Is it possible to get "Too Much Sleep"?

[rstcso]

I never knew I had any problems sleeping until I was sent for a sleep study. I used to sleep four to six hours per night and thought I felt rested. Now that I have been on the CPAP for ten days, I am sleeping seven to ten hours per night and not getting up in the middle of the night. I actually think I am more tired now than when I thought I was getting enough sleep with fewer hours. Is there such thing as "too much sleep"? Or is my body trying to recover for all the years it's missed out on "normal" sleep? Anyone else feel like this happened to them after starting xPAP therapy?

[OldLincoln]

Yes, it's possible. My result is a headache that doesn't go away for long all day and a brain that doesn't function well. I love the rhythmic breathing sound and it lulls me back to sleep if I don't get up right away upon waking.

[PhiloHypnos]

This is a question I've been wondering about.

With my CPAP at my original settings, when I slept less than 7 hours I still felt sleepy all day. without an alarm I tended to sleep 9 to 10 hours and then had a terrible headache and brain fog all day, often even getting uncontrollably drowsy in the afternoon. The only way to feel approximately ok was after exactly 7:30 to 8 hours, but It was almost impossible to get my eyes open after that amount, and I still wasn't at 100%.

I've found that with each gradual increase in pressure, and addressing mouth leakage issues, these problems have tended to abate. With each adjustment, I felt compelled to sleep fewer hours and my brain fog gradually disappeared. I'm feeling better, but not completely, and I'm still searching for the correct pressure/leakage adjustments with my RT.

So, my hunch is that, if your pressure is set at the right level and all leakage issues are eliminated, one shouldn't even feel the need to oversleep. That's what my RT told me anyway. With a fully succesful therapy, one should wake up fully refreshed after the exact amount of sleep one's body actually needs.

perhaps you should work with your carers in addressing this issue?

good luck!
arkein

[dsm]

Interesting topic.

Am looking at this for myself at the moment. I don't have any answers yet but have noticed this ...

Went on to a Bipap Auto SV about 9 months ago - found I was sleeping deeper & longer but enjoying it - except I stopped getting up early to exercise.
Summer has just returned here & now am finding the sleep seems too much - so switched to a machine that I know does cause me to sleep more lightly.

This lighter sleep is related to the risetime & ipap pressure settings & have been experimenting with them to see if I can tune for less 'deep sleep'
but not excessive wakefulness - it is proving just a bit of a challenge but am sure can get it right.

The main point I am making is that the deeper sleep seemed fine until the weather changed (happened quickly in a couple of days).

Not sure if this relates to your own experience as I think you are usng a cpap and I am on a bipap, but the CMs setting can make subtle difference
even on a cpap.

Good luck

DSM

[kteague]

At 10 days in, I wouldn't worry about sleeping a little more, as you are recovering from the effects of sleep apnea on your body and brain. You will have to find your new "normal". For some, seven hours is not enough to feel fully rested and last through the day even when not recovering from anything. If your therapy is effective and there are no other health considerations affecting your energy level, your need for extra sleep should naturally begin to decrease. Yes, "extra sleep" can be taken too far and get your body off cycle.

DSM - Wow, that's a switch on here - choosing to get lighter sleep! I can only dream of someday getting so much deep sleep that I'm willing to give it up. I keep reading comments on the bilevel's rhythm and its lulling effect and wondering if it would be of any benefit to me in sustaining sleep. Thanks for mentioning it your experience with it.

Kathy

[rstcso]

My cardiologist called a little bit ago to see how I was doing with the CPAP . I never expected that call. He's the one who ordered the studies. I asked if he was the one calling the shots on the pressure changes. He told me it was a sleep specialist doctor doing it. I reminded him I was geeky and nerdy and told him I had been looking at the detailed reports and noticed more apneas when they lowered the pressure from 10 to 9, so I put it back to 10. He said that was fine as long as I was feeling better. I asked if he'd put a note in the charts reflecting the pressure back to 10 and he was good with it, so said he would.

I am starting to get better after having a DVT and throwing many clots to my lungs last month, so my body is still working hard to repair itself. That may explain the extra sleeping. I guess with all the arousals I was having before CPAP, my body got tired of trying to keep me asleep and finally gave in and woke me up . Thanks for the replies.

[dsm]

Thought I would have a go at a rule-of-thumb for bilevels that may be helpful re levels of sleep (this is still very early work & may be too general to be of use yet)


BILEVELS RISETIME SETTINGS:


Risetime: if ipap is already adequate - changing risetime may have these effects
- Risetime = 1 (which is actually 100 millisecs or 1/10th of a second), causes the pressure to rise rapidly & I now associate that with light sleeping
- Risetime = 6 (600 milisecs), causes the pressure to rise much more slowly (.6 of 1 sec to go from epap to ipap) and I associate this with deeper sleep. But, slowing the risetime (taking it out to 6) means less air is delivered & that in itself means less tidal flow thus less air breathed which also can contribute to more hypopneas & flow limitations & thus can lower cpap effectiveness.


BILEVELS EPAP SETTINGS (assuming the user only had a CPAP titration & not a Bilevel one)

Epap always needs to be set high enough to eliminate all no-flow apneas (obstructive apneas). The Epap CMs number is normally just a bit under what is provided from a CPAP titration (in a cpap titration they raise pressure to eliminate obstructions, then raise pressure a bit more to clear flow-limitations & hypopneas, typically 1-3 CMs over what clears obstructions).



BILEVELS IPAP SETTINGS

Ipap is normally set to the same value as the CPAP titration CMs or perhaps 1 CMs above depending on the gap to Epap. It is normal to have an Epap to Ipap gap of 3-4 CMs (for most typical OSA folk). I find 3 CMs to be optimal & if I raise it to 4 CMs tend to sleep a little bit lighter.



Balancing Risetime against Ipap.

Making risetime faster (towards 1 vs towards 6) increases the tidal flow & tends to make sleep lighter and means less effort to get mask fitting well
Making ipap (or CPAP Cms) higher has a similar effect (increases tidal flow) but can add mask leaks or mean making the mask tighter
Increasing either risetime or Ipap CMS can also increase aerophagia so there is a balancing act
Making risetime faster especially fastest ( = 1) can cause a few arousals as the rush of air can be disturbing so increasing Ipap may be preferable.

Hope this makes sense

DSM

[john_dozer]

I never knew I had any problems sleeping until I was sent for a sleep study. I used to sleep four to six hours per night and thought I felt rested. Now that I have been on the CPAP for ten days, I am sleeping seven to ten hours per night and not getting up in the middle of the night. I actually think I am more tired now than when I thought I was getting enough sleep with fewer hours. Is there such thing as "too much sleep"? Or is my body trying to recover for all the years it's missed out on "normal" sleep? Anyone else feel like this happened to them after starting xPAP therapy?

I had some insomnia and since I started therapy, I actually get a little more sleep. Insomnia can be a symptom.

And this may sound counter intuitive but when I first started treatment, I felt less mentally tired but more physically tired. The fog and an amount of lethargy seemed to fade, but my body felt really tired.

It was more a type of tiredness I felt when I was generally sleeping normally (more normally anyway) but had an uncomfortable night's sleep. Like sleeping on a rock hard camping ground or the apartment was too cold. My guess was that it was caused by having a lighter sleep from the new CPAP equipment but the CPAP was preventing the apneas.

My oxygen levels during my intial study had me below 90% 13% of the time reaching lows of 80% at times. I'm guessing the CPAP prevented that, but otherwise I was having poor quality sleep until I got use to the machine.