40 apnea episodes an hour?

[Guest]

I have been trying to sleep with my Cpap machine every night for almost a year with no luck. I either lay there forever and end up taking it off or tear it off my face in the middle of the night(which I don't remember doing). But my question is this, I have a little over 40 apnea episodes an hour. Is that pretty severe? If I sleep every night all the way through with the mask, will it make a huge difference on my mood? What about metabolism? My sleep doctor says he has no idea if it's going to make any difference at all. Does anyone here have sleep apnea that is similar to mine in severity? How long did it take you to sleep with the mask?

[cflame1]

35 is considered severe

There are some here with AHI's over 100

[Julie]

You're asking if using Cpap all night will matter to your mood, or metabolism(?), but the point really is that it can save you from having strokes, heart attacks or other similar life-threatening events - your mood will be the least of your worries (and I'm not sure why you referenced metabolism... are you diabetic?). What you need to do though, so we can try to give you some help (and there is help) is to register as a member (otherwise you can't access all features), then go to the User Ctl Panel just above the notes on the main page, click on Profile and fill in the information with full names of your equipment - and please click on 'text' at the end rather than icons - and other information like your pressure settings, etc. so that every time you post that information will appear under your notes automatically. You shouldn't be just hoping something will change without making some changes - you're not getting treated.

[TerryB]

Normal respiration rate is about 12 / minute so there are 720 breaths taken in an hour. If 40 of those breaths don't take place, that's 5.5% of your breathing which results on heavy stress on your body rather than just blood oxygenation which is also lowered. They say that less than 5 is "normal", but at my current settings and equipment and chinstrap and lip sealing, I'm less than 1.0 average.

You really are being harmed, you need to find the problems in your treatment and fix them and receive the benefits of good therapy.

Good Luck,
TerryB

[jabman]

I was having 71 events an hour and yes it has made a difference in my life. For most just strapping on the mask at night and waking up in the morning feeling good is just not going to happen. There are a lot of other factors such as do you mouth breath, is your mask leaking? I suggest doing as Julie above said and register then spend some time reading some of the great info on this forum.
Hope you stick around

[XSnorer]

I have been trying to sleep with my Cpap machine every night for almost a year with no luck. I either lay there forever and end up taking it off or tear it off my face in the middle of the night(which I don't remember doing). But my question is this, I have a little over 40 apnea episodes an hour. Is that pretty severe?

The 40 number puts you in the cagetorical "severe" bucket.

It's severe enough to If I sleep every night all the way through with the mask, will it make a huge difference on my mood? What about metabolism?

Improvements in your "mood" and "metabolism" are seemingly a couple of the intended benefits. In general, your overall health and wellbeing is the desired outcome.

EMy sleep doctor says he has no idea if it's going to make any difference at all.

Interesting, I would not have expected a physician to say this. I wonder if his logic is that you may be one those who may not benefit from CPAP due to other issues and/or needing otherwise needing a different treatment than CPAP.

[Does anyone here have sleep apnea that is similar to mine in severity? How long did it take you to sleep with the mask?

Clearly, many of the folks that post on this forum fall into the same severity category as you. Many have the same issues as you. Your questions are common. I suggest you join the forum and ask all of the questions you want. As you can see above, many will jump right in to try and assit in getting you on track.

[BlackSpinner]

. Does anyone here have sleep apnea that is similar to mine in severity? How long did it take you to sleep with the mask?

Mine was worse. It took me one night to get used to it -or to be accurate about 15 minutes to assemble the machine and get the mask fitting, lay down and next thing it was morning with no headache and feeling much much more awake and functional.

[Mary Z]

I have been using the mask all night, every night for nearly three years, For the last 18 months my doc (new doc for pat 2 1/2 months) and I have been struggling to get my numbers into a normal range, My last months average is AHI 22.3 and AI 5.6. Last night was particularly bad with an AHI of 48 and AI of 20.7. I don't have an appointment until the end of the month, so I guess I'll hang in there until then I have a VPAP Auto 25 now, with 16/12 pressures. My last machine was a servo vent which the doc used in spontaneous mode rather than with timed ventilations ( chosen as it reached a pressure of 30 which I could tolerate, but not my mask which kept me up all night with leaks). Unfortunately it did not give AI and AHI so we don't know if the highter pressures (25/20 ) were working to control my apnea. I changed docs at this point as I was getting no where with that Doc and essentially had to start over with a new doc.
I too recommend you register and list your equipment. Also if your not using your machine all night, please do. But in answer to your question, yes there are others who struggle with getting good numbers with 100% compliance.
Good luck,
Mary Z.

[Reaper]

I have 85 apnea episodes per hour. I am still getting used to the whole CPAP thing and I have to admit, I am having a bad time with it. I had episodes where I stopped breathing for 2 minutes and 45 seconds and would begin breathing again with a very loud gasp for air. Luckily my doctor has prescribed a very light sleep aid which seems to be helping a great deal. Hope this helps.

[trike-mike]

As many are saying, they are much worse than this even though your score (and mine at 41) are categorized as severe.

That doesn't mean that even though thankfully not as bad as some it shouldn't be treated and persevere to get through.

I have been on the hose for a little over two months now. While there are some on the forum that take to it like a duck to water, I am and it seems you are the same, not so fortunate. For weeks I could not get past 2 consecutive hours without taking the mask off and neatly hanging it up without remembering to utterly tearing the mask off to the point where the straps came out through the little slots for removal (not the quick release bits).

Through the good graces of those here providing insight and suggestions and my sheer stubbornness, while still struggling some nights, I have had a few 4 - 6 hour continuous sessions and have more than once now woke to the alarm with the mask still on. I went from my untreated AHI of 41 to an average of 1.2 that is still trending lower.

For me, the one thing even in the beginning only managing a couple of hours per night is the every other day screaming headaches in the morning have vanished. As I progress I am feeling more rested and not so tired during the day. As to my mood and metabolism... dunno... but the other elements have been worth the price of admission alone.

Do keep trying. It's important. Work with your doctor and ask advice here. I found that, when thinking was the mask that was my problem was mostly the pressure wasn't just quite right. This is a total system and not any one unrelated thing. As that has been tuned, so has my compliance.

I left getting a sleep study done for far too long and I won't let a little thing like difficulty and frustration stand in my way of feeling better even if it is only some elements that can be corrected.

Best of luck to you