells me that my leak rate is around 1 and my AHI is 0.1 so why don't I feel any better? Is my Autopap choosing a pressure that is too low or is it something other than sleep apnea that is making me so tired? I have trouble sleeping in sleep labs so my doctor set my pressure between 6 and 12 on my machine and my pressure seems to show between 6.4 and 7.2 when I check the machine in the morning. I was so hoping for a fast fix so I wouldn't be tired for Christmas. Does anyone have any advice or ideas? Thank you in advance.

[christinepi]

I unfortunately don't have any advice, but have the exact same machine configuration as you. In the sleep lab they found I had 18.8 AHI, and the DME set my pressure at 8cm. I've been using the set up for two weeks now. I don't sleep as many hours as you do (between 4-7h) with the mask on because of dry mouth issues, but I still sleep through the rest of the night, once I've taken the mask off. The machine tells me, too, that I have 0.1 AHI. Yet I feel soooo tired. I guess there are so many factors and no two cases are alike. But the reason I'm writing is that it just seems so odd that we both could have 0.1 AHI and not feel good--so a the very least, know that you're not alone. Hopefully someone will have an answer...

BTW, I feel I should know this, but where does the machine tell you what pressure you had during the night? I thought the pressure was fixed (in my case at .

[msradar65]

I am a newbie too. When I first started I felt much better after the first few nights. Then I went through a period of weeks were I was just tired. I listened to my body and slept. Now that I am nearly at the 2 month point on CPAP I am getting my energy back and starting to feel really good.

I saw where someone has posted about sleep debt and your body needing time to heal. Apparently this is true. Now I am sleeping 6-8 hrs a night, waking to feeling very refreshed.

I think you need to give it time. As far as APAP is concerned I am on a set pressure...so I really can't comment on that. Maybe a steady pressure will work better than the APAP.

[bayourest]

I am a newbie too and this forum is tremendously helpful. I have been on xpap since nov 10. Initially I felt much less sleepy and more alert. then I have gone though a not so good patch....sleepy etc but still improved vs no pap. I am trying auto now and I am not sure it will work better than cpap for me but I record my ahi score every day and make notes so I can keep my doctor informed and hopefully gain some knowledge which will affect my own treatment. If I were getting such low ahi scores I would be very happy and I would stick with whatever is working and give it some time so you can "pay off" your sleep debt. There are many on this forum with much more experience so keep asking.

[Emilia]

Welcome, Tiki! Do you have the software for your machine? If you want to monitor your therapy and see the detailed data of your sleep, send a Private Message (PM) to member, Uncle_Bob, and he will send yo the link to download the software for your machine along with a link to download the clinician's manual. Once you see what your 90th and 95th %tile pressures are overnight, you will be able to find out if you need to tweak the pressure range. You might need to tighten it up a little bit to 6-10 and feel a bit better. I found that even moving my lower range up one notch made a big difference in my results.

As for the continued fatigue.... have patience. I am about to start my 5th month and still have quite a bit of tiredness; however, I sleep like a baby and have excellent therapy results. It will take time to pay back the sleep debt you accrued over the years of not getting enough O2 while sleeping. Many organs and systems in your body were deprived of full oxygenation and are now healing..... all this takes time and will get better. Just hang in there!

Keep reading the forum and asking questions.... you've come to the right place! Good luck...and keep us posted on your progress. You are off to a fabulous start!

[dtsm]

Welcome. Glad to hear initial numbers looking good. Unfortunately there is no 'fast fix'.....

Keep in mind everyone is different and it might take a month or even a few months to feel the difference. As long as you continue with cpap, as long as your leaks are under control and ahi numbers are good, you will eventually feel much better.

Pls be patient, give it some time and stick around if you need more help.
Good luck and happy holidays.

[Tiki]

Thank you everyone. Reading your responses makes me feel a lot better. I will try to be patient.

Christinepi - With our machine, you need to hold the info and system button at the same time to give you another screen of stats, including your pressure.

msrador65 - I am glad you are starting to feel better. Stories like yours give me hope.

Emilia - thank you for all your helpful points! I do not have the software for my machine. I wasn't aware that I was "allowed" to have the software. LOL I will pm Uncle Bob.

Happy Holidays everyone. This forum is so friendly and helpful, I'll be sure to be checking in on a regular basis. I hope one day not too far away, I can post a success story.

[Diplomacy]

You can buy a new set of tires from CPAP.com!