Taking off mask at night?

[Rusty!]

Am also going to try switching to the Swift LT, in hopes that comfort and better suited-ness to a side sleeper will help. Only other mask I've tried is the Opus 360 and am not a fan.

[Gerald]

Rusty.....

You might also consider the Nasal Headrest mask...also known as the Aura. Rested Gal uses one.....and if she uses one, you know it's good.

With mine, I can sleep in any position....I use an overhead swinging arm to support the hose.....and I've completely conquered rainout. The Aura is about my 4th mask....and I can't find a better one.

Gerald

[Rusty!]

Happy to report that I have had a full week of wearing my mask all night, every night. Yay and thanks for the encouragement!

[Guest]

Happy to report that I have had a full week of wearing my mask all night, every night. Yay and thanks for the encouragement!

Congrats, kindly tell us the secret!!!

[NorahSyram]

Hi Rusty. I had to laugh at your post... not laughing to make fun of you but laughing because I can totally relate. I've only just this past weekend had my sleep test with a cpap machine, so I don't have my own machine yet. But, in the past I've had some ongoing (though not yet serious) problems with either carpal tunnel or tendonitis. My doctor suggested I wear wrist braces at night. Even though seems to help when I wear them, I find that I've become quite adept at taking them off in my sleep. I wake up the next morning to find them under the bed, beside my pillow or wherever they landed. And, like you, I have no memory of doing that. I don't take sleep aids and I've tried the "mind over matter" approach. But I think it's human nature to deal with things that are bothering us in our sleep. If we're too hot, we kick the covers off. If we're too cold, we steal the covers from our spouse. If there's some cumbersome contraption on our face bothering us, we want it gone. Do we remember these episodes the next morning? Often not. So, just know that there are others who understand. I liked one member's humorous post about handcuffs. I figure if I take my wrist braces off in my sleep, I'll probably learn to do the same with the cpap mask. Let me know what works for you. Otherwise, I may have to resort to handcuffs.

[Rusty!]

Hi Norah - Wow. a real newby! I'm honored that your first post was in reply to my problem. For me, part of it was just focusing on the importance of CPAP and discipline to remember put it back on when I get up and come back to bed.

Welcome to the board, the support of this group has been a real encouragement. The LEAST helpful have been the DME's unfortunately. Hope your experience is better than mine. Mine today told me they have a daily 90 min "open clinic" in which they may provide a mask if they have one in stock. Don't think it's worth the 40 mile trip to find out.

[NorahSyram]

Thanks for the kind words, Rusty. I'm also encouraged to hear that you're doing better with keeping your mask on. I'm glad to see this forum and how helpful everyone is! It certainly helps to put things in a more positive light. I'm sure I'll be back often.

Have an awesome day and sleep well!

Norah

[LA157M3]

I've been on the therapy for almost 3 weeks now. I woke up one morning and realized my mask was off, sitting on my nightstand, and it dawned on me that sometime during the middle of the night I woke up and thought, "Okay, time to get up, get dressed, and go to work!" I obviously immediately fell back to sleep until my alarm went off...without my mask. No idea what time that happened. I do recall thinking that I was just ready to wake up.

I woke up the other night, sat up, and thought it was time to get up. I realized it was 2am and was able to come out of my stupor enough to strap my mask back on, lay back down, and go back to sleep until the alarm went off.

I'm thinking that being in such a deep sleep something makes me wake up, (twice anyway), and I feel so rested already that it feels natural to sit up and get ready for the day...even at 2am! Weird! I hope it doesn't keep happening but I'm not worried about it. I think my body and brain are still trying to get used to sleeping well and having oxygen for the first time in almost 2 years!

