No Sleep

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to sleep with a CPAP? I’ve tried just about everything I can think of to get some sleep. I’ve been using this machine for three years and have yet to sleep longer than 1.5 hours. I get so aggravated with the thing that I just get up and go back to work and hope the next night will be better. I’ve tried OTC Sleep Aids, prescription sleep aids, pain pills, beer, whiskey and so on. This entire experience has been a complete nightmare. I do need some advice because my job requires my using this nightmarish device that Satan himself designed.

Well, we'd like to help, but have zero info. Which model of what machine? Pressure settings? Which mask? Meds? And anything else you can think of that might help.

It would also be a good idea to post in your previous threads so we can see what's what til now.

Martinperry42,

I feel your pain. I really do. I had a CPAP adjustment from hell back when I started in 2010. Insomnia, both getting to sleep and staying asleep, was a huge, huge issue for me. I eventually wrote a blog about everything I learned about insomnia and what to do when it raises it's ugly head when you are trying to teach your body how to adjust to this crazy therapy. If you want to read it, here's the url: http://adventures-in-hosehead-land.blog ... er_19.html

It would help us help you if you provided us with the info that Julie asked for, but we also need to know a lot more about what your actual sleep habits are instead of just a long list of things you've tried. (More on that in just a bit.) It would also help us help you if we knew what led to your diagnosis in the first place: Before you started CPAP were you experiencing daytime symptoms of OSA like excessive daytime sleepiness? Were you waking up with headaches every morning? Were you waking up feeling like something the cat dragged in even though you had apparently gotten a full night's sleep? Did your partner complain of loud snoring?

And it would also help us help you if we knew the severity of your apnea: Do you know what your diagnostic AHI was? In other words, do you know how many times you stop breathing or almost stop breathing each night when you sleep without the xPAP?

You write:

Martinperry42 wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 07, 2022 2:01 pm

I’ve tried OTC Sleep Aids, prescription sleep aids, pain pills, beer, whiskey and so on.

A whole lot of those things actually can make it much harder to fix the very real problem you are facing. In particular, pain pills, beer and whiskey can all actually make OSA worse. Beer and whiskey also play havoc with sleep cycles, and while they may appear to help you get to sleep, they're pretty bad about keeping you asleep. As for OTC sleep aids, at most they tend to make people a bit drowsy at the beginning of the night, but don't help much with keeping you asleep once you are asleep. Prescription sleep aids? It would be useful for us to know what one(s) you've tried and what it(they) did for you. But most prescription sleep aids focus on helping you fall asleep rather than stay asleep.

What you haven't talked about is your overall sleep and your overall sleep behavior. There are all kinds of things we do (and don't do) that can make it easier for us to get to sleep and stay asleep every night. And there are all kinds of things we do that can make it much more difficult for us to fall asleep and stay asleep every night.

So let's start with the very basics of sleep hygiene and sleeping with the mask:

What's your desired sleep schedule look like? In other words, when would you like to go to sleep and when would you like to wake up?

What does your actual sleep schedule look like? Do you have a regular or semi-regular bedtime? Do you have a regular wake-up time? Do you allow yourself to stay up late on weekends and then try to sleep late the next morning?

How much sleep do you think you need to feel well rested?

How much sleep do you think you get on a typical night? Yes, I know you've said you only sleep with the xPAP for 1.5 hours. But how much time do you spend sleeping without the xPAP on your face?

How long do you take to fall asleep at the beginning of the night?. I assume that you put the mask on at the beginning of the night, but if you sometimes don't bother putting the mask on your face at the beginning of the night, how long does it take you to fall asleep without the mask on your face?

When you first wake up with the mask on your face, what's the first thought that goes through your mind? I know you hate the mask, but I'm actually asking for you to be more specific than that: What is causing you to rip the mask off? If you are uncomfortable, what is uncomfortable? Is the mask too hot? Is the air too warm, too cold, too damp, or too dry? Do you have bloating from air in your stomach? Are leaks blowing air into your eyes? Or on your chest? In other words, what's the sensory stimulus that immediately leads to you getting "so aggravated with the thing" that you "just get up and go back to work"?

If you allow yourself to go back to sleep without the mask on after you've ripped it off and abandoned the idea of sleeping with it, how long does it take you to get back to sleep? And do you remember any additional wakes after you go back to sleep without the mask on your face? If so, how many and how long do they last?


Now for some rather specific questions that are directly tied to your sleep hygiene:

Do you look at your cell phone in bed? Do you use your computer while you are in bed? Do you watch TV while you are in bed? The blue light from these kinds of electronic devices can play havoc with the melatonin cycle, and that can make it both harder to get to sleep and harder to stay asleep.

Do you watch the clock all night long? In other words, do you constantly look at the clock or your phone in order to figure out how long you've been trying to get to sleep? Or do you look at the clock when you wake up in the middle of the night trying to figure out how much time you have left before you have to get up in the morning and how little sleep you're going to get before you have to get up?

How much caffeine do you consume in a day? And how late do you consume your last caffeinated beverage?

Do you have a meaningful bedtime routine? In other words, do you have any rituals that you use to wind down and let your body know that it's time for sleep?

How much exercise (including on the job) do you get each day? And are you exercising close to bedtime?

How much morning daylight do you get on a typical day? By morning daylight, I actually mean being outside before its late morning. Or, equivalently, if you use a light box that simulates daylight, how long do you use it and what time do you start using it?

Do you go to bed when the clock says it's bedtime or do you go to bed when you start to feel genuinely sleepy instead of just tired or exhausted?

Finally, I will say that the book Sound Sleep, Sound Mind by Dr. Barry Krakow gave me a whole lot of ideas to work with when I was battling the insomnia monster that moved into my bedroom when I started CPAP. It's well worth getting a copy and reading the whole thing. The first half of the book is pretty much an insomnia self-help book. Many of the ideas work regardless of what the cause of the insomnia actually is. The second half of the book deals with CPAP and how xPAP therapy is supposed to work to restore normal sleep breathing and thus give a person with OSA a better chance of getting a good night's sleep.

Martinperry42 wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 07, 2022 2:01 pm

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to sleep with a CPAP?

did you read the replies in your other thread?

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=184407&p=1412377#p1412377