new user-couldn't fall asleep

[snori1]

Hi, I'm a newly diagnosed sleep apnea person. I just started my machine last night. I finally put all the equipment on and just lay there for 3 hours and could not fall asleep. My lips kept drying out and had to keep opening my mouth to moisten my lips. Could not get in a comfortable position and felt, at times, I could not breath as well as with it off. Finally around 2:30 am., I decided to take it off since I had to get some sleep somehow. I had to chaperone a class full of 6-year olds the next morning on a field trip.

Has anyone had this problem falling asleep? Did you take anything and did it help? I was so hopeful I didn't have spend every day now totally exhausted, but I can't imagine sleeping with all this stuff on. I'm so used to sleeping on my tummy hugging a pillow. Sleeping on my back with my mouth closed the whole time has me feeling so tense and all that air tends to just energize me if anything.

[xenablue]

Please register and include your equipment so we can better help you.

Unless there is a very good reason, sleeping on your back isn't ideal and will tend to cause more events.

I'm a side/stomach sleeper and have no problem with this, after a lot of initial adjustments.

Your mask is the most important part of your success, so read a lot here, ask questions - you can also do searches to find other threads which will answer your questions.

Cheers,
xena

[ozze_dollar]

Same with me when I first started. We call it cpap induced insomnia. It will take you a long time to fully adapt to cpap. I reckon it took me a year. Some valerian may help you.

[robysue]

snori1,

Lots of newbies have real problems falling asleep when first starting therapy. A few of us have such severe problems that the best way to informally describe it is "CPAP-induced insomnia". I fought insomnia for many, many months when I was a newbie. You might want to check out the link in my signature about Taming the CPAP-Induced insomnia monster. (Do keep in mind that I am an extreme example of someone who had serious problems learning to sleep with the mask.)

There are a few things I want to address in your post:

Hi, I'm a newly diagnosed sleep apnea person. I just started my machine last night. I finally put all the equipment on and just lay there for 3 hours and could not fall asleep.

Lying in bed wide awake fighting with the machine for three hours is a good way of teaching your body how to resist going to sleep with the mask on your nose. Though it is counterintuitive, the real solution for this problem is to allow yourself about 30 minutes or so to get to sleep. And if you are not asleep by the end of thirty minutes, force yourself to get out of bed, go into a different room and do something quiet and relaxing and soothing to get your mind off the damn CPAP. Only go back to the bedroom when you are both relaxed enough and sleepy enough to try to get to sleep after putting the mask back on. Repeat this as many times as necessary at the beginning of the night. Chances are you will get to sleep faster than if you simply lie in bed fighting with the mask on.

My lips kept drying out and had to keep opening my mouth to moisten my lips. Could not get in a comfortable position and felt, at times, I could not breath as well as with it off.

Use chapstick on the lips. Every night. Keep a chapstick or two or three on the night stand and reapply it whenever the lips feel dry. Opening the mouth to lick your lips will aggravate the problem: When your mouth is open, a whole lotta air is going to be blown out of it and the combination of wet lips and CPAP-breeze is sure to make the lips feel worse rather than better.

Comfortable positions can be difficult to find for newbies. Basically it's a matter of getting over worrying about dislodging the mask or pulling the machine off the table combined with figuring out what to do with that large hose attached to your nose. I'm a side sleeper and pre-CPAP I'd snuggle into my hubby's armpit each night. There's absolutely no way I can do that now because there's no room for the hose. But I have found that I can snuggle into hubby's side or onto the small of his back (with my head under the covers, which I rather like) and have no problem managing the hose. My advice here is: Be brave----try to get as close to your preferred pre-CPAP position as possible with the hose on your nose. Re-seat the mask once you're in that position if you need to. You can usually reseat a mask by gently pulling it away from your face for a fraction of an inch and then gently letting it settle back down onto your face. if you reseat the mask after you're in your favorite sleeping position, chance are it will be sealed adequately well enough to allow you to move around without too many problems.

As for not breathing as well with the mask as without it: This could be a normal psychological reaction to having something slapped on your nose. But remember that in reality once you get to real sleep, you do NOT breathe better without the mask; in reality you need the air pressure once you are asleep in order to breathe normally since your upper airway collapses repeatedly when you don't have the mask on.

