Newbie, checking in

[Rysmithjr]

I'm reading and trying to absorb it all, so bear with me (which already seems obvious that you do, from what I have already seen!)

I am just a few days into my CPAP experience, and trying to figure out if this mask is right, or if there is anything better, while I am still within the 30 day window to get a replacement. Surprisingly to me, I have not seemed to have much of an issue with nose breathing, by locking my tongue to the roof of my mouth (which is what I used to do while wearing a mouthguard when playing football, I guess).

I do find myself consistently waking up between 2:30 and 3am, usually get up for the loo (and I leave the machine running, hence some of the graphs show a big spike), and then a leak waking me up around 5am, which I adjust and go back to sleep. Around 7:30am when my first alarm strikes, I have been taking off the mask and shutting down the CPAP, but then habits dictate that I snooze for another 90 minutes before getting up for work.

I need to get the detailed sleep study info from my doc, all I recall is the O2 saturation at 75% as the main concern with my OSA.


First Day Sleepyhead graph:


Last night SH graph (got out of bed twice):

[chunkyfrog]

Hang in there, junior.
My first few nights, I wasn't keeping it on as long as you are.
You are moving right along!
Pretty soon you won't have to go to work suffering the after-effects of that last 90 minute 'torture session'.
Also, a decrease in night-time urination is quite common.
As a guy, you may notice other effects.
I noticed my brain working better, too, and a longer 'fuse'.
Welcome!

[Rysmithjr]

I'm feeling pretty good about it. I was first diagnosed with OSA 3-4 years ago, and at that time, I was not ready to deal with it. A couple months ago I had a bit of an epiphany and decided I had to get my health in order or die too young. I started eating right and lost 17 pounds the first month from diet alone, but couldn't get myself awake in the mornings to get a workout in, so I went back to the doc to get the CPAP routine started.

I think my mental approach, the will to say I have to have thins, eliminates some of the other mental roadblocks that could be experienced.

Speaking of those other benefits chunkyfrog mentions, now I'll also have to figure out how to have the ladyfriend over and arrange the evening's schedule to accomodate this new routine.

[Pugsy]

Welcome to the forum.

Bad, bad thing to go back to sleep for 90 minutes after turning machine off.
Bad habits are easy to make and hard to break.
5 or 10 minutes with a snooze alarm is one thing but 90 minutes lets you get into some real sleep when the apnea events can and will return with a vengeance. Not to mention...the last thing your body will remember when getting up is being starved for oxygen or not breathing a good bit of the time during that 90 minutes.