How long did it take you to get used to cpap?

[y08hci0299]

How long did it take you to get used to cpap?

[SleepyBobR]

One night. I just put the mask on and went to sleep. I know that many struggle with the therapy but I had no trouble at all. I was very lucky.

[Islandwoman]

About two weeks until I changed masks.

[ChicagoGranny]

How long did it take you to get used to cpap?

The answers you will get to a general question like this will mostly be worthless. You need to state what issues/problems you are having.

[Cardsfan]

One night. I was one of the lucky ones I guess. I just knew anything had to be better than suffering untreated.

[LSAT]

How long did it take you to get used to cpap?

The answers you will get to a general question like this will mostly be worthless. You need to state what issues/problems you are having.

I agree...useless information. Everyone adjusts differently.

[robysue]

How long did it take you to get used to cpap?

I'm pretty sure that you are in one of the following two situations:

• You haven't yet started CPAP and you are worried that things are going to be awful. And you're wondering, "Does anybody really gets used to sleeping with a mask?:
• You've started CPAP, but you haven't yet noticed any improvement in how you feel and/or trying to sleep with the mask is hard enough for you that things seem to be worse with the CPAP than before. And you're wondering, "Does anybody ever get used to this crazy therapy, and if so, how long does it take?"

The truth is that the time it takes a new CPAPer to completely adjust to sleeping with a mask and start feeling noticeably better varies tremendously.

A few people slap a mask on their nose on night one, sleep all night, and wake up feeling wonderful the next morning. But most don't.

A few people have no real problems learning how to sleep with the mask and start to feel better in a couple of weeks.

Some people have some problems at the start with comfort, but sort them out in a couple of weeks or so. And then start to feel feel better a few weeks after they sort out their initial problems.

Some people take a month or two to get to where they are comfortable sleeping with mask and the improvement in how they feel is gradual. They may not suddenly wake up feeling better than they have in years, but they notice that their morning headaches are less problematic. Or that they're waking up needing to go to the bathroom a lot less. Slowly their energy levels improve to where they no longer feel exhausted during the day most days. Or they notice they don't fall asleep in front of the tv every night.

A few unlucky people have a difficult time teaching their body how to get to sleep and stay asleep with a mask and six foot hose attached to their face. There are all kinds of reasons this can happen, but almost all of them can be worked out if the person wants to fix the problems instead of just wanting an excuse to quit CPAP. People who run into serious problems with learning how to sleep well with the mask may take six months or more before they really get comfortable sleeping with the mask. And it can be several more months before they start to notice any improvement in how they feel.

A very few, very unlucky people never really seem to feel substantially better on CPAP. Some of them keep sleeping with the machine because they know it's helping their body by preventing the repeated O2 desats and the repeated microarousals that occur with the apneas and hypopneas caused by their untreated OSA. Others eventually give up or look into oral appliances, which have their own set of adjustment problems as well as being expensive and not always covered by insurance.

I was unlucky enough to have a long and difficult adjustment period. The first 4 months were hellish. The next 4 felt more like purgatory. But while I was in that purgatory of months 5-9, a few signs that CPAP was starting to do some good slowly emerged. Waking up with no pain in my hands and feet and fewer morning headaches was the first real improvement I noticed. I still don't feel as good as I would like to. However there have been a few nights here and there when I've been forced to sleep without my CPAP for one reason or other. And waking up the next morning feeling horribly lousy ---as in much, much worse that I usually do now--- is a good reminder of how I used to feel waking up almost every single morning. Hence, much as I still dislike CPAP, I continue to use it every single night, all night long.

[Goofproof]

First Night, Do it or die, had just went thru a quad by-pass from not knowing about Sleep Apnea. in the OR took 20 minutes to get the breathing tube in. Jim

Started at 15 cm no ramp cflex 3, 6 weeks after hosp or.

[chunkyfrog]

I made it work from night one. I needed sleep that badly.
It was not much fun, but after 3 or 4 months, I more or less hit my stride.
Now it is like an old "lovey" from my childhood. It makes me feel able to breathe and safe enough to sleep.

