More daytime sleepiness since starting CPAP

[Beccabooks]

Hello! First time poster.... I have mild apnea and was put on an auto mask a little over a week ago to help with really unrestful sleep. I am adapting to the machine pretty well I think, and have been sleeping later (which is quite a new experience for me). What I am noticing is I get sleepy more often, even napping, which I didn't do so much before. Could this just be my body wanting more of what it is finally getting at night? Sort of an adjustment period? Did anyone else have this experience and did it get better? My poor pastor is going to get a complex!

[Janknitz]

My experience has been that I am more TIRED but less SLEEPY. In other words, I don't have a hard time staying awake, but I'm physically tired and happy to nap or rest when I get the chance.

I think it's a combination of things. One is that I can do more, so I get more physically tired. The other is that I sleep well enough at night that I actually crave that nice, restful sleep and would be happy to do it any chance I get. It's like an illegal drug and I'm addicted!

Others will talk about "paying the sleep debt". I'm not sure I believe in that. I'm coming up on my 1 year anniversary of CPAP use, and I STILL feel tired and happy to rest when I can--I'm sure my sleep debt has long since been paid. But I can stay awake and watch an entire TV show or movie, I don't get drowsy behind the wheel, or nod out in lectures any more.

[bap40]

My experience with starting therapy 2 yrs ago was that I did sleep for longer periods of time at night. I would sleep several hours later than was a norm for me. Of course only on my days off from work. I also kept up with my napping. Now I rarely sleep past the 7-8 hr mark and still take the occasional nap.

[Wulfman...]

Hello! First time poster.... I have mild apnea and was put on an auto mask a little over a week ago to help with really unrestful sleep. I am adapting to the machine pretty well I think, and have been sleeping later (which is quite a new experience for me). What I am noticing is I get sleepy more often, even napping, which I didn't do so much before. Could this just be my body wanting more of what it is finally getting at night? Sort of an adjustment period? Did anyone else have this experience and did it get better? My poor pastor is going to get a complex!

What you've told us gives us very little to go on.
It would really help if you would list the specific make and model of your machine and mask and tell us what pressure settings are in your machine.

If you're using a nasal mask and leaking air out your mouth at night, you're not getting effective therapy.
If your pressure is too low, you're not getting effective therapy.
Is your machine "data-capable"? You indicate you may have an APAP, which should be "data-capable", but it would help to know which one and how it's configured.

A week is "practically nothing".......with regard to a timeframe for feeling results from the therapy.
Even with everything tweaked to perfection, it can take months to start feeling like something resembling "normal".


Den

[Lizistired]

The biggest indicator is how you feel.
For about the first 2 weeks, I found myself wanting a nap every afternoon, so I took them, but only with the mask. That tapered off. My machine is on a cart so it's easy to roll it in the living room if I think I'm going to doze in the recliner.

[RoxanneY]

I felt great when I first started on the CPAP last May. Then I started feeling tired all the time after a month. The Sleep doctor raised my pressure and that did not really help. I was still yawning and sleepy and could not focus. I knew it was not the "me" that used to be. I was sleeping 7.5 or more hours a nitght with the mask and almost no leakage. I have an underactive thyroid, so I thought that my thyroid was out of balance, not the medicine had me on track. Finally in November I went back to the sleep doctor again and he decided I should have another study night and day.
It turns out that I have mild narcoplepsy as well. So I take medicine for that and still as use the CPAP.
Nobody knows their body better than ourselves. Just hang in there, give it time, but be your own patient advocate, because nobody else will.