Newbie! Can't make it through night on my Cpap

Hello all, I am new to the Cpap world and I just finally got a mask that fits like it should. My problem is this, my pressure starts at 8 and builds to 15 in a 20 min period. Approx, 2-3 hours AFTER falling asleep, I wake up feeling like I am suffocating. Some people have said its because that is when I am reaching deep sleep and I am holding my breath and the machine is forcing air and some people have said that I am rolling onto my back when that happens but, I really don't know. I end up taking it off and sleeping the rest of the night without it because I must wake up at 3:45am for work but, I know that is not good because my apnea is very severe! Anyone have any suggestions or ideas of what I am experiencing? Thanks in advance!

Do you have any weight you need to lose?

There can also be fatigue setting in. I can put up with something that is mildly uncomfortable for a while and then I have to get up. Explore some of your setting like humidity, temperature, exhale relief and see if you can tweak them more to your liking.

Are you using sleepyhead to look at your sleep data? If not you should be (see the sticky at the top of the forum) It might give you a clue what is going on right before you wake up. Congestion? Snoring? Large leaks?

Gatorman293 wrote:Hello all, I am new to the Cpap world and I just finally got a mask that fits like it should. My problem is this, my pressure starts at 8 and builds to 15 in a 20 min period. Approx, 2-3 hours AFTER falling asleep, I wake up feeling like I am suffocating. Some people have said its because that is when I am reaching deep sleep and I am holding my breath and the machine is forcing air and some people have said that I am rolling onto my back when that happens but, I really don't know. I end up taking it off and sleeping the rest of the night without it because I must wake up at 3:45am for work but, I know that is not good because my apnea is very severe! Anyone have any suggestions or ideas of what I am experiencing? Thanks in advance!

Sign up on the forum for a user name and fill out your profile with the exact information regarding your equipment and the settings. That includes your humidifier setting.

What you're asking us to "guess" is like asking "Why is my car not getting good gas mileage?"

If your machine is data-capable, get the software to see what's happening during the night.


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You could try videotaping your sleep, and then you would know exactly what you did, if you are sleeping alone and have no one to give you feedback on things that wake you up. Even with data from the machine and software, which is very helpful, you will not know what sleep position you were in or whether something like the mask being misadjusted is to blame. I don't know anyone who has videotaped their sleep at home , but when you have a sleep study at a lab, a tech is usually able to watch you from another room in the sleep lab, note your sleep position , etc. There is something with a red light that could be a video camera in sleep study rooms.

Have you gotten a copy of your full sleep study report? It may help you get some answers, if your sleep study night was a typical night of sleep for you.

When you fill in your equipment profile, preferably using text, not pictures, it would be helpful if you put your prescribed pressure or pressure range in the comments section. Are you using ramp, and at what pressure? If you use ramp and have a higher constant pressure or pressure range, some adjustment to those settings may be in order. Data from Sleepyhead software's reading of your SD card would be very helpful in that regard.