Im a Newbie

[Drkirishdancer]

Hello all-
Just wanted to introduce myself and hopefully find a supportive community and resources to help me deal. I was recently diagnosed with sleep apnea as well as Mitral Valve Prolapse Syndrome. A Fib runs in my family but I'm hoping that catching sleep apnea early will help me avoid it. I've only had my ResMed machine for a week or so and am using it every night. I know I need to adjust to wearing the face mask however, I'm waking up even more tired then I was before (hard to believe since I was a zombie before using the CPAP!). I'm titrated to 8 and I usually have it set to about 75 with the humidity on. My AHI has stayed around 1 and I have the EPR (think thats the right term) setting turned on.
Since I just joined and am still looking around the community and discussions, I was wondering how everyone dealt with being diagnosed and if you have any tips/tricks for just dealing with being a zombie or sleeping better with the CPAP on.
Thanks for reading this and posting

[Mary Z]

It takes some of us longer to feel better than others. I wish I had something more helpful to say. Your AHI is good. Are you wearing your' PAP all night every night? I know hang in there is probably not what you want to hear, but I bet that in less than six months (hopefully a lot less) you won't feel worse than a zombie anymore. Can you be more specific about the problems you are having? There are medicines for excessive daytime sleepiness. I know a lot of people don't like to take meds, but something like Provigil or Nuvigil might make all the difference. Hopefully others will join in with something supportive.
Good luck, keep us posted.

[Drkirishdancer]

I've been pretty good about wearing the mask all night. Yesterday I had to take it off midway through the night- I woke up and felt like I was only getting 1/4 the air I needed. I'm on a beta blocker for the heart condition and I know that'll make me slightly sleepier but, I wake up feeling weak and my heart beat is sometimes more irregular (then what it normally is). About 9months ago I cut out a good portion of caffeine from my diet. On average I might have 1/2 a cup of coffee every other day and I don't have any issue falling asleep at night. Its staying asleep thats the problem. I'm still waking up 2-3 times a night. I go back to my cardiologist in 2 months and he seemed to have confidence that I'd feel much better by then- he's a good doctor and I trust that I will...its just frustrating.
Thank you for posting

[cflame1]

have you tried getting the AHI numbers off your machine? If so what are they? And how about your leak rate as well?

[Pugsy]

don't have any issue falling asleep at night. Its staying asleep thats the problem. I'm still waking up 2-3 times a night.

Anything that fragments our sleep cycles can certainly mess with how we feel the next day. So often it is just another hurdle to get past. If the wake ups are unrelated to OSA or treatment you may have to do some detective work to try to figure out the cause. If you think they are related to cpap therapy itself try to isolate cause.

[archangle]

I've been pretty good about wearing the mask all night. Yesterday I had to take it off midway through the night- I woke up and felt like I was only getting 1/4 the air I needed.

Welcome to the community.

When that happens, hold your hand in the airstream blowing out the vent to assure yourself there is airflow. Put a finger under the edge of the mask and feel the air gush out. Try inhaling sharply with the mask on to prove to yourself that you can't "outrun" the airflow. Maybe that will reassure you.

If that doesn't work, take the mask off and breathe deeply for a few minutes. Then hook up again.

Good luck.

[Drkirishdancer]

have you tried getting the AHI numbers off your machine? If so what are they? And how about your leak rate as well?

I try to check the numbers every morning and it stays around 1 to 0.8. The highest I've seen was 2. It also says the mask fit is "good" and I don't feel like its leaking.

[robysue]

About 9months ago I cut out a good portion of caffeine from my diet. On average I might have 1/2 a cup of coffee every other day and I don't have any issue falling asleep at night. Its staying asleep thats the problem. I'm still waking up 2-3 times a night.

While you're not having any problems getting to sleep, those 2 or 3 night time wakes are disrupting your sleep enough to bother you. So it sounds like you are being bothered by a bit of mild sleep maintenance insomnia. Chances are that it will resolve itself within the next few weeks if those 2 or 3 wakes are not long wakes lasting 30+ minutes each.

As someone who has been dealing with very severe insomnia right from the start, I've done a lot of writing posts to folks with questions about how to deal with insomnia-type issues. Finally got around to writing up the large collection of advice and tips and putting it on my blog. So you might want to take a look at my Taming the CPAP Induced Insomnia Monster. Much of what I talk about won't directly apply to you. But some of the general tips on sleep hygiene for new CPAPers may help you address the issue of those 2 or 3 wakes before they turn into 5 or 6 wakes per night.

Best of luck