That said, there are some other things that can lead to people feeling as though they are not able to breathe as well with the mask as without it. Are you using the ramp? Many people find that the very low starting pressure of the ramp (typically 4cm) tends to make them feel air hungry---as if they cannot inhale enough air. Are you using some form of exhalation relief? Many people find that they cannot fully exhale comfortably against the pressure needed to prop their airways open, and turning exhalation relief on often helps address that problem.

Finally around 2:30 am., I decided to take it off since I had to get some sleep somehow. I had to chaperone a class full of 6-year olds the next morning on a field trip.

You need to snip this bad habit in the bud before it becomes a fully entrenched bad habit. While it's understandable to make this kind of decision on the first night, you need to understand that every time you take the mask off just so you can get to sleep further encourages that stubborn part of your (unconscious) brain to believe that you really don't need to learn to sleep with the mask on.

The sooner you decide that you will simply NOT allow yourself to consciously fall asleep without the mask on, the sooner your brain will figure out that the mask is your friend and not an alien bent on attacking you in your sleep at night.

Has anyone had this problem falling asleep? Did you take anything and did it help?

Some people do ask for and get short term prescriptions for things like Ambien. For some people it helps. For others, it merely delays the problem of learning how to sleep with a six foot hose attached to your nose.

I was so hopeful I didn't have spend every day now totally exhausted, but I can't imagine sleeping with all this stuff on.

We all wish we were ducks---i.e. folks who immediately sleep the whole night with the mask on and wake up full of new found energy and raring to go, go, go!!! But the reality is, most of us take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months to sort out the issues of our new sleep environment. But eventually we do learn to sleep (and sleep well) with all this stuff on our faces. It just takes time and patience. And the willingness to ask questions about whatever issues seem to pop up. No matter how crazy they seem, someone is bound to have faced it before. And the collective wisdom of this board will come up with multiple strategies of things to try.

I'm so used to sleeping on my tummy hugging a pillow. Sleeping on my back with my mouth closed the whole time has me feeling so tense and all that air tends to just energize me if anything.

So don't sleep on your back!!

Seriously, if you don't like back sleeping, then don't do it just because you've got a mask on your nose. There are tummy sleepers here. Many of them use something called the Falcon sleeping position. (Google it.) Hugging a pillow? I still do that with my mask on---when I'm not nuzzled into hubby's side or halfway onto his back.

So for now, start working on trying to move the mask and hose as much as necessary to get into something that is a close approximation of your favorite sleeping position.

Yes, it will take some time and effort to figure out where to put the hose to allow for tummy sleeping. It will also require you to figure out how to accommodate the mask itself when you're hugging the pillow. Some things that might work: You might want to get a small pillow just for hugging and a second pillow for your head. Try hanging the mask off the edge of the pillow under your head. In other words, go ahead and lie on your tummy, but put your head at the edge of the pillow and turn your head enough so that the mask is hanging off the pillow and resting gently on the mattress. You may find that you'll want to route the hose over your head and headboard (a hose hanger may help.) Or you may find that its more comfortable to simply hug the hose under your arm and route it under the covers.

[The Sheikh]

Snori1,

It's a matter of your mind and body getting used to the mask and pressures.

During the day, put the mask on and turn on the pressure. Sit in a comfortable chair for an hour and just breath. Do this as often as you can every day until you feel comfortable. Keep trying at night.- It will get better quickly.

The nighttime is a scary place, especially in the dark and lying down. Doing it during the day will convince your subconscious mind that the mask is your friend. Once you start falling asleep with it on, your mind will eventually realize it is helping you to breath and survive.

When you are trying to fall asleep, keep repeating over and over, "The mask is my friend, the mask..."

Good luck -

Tom

[Daisy004]

snori..going through the exact same thing as you..Im like a walking zombie..I cant for the life of me right now ever imagine how this cpap thing can help me, Ive never felt so bad in my life..Im trusting people on here that it will get better so Im trying to stick with it..gradually Im getting more and more hours sleep per night...day 30 and Im up to 4 hours. I switched to the nasal pillows..so much more comfy. I too am a side sleeper and like to curl up in a little ball, the nasal pillows let you do that. I feel your pain..I really do. hugs to you..Daisy.

[DebboL]

I've only had my CPAP a few weeks and found that it is taking some getting used to. My respiratory person said that new people on the average start out wearing it about 2-3 hours a night because it is such a foreign thing to your face. I use a nasal pillow mask and found that the reason I take mine off was the straps were hurting my ears so I switched to the head gear and that about drove me nuts. I then switched back to the regular mask and purchased soft fleece wraps to go around the ear straps. It does take time and you will get used to it. I have never been able to sleep on my back so try your side. I am finally up to almost 6 hours a night so keep trying.

