Did not do well with CPAP Titration

I was using a full face mask. I slept 5 or 6 hours. But I woke up feeling just awful and with headache - as exhausted as the worst sleep apnea night. I was hoping to wake up so much more refreshed and energetic.
I really hope this doesn't predict a poor response to CPAP once I get one at home!

Oh you mean the night from hell??? That's what happened to me when I did my in lab titration. Massive headache and my blood pressure went to stroke levels. Tech from hell who wouldn't listen to me and was a frigging idiot.

It does get a lot better once you get home.

When you get your machine do a lot of practicing while awake and just reading and/or watching TV and under no pressure to sleep.

It's been coming on 17 years now and I am so used to using the machine that I would be hard pressed to sleep without it.

Finding the right mask is probably the hardest part.

OMG ARE YOU ME?? I had a tech who was like Lurch in the Adams Family - I called him the Cold Robot! He didn't use humidification and I woke up twice with my mouth all glued together and had THE WORST headache of my life in the morning! I contacted my Sleep NP, told her about the awful headache that was not responsive to any pain meds and she said "oh that's not from the titration, go to the ER" Yup, the night from hell. For some reason I expected to have the best sleep of my life, and wake up a different person. OK thank you Pugsy you are my knight in shining armor you have given me hope that CPAP can still help me feel human again.

The headache might have been blood pressure if your blood pressure got elevated like mine did.
I know that I had a massive headache the morning after the titration. The tech was really an idiot ....big fat sloppy man who admitted that he was supposed to be using a cpap machine but "couldn't handle it"...WTF????

Oh yeah...he blatantly lied to me about the software to monitor the results....he told me it was against a federal law for a patient to use the software...and at the time both ResMed and Respironics openly sold their software and you could buy it all over the internet for 100 bucks on a CD.
There was no such federal law....Dumb ass.
I don't take kindly to being lied to.

For years I told people that if I ever saw that asshole in the crosswalk that I would do my best to run him over.

Oh another thing we had a big fight over the mask when he tried to get me to use a full face mask and I didn't/couldn't use it due to nasal issues caused by the pressure of the mask on my nose. I wanted to use a nasal pillow mask and he said it couldn't be done. So I said I might as well cancel the whole damn thing because there would be no sleep if nose was blocked. Finally he relented and got me a crap nasal pillow mask but I managed to get just enough sleep to get a valid result. After it was all done he admitted that he had never done a titration with someone using nasal pillows.

BTW I have never used a full face mask except as an experiment.

That is so interesting, its the opposite of what happened to me that night - he wanted me to use the nasal pillow mask, the first one he brought. I tried it and it was quite hard to exhale; also I'm a mouth breather and was worried I'd wake up constantly trying to breathe. He brought a face mask I think he said F40, but with that one it blocked my nose completely so I was panting through my mouth all night. Is that normal not to be able to breathe through your nose with a full face mask? (I am trying very hard to change to nasal breathing but it takes time) (TYIA)

eoram wrote: ↑

Sun May 03, 2026 8:38 am

Is that normal not to be able to breathe through your nose with a full face mask?

Not really. People have been using those "traditional" full face masks for years and manage quite well. By traditional I mean those FFM that cover the nose and touch the nasal bridge area of the nose...that area where glasses rest. The F40 isn't what I call "traditional" because it doesn't touch the nasal bridge area and we tend to call those type of masks "hybrid". Back when I first started therapy there weren't many "hybrids" at all to choose from and I think that maybe there were only 2 of them at that time. Now there are a lot more choices in the "hybrid" type and much improved and not so large now.

I am "special"... When anything touches the nasal bridge area on my nose it causes me to be congested. It's just the way I am and while I am not alone with this happening it isn't necessarily so common that everyone has that problem.
My glasses can cause the congestion...that's how sensitive I am.

Now I could maybe use something like the F40 but I have no desire or need to really work it out plus I learned a long time ago that one of my primary preferences was "a mask as small as possible with little footprint on my face". The hybrids now are much smaller with smaller footprints on my face but since I don't really do all that much mouth breathing I don't have a big burning urgent need to master a full face mask anyway. I have tried a few hybrids over the years just because I like to try new stuff and I like to be able to tell people about my thoughts on new masks. I never kept them though. I learned I wouldn't use them and ended up just giving them away.
I have NOT tried the new F40 (it's fairly new in the grand scheme of things as I think it has been out a couple of years or so) and now there is even a newer hybrid....the x30i but I most likely won't be trying it unless someone just gives it to me because of the cost.
It's VERY expensive and I don't want to burn my insurance allowed replacement mask to get something just to experiment with.
Besides....with my new insurance I have a 300 deductible on all the cpap stuff.

https://www.cpap.com/products/resmed-ai ... 5689979196

Check out the link for the Eclipse in my signature line...that's my most favorite mask and it has a next to nothing footprint on my face.

If you normally can easily breathe through your nose only during the day and don't have chronic nasal congestion issues there's no reason you can't at least try a nasal pillow mask if you want to. We can talk about that later once you get your equipment and all that good stuff....and some experience under your belt. I have an idea that might explain why you had trouble with the nasal pillow mask.
We can talk about all that stuff later. I am short on time at the moment and you may not even want to try again and that's okay.

Masks are the hardest thing to sort out....what works great for one person the next person might just absolutely hate. It's the life of masks.

Oh....when you finally do get your machine and mask (of some sort) don't expect to have a perfect night the first night.
Expect to have an adjustment period.

You have been very generous with your time and experience and I def want to try out all masks; I do not want to reject any. I am working daily on nasal breathing only; haven't progressed to mouth tape yet but I do use a cervical collar at night that at least limits my mouth range, as well as nasal dilators. That Eclipse mask is wild! its magnetic? does it stay on all night??

eoram wrote: ↑

Sun May 03, 2026 6:15 pm

That Eclipse mask is wild! its magnetic? does it stay on all night??

Yep it sure does. I have never had them come apart even with all my tossing and turning and cramming my face into the bed pillow.

BTW I thought I was a mouth breather but come to find out all the dry mouth and sore throats (which I though meant mouth breathing) was because I was snoring so bad and gasping for breaths because I wasn't breathing didn't happen once I got the cpap stuff sorted out.

Now don't think that I never ever mouth breath because it was sort of a habit sometimes I might mouth breath a little and never for very long but it's not serious enough to really make that much of a negative impact on my actual therapy.

The Eclipse does have straps to leave "dents" in my cheeks and with no headgear it doesn't leave dents in my hairdo either.
And it's fairly cheap even with having to use a new Halo each night.