Taking my mask off at night...help??

[Sleepy in Idaho]

Hello to all and Happy Thanksgiving (a few days late!). I started with my mask in early September and was doing really well, then about a month ago I started taking off my mask in the middle of the night & also shutting off my machine. All without waking up - evidently I'm really good at this and I wonder what else I would be good at doing while fast asleep...math, knitting,...?! Anyway, I digress.

Was wondering if anyone has any suggestions? We did change my machine to APAP vs. CPAP and bumped up the flow from a max of 10 to a max of 14 - both of those things have made somewhat of a difference but wondered if any of the well experienced here have any other ideas or tales of how they might have overcome this problem?

Thank you in advance!

Sleepy

[Pap365]

Hi Sleepy,
This is a common problem. I remember several posts on this topic a while back. Your best bet is to type "taking mask off at night" in the search box. From what I remember wearing mittens and taping the mask to your head were among the suggestions. The point was to make the mask more difficult to take off so you would wake up enough to realize what you were doing. Good luck!

[squid13]

Use one of these leak straps from Pad A Cheek. It will stop you from taking your mask off cause the way it is fitted. http://padacheek.com/PAC_AntiLeak_Strap.html

[Sleepy in Idaho]

Thank you! I did a quick search and didn't fit a whole lot but the Pad a Cheek looks like a good possibility! Appreciate you sharing.

[avi123]

It did happen to me yesterday. But the only way that I can validate it is by looking at my ResScan graph.
When I wake up to go to the bathroom I shut the machine and take the mask off. I leave the chinstrap on.
So when I returned I forgot to put the mask on. Twice! Frankly, it does not bother me b/c I should practice to sleep
without the machine, occasionally, for the case of power stoppages. I have found the chinstrap helping a lot
in such cases. It holds the lower jaw upward and thus prevents the tongue from falling backward and causing
obstructive apneas.

[2 B Sleeping Soundly]

It did happen to me yesterday. But the only way that I can validate it is by looking at my ResScan graph. When I wake up to go to the bathroom I shut the machine and take the mask off. I leave the chinstrap on. So when I returned I forgot to put the mask on. Twice! Frankly, it does not bother me b/c I should practice to sleep without the machine, occasionally, for the case of power stoppages. I have found the chinstrap helping a lot in such cases. It holds the lower jaw upward and thus prevents the tongue from falling backward and causing obstructive apneas.

avi123,

Fortunately, I have not had a issue like that since I started PAP therapy over a year ago. One thing that worked for me when it was an issue was to leave the mask on by unhooking it from the hose when getting up in the night (just make sure not to lay back down without reattaching the hose ). Better yet for me, was unhooking the hose from the machine (assuming you don't have some hose set-up that would make it problematic) and wrapping the hose around your neck like a scarf, do whatever business that got you up, then go back and reattach the hose to the machine. Chances are, if you do the latter, you will not have to worry about laying back down and falling asleep with the hose wrapped around your neck like that, well, at least I wasn't able to .

Hope this helps,

John

[snuginarug]

Hi Sleepy

I had a problem taking off my mask too. This is what was going on with me... my pressure was too low, I was having events with the mask on, and my sleeping mind associated the mask with suffocating, so I'd take it off. That was pretty hellish until my new doc figured out what was going on. You have a data capable machine, so that might be one thing to look out for... are there events directly before removing the mask?

[Sleepy in Idaho]

Hi Snug,

Thanks for the note. Yes - I did actully think of that and we changed my machine to Auto from regular - as well as bumped up the pressure. I actually think it is working - I haven't had an episode in more than a week now. I was thinking that same thing - about suffocating. My therapist has my data card and I talk with him tomorrow - so we'll see what he says.

I appreciate the feedback!!