What wakes us ?

[cpapsue]

DSM raised the question of many times a night we wake up. It made me question why we wake up. Sometimes, it is a leak - that's easy to identify. Other times, I have no idea why I'm awake. Was it an apnea, an hypopnea, a central, or just to turn over, a trip to the bathroom?

Anybody else curious or have any thoughts? If there's a pattern, it would nice to be able to change it and stay asleep til morning!!

[tattooyu]

Sometimes I wonder the same thing. I definitely know when it's a leak (mask or mouth breathing). Other times, I wonder if it's an event of some kind. I'm thinking about getting a clock next to my side of the bed (it's on my wife's side right now) and journaling the exact time I wake up. Then, I can compare it to the ResScan data/graphs to see if anything correlates.

Sometimes I think it's nothing at all, maybe like you said, to turn over?

Somewhere I read an article that states we are supposed to turn a certain amount of times a night to prevent sores and stiff muscles. I don't know whether or not that is supposed to be accompanied by an arousal or awakening.

[junie]

I wake up because of bathroom trips, also my nasal pillows come out but they fit right, I'm going to try
the hair bands, I bought me a 10' hose and I'm going to hang it up on my wall, hope this works.

[greenvelvetdragon]

i rarely wake these days, thank heavens, but the few things that do are 1. rainout which is difficult to manage in high humidity and the weather where i live is different, and i have been very slack about getting a heated hose... 2. pain if i am having an arthritis or fibromyalgia flare up; 3. dreams usually bad, not always, have always had very intense techno-colour dreams my whole life, and there has not been any change in this since cpap treatment. 4. very rarely my mask flips out and leaks.

really thought provoking question i might add, thanks

[TheDreamer]

In the past, it always involved getting out of bed and taking a leak.

But, now....sometimes its a mask leak, which I correct and then go back to sleep (unless it was bad and I need to take the other kind of leak and/or I need a drink). Or, recently its for no reason that I know of....and I'll just lay there trying to fall asleep again, wondering why I woke up in the first place....

The Dreamer.

[BeanMeScot]

I have no idea why I wake up unless it's just that my body needs to be turned over so my brain wakes me enough to do this. I have realized that I remember less about these middle of the night awakenings than I used to. Sometimes, I am not even positive I did wake up.

[PolyMar]

Equipment issues aside, sleep is a cycle you process in about 90 minutes. As your night of sleep progresses your REM cycle the last stage gets longer and longer. It is not uncommon for a person to have an arousal after they finish their REM cycle - this is because your body becomes atonic in REM, meaning you lose your muscle tone to protect yourself from acting out a dream and when your muscles become tonic again the body will arouse/wake up.

If you are a new PAP user it could be your internal clock, also know as a Circadian Rythem, is feeling as though it is rested with only a few hours of sleep because the quality of sleep you get on PAP is improved compared to the sleep without PAP so the body thinks it is ready to go. By laying in bed and trying to go back to sleep you will eventually reset your Circadian Rythem to fit your intended sleep schedule.

Another possibility is envriomental, maybe a train sounds at that time, a car passes by, a dog barks, etc.

[kteague]

Quite some time ago there was discussion on here about brain patterns, and if after years of fractured sleep, does the brain need to be retrained to sleep. It made a lot of sense to me.

Aside from that, at times my sleep is so fragile I hear every sound in the building. But mostly now after all this time it is my limb movements that disrupt my sleep. The medication works decently some nights, others not so much. After several months of 2-4 hours a night, I am now up to 7 or 8 a night with maybe 3 or 4 awakenings. That is like paradise to me.

Kathy

[DoriC]

Even "regular" people don't always sleep throught the night for one reason or another. Sometimes I stay awake for a long time and can't get to sleep, sometimes I wake up after a few hrs to use the bathroom and can't get back to sleep again, or I have things on my mind. Actually my husband who uses the mask does better than I do but he has some "off" nights too. So I guess it averages out if you're having more good nights than bad.

[TSSleepy]

I'm still dialing in my mask/humidity, but it seems like I have three causes of waking up at the moment.
1) Need to pee. (1/night)
2) I've drooled into my Quattro, the cushion has gotten slippery, and I've started leaking at the corner of my mouth. (1-2/night)
3) No clue. I think I just wake-up sometimes as I exit REM sleep. (0-2/night)

[summmersoff]

I go to bed at 11.00pm most every night, and wake around 300am with knee pain {arthritis } and them again around 600am and lay down for another hour.

[jda1000]

Something wakes me enough to yank the mask off most nights after 4-5 hours use, and I can sometimes recall doing it, but mostly I sleep through the night - roughly speaking, four hours with the mask, three or so without. Clearly disrupted, because the mask is off when the alarm wakes me, but not so disrupted I'm aware of it when it happens.

[ca_hosehead]

I spent a lot of time with using a video camera, data capable APAP and an pulse oximeter. I found that the only time I would wake up in the middle of the night was when I had an apnea event with a destat (my destats were mild, around 88-90%.) I would wake up about 20 minutes later.

If I don't have apnea events I don't wake up until I reach the 6-7 hour mark, then I am sleeping lightly and can wake up.

[KFhunter]

Before CPAP it was to go to the restroom, 3-4 times a night.

When I got my CPAP my schedule switched to graveyards, so now I'm trying to get used to the CPAP AND Graveyard shift at the same time.


I'm awake, A LOT.

Now I'm sick to boot.

life sucks right now

[cpapsue]

I just had a thought as I read ca-hosehead's reply. Since he's used a video camera and knows that an 'event' will wake him, I thought maybe those folks that rip off their masks and don't recall doing it are having apneas and rip the mask off in an attempt to breathe. Maybe that's just too obvious - but I hadn't seen any comments along that line.

Sometimes, I wake up because I think I hear a doorbell or phone and there wasn't any real noise! What's that about!