About to get my first, do I need it every night?

[sirbonnington]

Hi Everyone,

I've been a snorer my whole life, I never really thought it was too bad until a recent girlfriend. She's a very light sleeper and it was hard for us to sleep in the same bed. My dad has had a cpap for around 20 years so i figured I'd call my doctor and get set up for one. It's been some time while I've had multiple doctors appointments and sleep studies, but it looks like everything is in line to get it sent to me. In the meantime she uses noise cancelling headphones and is fairly used to it.

Now let me say, this was really only spurred on by her. I never really felt like I wasn't getting enough sleep, and apparently I do have apneas but rarely do I wake up from them. Other girlfriends or people who I have shared a room with noticed I snore but never said it was too bad or kept them up.

Now that it's getting sent, me and her are both worried that I just made a lifetime commitment to being plugged into this machine every time I sleep. I'm reading on these boards that if I go a night without it, I'll sleep horribly and have more trouble breathing than ever. She feels bad, and says she'd rather be a little inconvenienced by my snoring then making me commit to this.

I guess my question is, are there people who use this occasionally? We don't live together, would this be something I could use on just some nights? Doctors are telling me that I now have to use this every night and everyone is always so grateful, but not having any real problems with my sleep before I don't think I'll be so sold on it. I see there are options for camping and sleeping outside, but I don't like the idea of needing to be near an outlet every time i want to get some shut eye.

Thanks for reading, looking forward to any insight! I'll be checking in and will answer any questions.

[chunkyfrog]

We wear our machines for our HEALTH--not the peace of others.
If we stop snoring, or it gets quieter, it's just a bonus.
You may not even be aware of your other symptoms;
-not everyone wakes with a racing heartbeat dozens of times a night, or drops off during movies, watching TV, or driving.
Some just quietly die of a heart attack.

[DEXSUZ]

Sir:

Should you successfully go CPAP you'll never WANT to spend another night without it. I've been a Quattro FX guy for approximately 500 days and can not now imagine trying to get a solid night's rest without it. "Bad" nights in the last year or so (several awakenings) are better than everything I had for decades.

[sirbonnington]

Sir:

Should you successfully go CPAP you'll never WANT to spend another night without it. I've been a Quattro FX guy for approximately 500 days and can not now imagine trying to get a solid night's rest without it. "Bad" nights in the last year or so (several awakenings) are better than everything I had for decades.

So were you getting noticeably poor sleep before? I guess I feel like the sleep I'm getting now is perfectly fine, so I'm afraid that plugging into it will only make it so now I won't have good sleep without it.

[Denial Dave]

Welcome to the world of CPAP

I always thought that I slept fine, but my wife complained that I snored and stopped breathing several times a night.

Quite a few people like myself "never thought that we had poor sleep" until we had the sleep study done.

I've been on CPAP therapy for 1 1/2 years now.... I have never felt better and wouldn't ever think about sleeping without my mask.

Once your experience what good sleep really is wiht CPAP, you will realize how poor you actually slept

What were the results of your sleep study/ analysis?

Welcome!!

[The Latinist]

Could you tell us what your untreated AHI was during your sleep study?

The fact is that you have never slept with CPAP and, if you have long suffered from sleep apnea, you may have no idea what your sleep quality really is because you have no truly quality sleep to compare it to. The human body and mind have an amazing ability to adapt to what we consider normal, and I think that the poor sleep quality you have seen people reporting without their xPAP is probably a result of no longer being adapted to their previous poor-quality sleep. That is not to say that simply because you are adapted to your current sleep it is without affect; depending on the severity of your sleep apnea, you may be suffering from issues with alertness that you don't even realize you're having -- and it may be having serious health effects.

[Julie]

There are people with apnea who never snore, and vice versa. You need to find out what apnea's about though if you have it because it's a lot more serious than whether or not you snore. Life and death even. Really!

[BlackSpinner]

So were you getting noticeably poor sleep before? I guess I feel like the sleep I'm getting now is perfectly fine, so I'm afraid that plugging into it will only make it so now I won't have good sleep without it.

If not using it later gives you bad sleep it is because you are having bad sleep now. Apnea events are very hard on your heart and brain, they may not make you tired at first but they are still affecting all your organs, including that one that keeps you girl friend happy. One of the classic signs of sleep deprivation is denial, even when the data form the badly done " functioning test" is in front of their eyes. It will also make you fat and stupid and lack empathy (Sleep deprived people happily bomb schools and hospitals when told to do it, non sleep deprived people question those orders)

[Sheriff Buford]

There are some very good responses on the health/side of your question, which I wholeheartedly support. Now... the young female friend... If you get cpap therapy, I will suggest you educate yourself on what sleep apnea does to your body, and how your health will improve with cpap therapy. I would sit down and explain to her why you WILL wear the mask. If she cares for you, you may want to consider marring her. If she pitches a fit... let the door hit her in the butt on her way out. If you have sleep apnea, get and use the therapy every night. You'll eventually start feel a lot better, you'll be healthier and the thought of going one night without the machine will scare the daylights out of you.

