Severe exhaustion scares me !! Need hope please

[LisaEileen]

According to my sleep doc it can take up to a month before your brain will adapt to the fact that you don't stop breathing and allow you deep relaxing sleep and REM sleep. It has worked hard to keep you alive all this time, it just doesn't trust your body yet to keep on breathing.
It is like a dog that has been abused - you need to regain its trust by being consistent and loving.
Keep up using the cpap so it will re-learn to trust you.

I just picked up my machine yesterday and this was about the same thing I was told. I was told that I probably would feel worse the first 2 weeks and it should slowly get better. In my sleep study I never got into stage 3/4 or REM sleep. That didn't surprise me. He told me that people who have been deprived of REM for a very long time will feel more tired the first few weeks because their body is wanting to catch up on REM. Made sense to me. Trust me, I know exactly where you are right now. You're not alone. I can't even begin to tell you how hopeless and depressed I've been. Especially when my insurance company kept denying paying for my machine for 5 months. I thought I was never going to get the treatment I needed. It really boggled my mind that my insurance company was denying me of air. It seems pretty silly when you think about it. I remember when my Dad got his Cpap. It took him about a month to adjust to it and after that he said he felt like a new person and didn't know how he ever lived without it.

[Palm tree]

Hang in there! Make sure your mask fits properly and that there are no leaks. Also, do you use your ramp button? The ramp button can be your best friend when putting on your mask and trying to fall asleep. Check to make sure that you have the correct air pressure.

We've all been there. You can't give up. Josey Wales said, "when it looks bad you gotta get plum mad dog mean". Your CPAP was obviously prescribed for a reason...so as long as 1) your mask fits, 2) no leaks), 3) humidifier is set right, 4) air pressure is set right, 5) your attitude is set right, then it's time for night-night and start counting sheep.