Sleeping too much because sleep is so great! Advice?

elisabeth · Post by **elisabeth** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 1:33 pm

I have been on my CPAP machine for about six weeks. And I am in love with my machine! From the first night, the difference in the way that I felt was obvious.

However, during the last week or so, I have found myself wanting to go back to sleep once I get my son off to school. This isn't a good habit. I've never been one to "sleep in" even during the weekends. Oh, perhaps I'll sleep until 7 or 8 on the weekends since I have to wake up at 6 AM, but not any later than that.

Yesterday, I slept until 11 AM and could have slept more. Today, after getting my son off to school, I went back to sleep and slept another four hours or so.

This does sound like complete laziness on my part and since my job doesn't require that I actually in an office at a certain time, well I can actually do this.

But is this "need" to sleep a lot normal? It really feels just nice to sleep and be in bed resting now since I'm feeling half way decent after years of sleep apnea. I tried to look through some of the older topics and did a search to make sure that I wasn't beating a dead horse with this question.

My doctor told me a couple of weeks ago that wanting to sleep MORE, even though I was rested after about 7 or 8 hours, is normal at first and that it will smooth out over time. I need a bit more sleep than many anyway. I seem to be happiest with about 8 and 1/2 - nine hours or sleep.

Any advice? I know that I just need to get up and get going. But it seems as if sleeping more is just making me wish to sleep even MORE and even take naps.

Urgh!
Elisabeth

P.S. It's nice to be here!!!

hades161 · Post by **hades161** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 2:07 pm

Welcome to the Forums !

Yeah it's pretty normal. Your body just wants to get caught up after a few years of lack of good sleep. I agree with your Doc. just give it time. Although it is always nice to have data to check to make sure nothing has changed in the last week.

elisabeth · Post by **elisabeth** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 2:14 pm

Thank you for the sweet welcome! Because of my insurance, I had to mail in my computer thingie a migi from the machine back to the company a few weeks ago and so nothing has been recorded the last few weeks. I need to get another one!!!

Also, thanks for your response!

Sincerely,
Elisabeth

redjoe · Post by **redjoe** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 2:49 pm

You may very well be "repaying your sleep debt." If you're able to do it w/o harm to family, job, etc., I'd say go for it. I'm glad to hear you're finding PAP therapy so helpful.

Carl LaFong · Post by **Carl LaFong** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 5:12 pm

Nice to actually enjoy sleeping, isn't it? I catch myself sometimes seriously looking forward to "hooking up". It still has that pacifier effect sometimes. But I agree with the others that what you're experiencing will pass in time and you'll settle into a normal pattern.

NightMonkey · Post by **NightMonkey** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 5:39 pm

elisabeth wrote: My doctor told me a couple of weeks ago that wanting to sleep MORE, even though I was rested after about 7 or 8 hours, is normal at first and that it will smooth out over time. I need a bit more sleep than many anyway. I seem to be happiest with about 8 and 1/2 - nine hours or sleep.

You don't mention data. What is your AHI, snores, leak?

Your therapy may not be optimal and you could still be having many awakenings. 10 hours in bed does not always equate to 10 hours of sleep.

jenn1270 · Post by **jenn1270** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 8:44 pm

Carl LaFong wrote:Nice to actually enjoy sleeping, isn't it? I catch myself sometimes seriously looking forward to "hooking up". It still has that pacifier effect sometimes. But I agree with the others that what you're experiencing will pass in time and you'll settle into a normal pattern.

Me too. I LOVE sleeping with mine

I am only a month into it, but I still find myself craving sleep because it just feels so good. Hopefully it will get better when my body makes up the years of sleep debt.

Jenn

chunkyfrog · Post by **chunkyfrog** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 8:46 pm

It feels so good that sleep hygiene isn't such a pain.

RocketGirl · Post by **RocketGirl** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 9:09 pm

Yep, sounds very familiar. I work a job with long hours and found myself going to bed earlier and earlier so that I could have the long sleeps I apparently needed (10-11 hours!). At about the three month mark, that need for long sleeps started to taper off and now I find myself waking naturally after 7-1/2 to 8-1/2 hours. I think if I hadn't allowed myself the extra sleep early on, I might not be as far along in daytime energy as I now am.

Since your schedule can accommodate it, I'd say go for it and give in to the need for sleep.

rosacer · Post by **rosacer** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 9:19 pm

Welcome Elizabeth

I think you are completely normal if you was as tired as you told us. Yes, your brain noticed now nothing is disturbing the sleep so it's catching the time lost.

In my case I was completely extenuated when I started CPAP. What happened to me was that I started to sleep so deep with the cpap in the night that I was not able to wake up with an alarm clock. Imagine, if I set the alarm it sounded long time before I was able to open the eyes and I was so groggy I needed to make an effort to go out of bed. That was a bad wake up, it lasted for months.

I realized I needed to let my brain decide when I was going to wake up. I started going to bed at reasonable hours, no alarm, and after a while now I can use the alarm without problem. At that time I used to I sleep about 8.5 hours a day sometimes 9 hours but not on day time because the sun light wakes me up as nothing else.

Now it's around 8 hour, some times I'm really good with only 7, but I try to be wise with the sleep time. You know, each brain reacts differently and decides how the sleep debt will be paid back.