Sheriff

[andy88488]

Hi Everyone,

I've been a snorer my whole life, I never really thought it was too bad until a recent girlfriend. She's a very light sleeper and it was hard for us to sleep in the same bed. My dad has had a cpap for around 20 years so i figured I'd call my doctor and get set up for one. It's been some time while I've had multiple doctors appointments and sleep studies, but it looks like everything is in line to get it sent to me. In the meantime she uses noise cancelling headphones and is fairly used to it.

Now let me say, this was really only spurred on by her. I never really felt like I wasn't getting enough sleep, and apparently I do have apneas but rarely do I wake up from them. Other girlfriends or people who I have shared a room with noticed I snore but never said it was too bad or kept them up.

Now that it's getting sent, me and her are both worried that I just made a lifetime commitment to being plugged into this machine every time I sleep. I'm reading on these boards that if I go a night without it, I'll sleep horribly and have more trouble breathing than ever. She feels bad, and says she'd rather be a little inconvenienced by my snoring then making me commit to this.

I guess my question is, are there people who use this occasionally? We don't live together, would this be something I could use on just some nights? Doctors are telling me that I now have to use this every night and everyone is always so grateful, but not having any real problems with my sleep before I don't think I'll be so sold on it. I see there are options for camping and sleeping outside, but I don't like the idea of needing to be near an outlet every time i want to get some shut eye.

Thanks for reading, looking forward to any insight! I'll be checking in and will answer any questions.

FWIW, I was in pretty much the same situation. I got tested for Apnea because I snored horribly. I didn't believe that I had Apnea. I didn't feel like I slept that poorly before CPAP, and I don't feel that it has made a huge improvement in my quality of life.

That said, I have adapted very well to it, and now find it very difficult on the few occasions when I have to sleep without it. And I do see small changes. I don't wake up to urinate any more. And I do think it is better for my long-term health that I have taken this step.

You may have a different experience, but for me the snoring did not end with my first machine. My first machine was a "simple" CPAP, and it reduced but did not eliminate my horrific snoring. My next machine was an APAP, and that has pretty much eliminated my snoring when I use it.

Oddly, after 7 years of pretty much 100% compliance, I have now noticed that I no longer snore if I nap or if I sleep without the machine for a night. I wouldn't go without CPAP deliberately, but last week I was over at my girlfriend's house and at the last minute to spend the night there. But basically, everyone here is right: this is an every-night comittment.

[Catnapper]

I am waiting for one of the men on the forum to tell about the very important improvement men get from using cpap.

Catnapper - Joanie

[Janknitz]

She feels bad, and says she'd rather be a little inconvenienced by my snoring then making me commit to this.

How inconvenienced will she be when you have the stroke or heart attack? (not if, WHEN).

She did you a huge favor by insisting you get this checked out, and hopefully she will be supportive so that you will use it consistently.

Use the machine EVERY NIGHT. It's not an inconvenience to use the machine. It really will make it easier to sleep with you at night, the sound of the machine is very soothing, listening to you stop breathing is not.

[flyingcow]

I was in a similar position. I never felt like I slept poorly, and my snoring wasn't particularly bad. I had a sleep study at the request of my neurologist while trying to figure out why I was having weird, debilitating migraines (slurred speech, paralysis, hospitalization... good stuff). I got diagnosed with sleep apnea, and after about three nights, I started realizing all the little things. The migraines are gone, I handle stress WAY better, I don't get agitated, I don't have to pee like a racehorse at 6AM every morning, and I can hike about 40% faster. You might be surprised at how different things feel.

I am waiting for one of the men on the forum to tell about the very important improvement men get from using cpap.

Catnapper - Joanie

...and that... that too.

[Pesser]

My tests results showed that an APAP would not help get more sleep. It was suggested to me that it would eliminate snoring. It did. But it gave me all the other benefits of CPAP. Try it, you’ll likely be surprised after a few months. Your girlfriend did you a big favor. Look up UARS. Go to the web-site! Medical people (many of them) believe that snoring is indeed very bad for you. You are limiting the amount of air your body is getting and if you do not have UARS…..without CPAP….you will!

[archangle]

Slightly oversimplified:

If your only problem is snoring, you may not "need" it at all. While you're snoring, you're breathing, so, in a sense, you don't have apnea.

The problem is that most people who snore do actually stop breathing for a while before or after a snore. Your mind and body eventually fight back and force air through the closed airway and this causes snoring. The periods of not breathing between snores is the most harmful part. The snoring may restrict your breathing enough that it does harm on its own, even though you never actually stop breathing.

A sleep test will show whether you're having actual apneas or just snoring. However, most people who snore do have apnea, or develop it later. It tends to get worse over time, too.

Apnea comes in various levels of severity. Some is mild and does lesser amounts of damage. Some is much worse.

If you've slowly developed apnea over the years, your body adjusts somewhat, but there is still harm. Your brain learns to sleep despite being strangled or woken up several times an hour. Your body adapts to oxygen starvation, stress hormones, and other problems to a certain extent, but there is still some harm. Even though you think you don't feel any effects, it may be harming you.

In theory, if you do CPAP and later stop, you're probably no worse off than if you never started after a few weeks of readjustment. The first few nights or weeks may be rough until your body readjusts, and you could even have some sort of stroke or heart attack, but going without CPAP gives you an increased risk of that every night anyway. You will probably have a few horrible nights of little or no sleep.

I think the risk of stopping CPAP after using it for x years is less than the cumulative risk of not using it at all for x years.