How am I supposed to feel?

[ProblemSleeper]

Been on CPAP about five days. Sleep through the night fine.

I don't wake up feeling full of energy but I don't feel like I have to sleep all day either. After I get ready I feel awake, something I did not feel before. During the day I don't feel like taking a nap but there is this undertow of heaviness of my eyes all day. I yawn sometimes but I don't get super tired after lunch. I'm better but just feel that undertow of heaviness. I have no idea if that makes sense.

[stripboat99]

Makes sense to me! I'm feeling better every day - and I've been hosed for three months. I felt like you after the first week and it keeps going the right way for me. More energy, easier to get up in the morning and the lethargy is gone!

[ProblemSleeper]

Makes sense to me! I'm feeling better every day - and I've been hosed for three months. I felt like you after the first week and it keeps going the right way for me. More energy, easier to get up in the morning and the lethargy is gone!

I guess I"m not used to things yet.

[desforsleep]

I understand! That is how I feel. I have been on cpap for 1 month. It is better some days than others. But I am still having days when I am very tired. The underlying lethargy is there,,, but not overwhelming. I think we need to give it more time. I am determined to make this work. Good luck and good sleep!

[BlackSpinner]

Been on CPAP about five days. Sleep through the night fine.

I don't wake up feeling full of energy but I don't feel like I have to sleep all day either. After I get ready I feel awake, something I did not feel before. During the day I don't feel like taking a nap but there is this undertow of heaviness of my eyes all day. I yawn sometimes but I don't get super tired after lunch. I'm better but just feel that undertow of heaviness. I have no idea if that makes sense.

But you have to consider the years of damage done by bad sleep and low O2. It will take time to rebuild. It is kind of like when you break a leg, they put the cast on and you can move without pain but it still needs to heal, the bones to knit and maybe some phsio after wards before you can run a marathon.

[pap4life]

Problemsleeper...you are not a problemsleeper...all that you have said makes good sense. You have made wonderful progress since starting therapy. IMO, better results then the average. Rome wasn't built in a day. Yeah, I know thats an old saying.. We may never feel like a million bucks , but we all aim for at least $999999. I think you'll be there soon. Good Luck

[tschultz]

I've been on CPAP for 43 days and although I felt a big improvement after even the first night that was short lived and when I looked at my data I found that treatment was still less than ideal. It took me another week before I determined what settings worked best and then things really started to improve with how I feel. I still know that I have a delicate balance between treatment, sleep hygiene, schedule, and everything else but I never want to go back to how I was feeling before treatment.

I still have some days where, although not exhausted, I am more tired than other days but as a whole things are a major improvement compared to before treatment. Like everyone else I would like to see things perfect but I don't expect that will ever be. I take each day one night's sleep after the other, knowing that as time goes on that much of the damage done by years of oxygen and sleep deprivation will be repaired over time and things will continue to improve.

Stick with it, you are off to a good start already.

[brazospearl]

ProblemSleeper, your post makes perfect sense. You're actually off to a great start (many people don't see ANY improvement so early in their therapy) and you're still in the getting-used-to-all-this phase. Baby steps forward are still improvements. Practice patience, you'll get there!

[ProblemSleeper]

I've been on CPAP for 43 days and although I felt a big improvement after even the first night that was short lived and when I looked at my data I found that treatment was still less than ideal. It took me another week before I determined what settings worked best and then things really started to improve with how I feel. I still know that I have a delicate balance between treatment, sleep hygiene, schedule, and everything else but I never want to go back to how I was feeling before treatment.

I still have some days where, although not exhausted, I am more tired than other days but as a whole things are a major improvement compared to before treatment. Like everyone else I would like to see things perfect but I don't expect that will ever be. I take each day one night's sleep after the other, knowing that as time goes on that much of the damage done by years of oxygen and sleep deprivation will be repaired over time and things will continue to improve.

Stick with it, you are off to a good start already.

Thanks to everyone for responding! What settings did you change? Mine is just set the way the DME did it. I'm afraid to change anything but did change the moisture from 1 to higher.

[Pugsy]

Thanks to everyone for responding! What settings did you change? Mine is just set the way the DME did it. I'm afraid to change anything but did change the moisture from 1 to higher.

I suspect tschultz has the software, evaluated his reports and made a pressure change.
I have done it too. A person really should have the software and a good understanding about what is going on before changing pressure.

[tschultz]

Thanks to everyone for responding! What settings did you change? Mine is just set the way the DME did it. I'm afraid to change anything but did change the moisture from 1 to higher.

In my case I went into to setup menu and switched from CPAP mode to to Auto with an initial pressure range -2 and +2 of my CPAP prescribed setting, when I then reviewed the data I quickly saw that I spent the night at the maximum pressure. I then moved this range upward +2 each night until I started to see the the treatment pressure was not simply going to the upper limit and staying there. I then ran with these settings for the next 5 days before concluding that they were working well for me.

This was done because I was tired of waiting for the sleep doctor to get back to be with what the setting should be changed to. I had already waited (wasted) 5 days and was unwilling to go with substandard treatment any more than I had to. Although initially the sleep doctor/clinic seemed willing to accept my settings I am still fighting with them 43 days later to get my actual final prescription, I am still using a trial machine.

If you review my previous threads over the past couple of months you will see what and why I did what I did in much more detail.

By doing quite a bit of research and numerous very helpful comments from the people in this forum I did take my treatment into my own hands from the early stages of my home trial. Before even getting the machine I already knew how to enter the setup menus and had the software for reviewing the data. I was lucky and found an equipment supplier that is using the ResMed S9 Auto for their home trials. This has certainly caused some hard feelings but I am much more concerned with my treatment being as effective as it can be that I am with waiting for someone to tell me to up the pressure by 1 after waiting longer than I should have.