[kteague]

I had to sort through another sleep disorder at the same time, so it was hard to know which sleep disruption issues were about adjusting to CPAP and which were related to limb movements. I think sometimes CPAP tends to get blamed even when problems originate elsewhere. My 1st 5 months of utter misery were because my settings needed changed but my machine didn't give any useful data, so I didn't know and my doctor was of no help. Once I came here and got some tips things turned around very quickly. I encourage you to not think current feelings are forever. We adjust to the new sensations. I went through some masks that I thought were insufferable, yet think that at this time I could probably tolerate. My sensitivities seemed on edge when I was sleep deprived. I know one person who has had not one problem from day 1, but he is by far the exception.

[Sheriff Buford]

Took me a couple of weeks.
Sheriff

[Slartybartfast]

First night. Never looked back. If your machine is set up correctly, you'll strap on the mask, take two or three breaths and you won't even know you're breathing through a CPAP. It should be that effortless.

However, if your machine isn't set up correctly, you can have a hell of a time with feelings of not getting enough air, usually. Mine was set up by the sleep doc's office. It was a loaner. By the time mine arrived, I knew enough to set the new machine up myself.

It's all a question of how the machine is set up. If it's done properly, by someone who knows what they're doing, like I said, you'll hardly know it's there.

[TASmart]

Been on for just over a month. From Day 1 I felt better, and have been 7 - 9 hours nightly. Some nights are smoother than other, but I am getting more and better sleep than ever before in my adult life. So I'd say improvements from day 1, and better and more adjusted every day since then.

[Soothest Sleep]

I'm five and a half months in. First couple of weeks were strange, getting used to how the equipment worked and having it on my face. Felt a bit worse than before for another couple of weeks (more leg cramps than I've had for years; fussing with comfort issues like long hair, red marks on nose, insomnia after bathroom breaks). Didn't start to notice any real positive change for maybe a couple of months, then realized I wasn't up to use the bathroom during the night as frequently as in the past, and actually felt refreshed when waking on a few mornings. This week, my blood pressure was down several points from its usual (for me) high normal. Yesterday, spring high temperatures arrived suddenly but my winter flannel sheets and higher CPAP humidifier temp made getting to sleep very difficult, so I worked out how to fix that and will see tonight whether my new settings remain useful.

In short, there's a definite learning curve. The length of it is individual to each CPAP user. You won't know yours until you experience it, but if you have specific concerns and issues, there's help available here on the forum to make the most of your process. Welcome aboard!

Jean

[robysue]

robysue

You wrote a long post, but you fail to tell the OP about the need to monitor effectiveness. Before this person gets any other advice, we should first get some information from him to see if his therapy is effective.

From this post is is NOT clear this person is even yet doing CPAP or has been using CPAP for a while without much relief. I answered this person's question.

The fact is that some people CAN have effective therapy (in terms of AHI) right from the start while still having real problems.

My AHI during my 4 months from hell ranged from 0.5 to 1.5. Consistently. With a Resmed Leak line down at 0.0 for most of the night, and leaks never getting much above 2-4 But I felt like death warmed over. And I was using the machine every night, all night long. Never slept without it. But the problem was that I spent a lot of time in bed not sleeping, I felt the machine was stuffing too much air down my airway---to the point of feeling smothered, and I was waking up with very severe aerophagia.

Had it NOT been for *positive* support from *most* of the people who were on the forum back in the fall of 2010, I would never have made it to becoming a full time PAPer who actually benefits from this therapy. But even back then there were people whose posts came across as insisting that my problems were caused using the ramp and/or too little air coming through the mask or that I must be mouth breathing or that my therapy wasn't effective and I needed more pressure.

When a newbie is unlucky enough to have a really rough transition in spite of a treated AHI < 2.0, it doesn't help to only hear things like everybody gets better in a couple of weeks if only the machine's settings are correct.