All the best

Rosie

SleepingDVader · Post by **SleepingDVader** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 12:37 pm

Whew!!! Thanks bunches for this post! I've been quietly worrying about my recent extended sleep episodes. Have been on the machine for 67 nights and now that I've found a mask that doesn't keep me awake all night, I find myself really looking forward to bedtime and lately it hasn't been unusual to stay plugged in for 9 hours or even a bit more when I can. Even when I wake during the night, it's so awesome that I don't have to get up and head to the bathroom, I just stretch a little and enjoy the awesome rush of cool air until I just slowly crash again. Haven't done that kind of thing since I was a child sleeping with the windows opened!!! Lol. Thanks again!

Maxie · Post by **Maxie** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 1:05 pm

I too look forward to sleeping and wanting to sleep more. I guess that will taper off some eventually but I've been assured that it is normal by members of the forum and I believe them!

avi123 · Post by **avi123** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 1:31 pm

In my case after being on CPAP for a little more than a year I cant sleep more than 8 hours with three breaks for going to pee. However, lately, after eating breakfast at 8 a.m. I start suffering from sleepiness and feel crappy till noon. But, I avoid taking naps during the day. In my opinion this Excessive Daytime Sleepiness comes from something wrong in the CPAP treatment of my Obstructive events and the hi Flow Limitation (nose is stuffy= Vasomotor Rhinitis). Going to check it with a Doc.

But I am not alone.

Check this:

Prevalence of residual excessive sleepiness
in CPAP-treated sleep apnoea patients: the
French multicentre study

http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/33/5/1062.full.pdf

Kairosgrammy · Post by **Kairosgrammy** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 1:48 pm

Addicted to sleep??? Probably not. Your body is probably still recovering from all the lost sleep. Try to be sensible about it all but perhaps sleep is what your body needs.

I kind of noticed the same thing as you. I've been on cpap therapy for about 8 years however, the last 2 or 3 years, my apnea has gotten significantly worse without my realizing what the problem was. I didn't know how tired I was until I was retitrated and felt better. One of those you don't know how bad you felt til you feel better kind of things.

I know for awhile, I really enjoyed sleeping, almost as if I could just burrow into bed and stay there. I still sleep 8 or 9 hours on a weekend night. Never been a napper even at my worst so that wasn't ever a problem. Give yourself a couple more weeks before you become concerned. I've heard it takes a night to make up for 1 hours lost sleep or something like that.

elisabeth wrote:I have been on my CPAP machine for about six weeks. And I am in love with my machine! From the first night, the difference in the way that I felt was obvious.

However, during the last week or so, I have found myself wanting to go back to sleep once I get my son off to school. This isn't a good habit. I've never been one to "sleep in" even during the weekends. Oh, perhaps I'll sleep until 7 or 8 on the weekends since I have to wake up at 6 AM, but not any later than that.

Yesterday, I slept until 11 AM and could have slept more. Today, after getting my son off to school, I went back to sleep and slept another four hours or so.

This does sound like complete laziness on my part and since my job doesn't require that I actually in an office at a certain time, well I can actually do this.

But is this "need" to sleep a lot normal? It really feels just nice to sleep and be in bed resting now since I'm feeling half way decent after years of sleep apnea. I tried to look through some of the older topics and did a search to make sure that I wasn't beating a dead horse with this question.

My doctor told me a couple of weeks ago that wanting to sleep MORE, even though I was rested after about 7 or 8 hours, is normal at first and that it will smooth out over time. I need a bit more sleep than many anyway. I seem to be happiest with about 8 and 1/2 - nine hours or sleep.

Any advice? I know that I just need to get up and get going. But it seems as if sleeping more is just making me wish to sleep even MORE and even take naps.

Urgh!
Elisabeth

P.S. It's nice to be here!!!

elisabeth · Post by **elisabeth** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 2:48 pm

I sincerely appreciate all of the input! It took a little getting used to but even with the adjustment time, I still felt so much better from day one that it's truly a blessing to have one of these machines.

I did mail in the memory card with the data to the company with my machine and I have called them today to ask some of the questions that were asked above. This is a learning curve and boy, I'm learning. I'm probably going to have to start a few more sophomoric questions before I'm completely done!!!

With the sleeping, though, I did sleep a normal 8 hours or so last night and feel much better today! Except my mask shifting and I think it irritated my eye. My eye is red and itchy. Thread drift ...

Elisabeth

Sleeping too much because sleep is so great! Advice?

Sleeping too much because sleep is so great! Advice?

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Re: Sleeping too much because sleep is so great! Advice?

Re: Sleeping too much because sleep is so great! Advice?

Re: Sleeping too much because sleep is so great! Advice?

Re: Sleeping too much because sleep is so great! Advice?

Re: Sleeping too much because sleep is so great! Advice?

Re: Sleeping too much because sleep is so great! Advice?

Re: Sleeping too much because sleep is so great! Advice?

Re: Sleeping too much because sleep is so great! Advice?

Re: Sleeping too much because sleep is so great! Advice?

Re: Sleeping too much because sleep is so great! Advice?

Re: Sleeping too much because sleep is so great! Advice?

Re: Sleeping too much because sleep is so great! Advice?

Re: Sleeping too much because sleep is so great! Advice?