[BonnieMae]

Hi,

I have been a CPAP user and 99.99% complier. However, I do find occasionally, I am faced with the task of correcting the siuation. (And there are so many)!
Taking my mask off at night has been #1 on my list. In the middle of the night I have given myself many reasons why it is OK to leave it off.
My best solutionto this is determination. You know the sleep Apnea risks and really want to live a long life. (Self talk).
Again, "mindful" night "talk" to keep putting the mask back on even if it is hard to go to slep again. Good luck, you can do it! Just keep putting it back on and know you are not alone. You are doing a good job and "persistence" is the self talk you need to keep your compliance up!
MJ

[bellis2]

I just started with my CPAP, and I found myself doing this for the first two nights. I don't seem to have a problem now though. I am still in my first week of having the machine. For me it took just convincing myself that I have to have it on to survive the night. I think it might have something to do with that sleep aid that you are taking at night as to why you don't remember taking it off and that you don't remember to put it back on. I hope that you get it figured out soon.

[nate fry]

.I would skip the humidifier. I quit using mine years ago and do fine. I have 13,000 hpours on mineMYBE TURN DOWN THE PRESSURE SOME. yOU NEED TO GET ADJUSTED TO LEAVING IT ON. lEARN TOroll AROUND WITH IT. i SLEEP ONN MU=Y SIDE, MY STOMACHJust think about this, the goal here is to improb=ve your life and to try to live longer. You only cheat yourself when you think about it. Next time you are walking down a side walk ask yourself if the person coming toward you cares if you drop dead. Hope that helps.

I have been using my CPAP for about a year but my compliance is down - I wake up enough to remove the mask and turn of the machine but not enough to remember it when I wake maskless. Any tips or ideas that have worked for you to wear it all night?

Thanks![/quote]

[Snoredog]

My guess:

You got to retrain the brain and:

Figuring out why you are waking up in the first place helps the most. If you don't wake up you don't remove the mask.

Happens to most when you first start out with therapy. But if it continues it means your pressure is probably not high enough to eliminate
the apnea or event during REM sleep.

What is your 95% pressure finding from the display? Your Minimum pressure will need to be set to that value. If that 95% pressure
is AT or above 10 cm, then right there is your problem. Pressure is not high enough and when you reach REM sleep you have a
frank apnea, machine is already at 10 cm and its AutoSet algorithm says it ain't increasing pressure due to apnea if you are
at 10 cm pressure already. So it does nothing when the apnea shows up in REM, the result is you starve for air and wake up
removing that damn mask from your face and go back to sleep.

So the only thing you can do with that machine is increase the Minimum pressure to cover those periods of REM.

[birdshell]

I had this problem a few times in the beginning. Removing that mask makes me think that SOMETHING is wrong, although we cannot know exactly what that may be. The mask is the most important part of a newbie's therapy, we often think. There is something to be said for finding the right mask. There is also something to be said (grrrr! ) about the search for said mask.

In my case, I figured it wasn't necessarily the choice of mask as it didn't happen every night. The VAST majority of nights I was certainly wearing the thing without a problem. Believe it or not, Rested Gal--Laura's tights strap put that to rest. I think the mask was shifin g int the night and then bothered me enough that I removed it.

I figured that if I could influence myself to stop sleeping on my stomach (back problems), that I could also do so with the mask staying on my face. I think that the determination and putting it back on EVERY time it is taken off will eventually sink into the internal subconscious brain. To make myself get the concept, I did a lot of self-talking and suggested my health, my mask, my machine, and myself had to work together to keep that therapy happening. Eventually, it apparently worked.

Trying the Swift LT may help; I didn't like the original Swift because I sleep on both sides. That means one side had the small hose there. I didn't find that very conducive to sleeping.

Best wishes.

Karen,
Who now uses a Headrest/Aura/Twilight NP

[Blue Snuffle nose]

Hello

I have had that happening, "the vanishing mask sydrome" I wear a small profile lite [gel nasal mask] When I figured I was doing the straps undone and taking it off in my sub-consious. I came with the idea of masking the strap tabs with marsking tape! So if I wanted get it off, it would take a concious effort to remove the mask. As I have tapped all velcro tabs expect for the one near my neck.

I had a night when I woke myself out of sleep by trying to get the thing off my face. I eventually trained myself to turn over and go back to sleep with mask on, like if I have go to the dunny at night the hose it unplugged and I'd go to dunny with mask still on my face! Then I replugged it and *snorkled again....... [Snorkled=slept]

Now I can sleep with it on my face all night all year round!!!