Less sleep = more alert?

[glyphrunner]

For some reason, in the last month or so, if I manage over 5 hours of sleep I wake up tired and later on in the day I become completely bogged down and worn out. But, if I sleep very little, such as the 2 hours of sleep I had this morning, I wake up fresh and ready to go and can last all day long.

Is anyone else finding this to be true? Could it be a problem with my machine/settings?

I checked my AHI and Leak Rate this morning, and I had a 1.0 AHI and a LR of 44.6.
I'm wearing a Swift II nasal pillow mask, and I've just come to accept the fact that I'll wake and walk with strap marks on my face for the first few hours of the day. I can't tighten the straps any further without it hurting, so I don't know where the higher leak rate could be coming from. I have a wider/rounder face, and ever since I started this thing, the edges of the mask where the straps "plug in" to the center piece always seem strained by the width of the straps.

I sleep on my side/face normally, and my body refuses to adjust to sleeping on my back, so a full face mask is not an option. I'm getting ready to buy a mouthguard similar to what I wore in football because the nasal pillow pushes against my teeth so bad, they actually feel like they are loosening!

[bdp522]

I find that since starting cpap I only need about 6 hrs of sleep each night. Not sure why but it works for me. As for the marks have you tried Padacheeks? Go to http://www.padacheek.com and check out the pads. They keep me from getting any marks from the headgear at all. If you need help just PM Padacheek(she's a forum member) and she'll be more than happy to help!

Brenda