Deb

[tea2]

I've been on this for about 3 weeks, and the first week I tried, I couldn't fall asleep for two to three hours. I changed headgear, and now it probably takes 20 mins. I find the nasal pillows easier because I'm a stomach sleeper too.

[hyperlexis]

That's too bad. Don't give up.

So are you normally a mouth breather when you sleep?

It's fall so the weather is not too dry out so I am not sure what's causing such dryness but you may want to try some sort of lip balm, etc.

If you are normally a mouth breather, and can't cope with a nasal mask, then by all means call your DME and get a full face mask to test out. Try that and use the humidifier on the machine. That should help take care of the problem.

Good luck!

[Greg6657]

snori1,
Let me start with I can feel your pain... I have been a PaP user for 4 years and when I first started I felt like I wasn't getting enough air also. I ended up shutting off my ramp, that helped with breathing in the beginning, I also turned on a radio just a hair louder then my machine to help drownd out the machine noise, Then when I layed down I would concentrate on the music instead of the alien that was trying to eat my face. I would just sing the songs in my head till I fell asleep. I also am a stomach sleeper and I use a FFM. I just tuck the right side of the pillow under my head and let my mask hang off the left. I have since (in the last couple of months bought a PaP pillow and after a few weeks I LOVE IT, )
Just don't give up its your health and life your talking about and there are a lot smarter people on here then me that will give you excellent advise such as Robysue, pugsy, Delta Dave, Mr Fisher, just to name a few so just hang in there.

Greg

[avi123]

Taking sleep medication while CPAPing.

Taking a 10 mg of Zolpidem ( generic Ambien) helped me, before CPAPing, with my fragmented sleep for years. But long before starting CPAP I managed to withdraw from this drug by cutting the doze in half every week.

When I started CPAP, 2 years ago for plain OSA, I started to take half a tablet of 10 mg Zolpidem at 11:30 pm as soon as I mounted the mask on my face. This allowed me to fall asleep within 15 min but the sleep lasted for 3 to 4 hours. Then I got up to pee and took another half a tablet (5 mg) which let me sleep for 3 more hours. For the hangover the next morning I took two tablets of Tylenol and for the ingested air I took Pepto Bismol.

After I sort of got used to the CPAP I have decided to withdraw from the Zolpidem. So I repeated my previous method. I think that I could do it easily b/c I kept taking a low dose all along. Otherwise, see here what would be involved in withdrawal:

http://www.non-benzodiazepines.org.uk/zolpidem.html

Presently, I take 0.5 mg of Xanax ER, once daily for anxiety. Also 300 mg of Gabapentin before sleep. Usually, I sleep for 7 hours, with one or two wake ups for peeing.

When I can’t fall asleep within 30 min I take 5 mg of Zolpidem, and fall asleep within 15 min. This happens about once a week.

I don't think that taking those medications is effecting my sleep treatment.

Here is the proof, my last six months Statistics:

[Xney]

If you feel like you're not getting enough air, then you need more pressure - It's not something you will get used to. (possibly that means just turning off your ramp)

[snori1]

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions and advice. Now I have hope that it will get better. I will register my equipment. Not sure how to do it yet.

[Sheriff Buford]

I cant for the life of me right now ever imagine how this cpap thing can help me, Ive never felt so bad in my life..Im trusting people on here that it will get better so Im trying to stick with it

Daisy (love that name... wanted to name one of my daughters "Daisy")... trust me... it WILL get better, your body will be so grateful you hung in there and you'll be so proud of yourself. Your body is rejecting you wearing that conclaption on your face while trying to get some freaking sleep!! Once your body gives up (and it will), the therapy will kick in and you'll see and feel your body healing after a long time of destruction OSA caused. You are benefiting now by the apnea treatment but may not feel it.

Best of luck!

Sheriff

[Julie]

To post equipment you must register first, then click on the User Ctl Panel just under the main logo/search window, then go to Profile and enter every identifying word + number from the top and bottom of your machine, plus model etc. of your mask, and even prescribed pressures so we'll all have a good starting place when you post... btw please use 'text' because icons are a hassle to sort out.