Very weird things happening....

Hi there,

I am not very new to the CPAP thing and have been using it for about 3-4 months off and on, very compliant at times and then the complete opposite at others.

I'm using a Respironics system one and have had pretty good results until recently. My compliance has gone completely down hill, I barely use my machine anymore and when I do it only stays on for about 4-5 hours at the very most.

What happens lately (and didn't happen in the beginning, unless I didn't notice) is that for starters I can usually fall asleep with the mask on with some difficulty (but it can be done) but when I wake up even for a second in my sleep, whether I am aware I have woken or I just turn on my side.. I take the mask off. This means that even when I have absolutely no recollection of waking up I'll take the mask off, not so helpful in keeping compliant. The other times which are definitely not as frequent I will have some recollection of taking it off (I know, bad me.. I try to not let this happen anymore)

My second and most troubling issue with CPAP is that it is making me do the most strange things in my sleep. Just as a quick example last Thursday I slept with the mask on until about 3am when I woke up sitting upright in my bed with my nasal mask dis-assembled. That's right, I took the silicone part out of my mask, completely took it apart in my sleep. It's very troubling to wake up, sitting upright, holding the silicone piece of my mask in my hands completely clueless. As I said, this is only ONE example. It has caused many frequent (almost nightly) occurrences where I wake up and am half sleep walking. I just wake up doing odd things (with the mask on) I have woken up many times trying to take the mask apart in my sleep. There has never been any vent blockages or anything of that sort. I just cannot understand.

Anyways, sorry to rant here but I am in need of help. This didn't happen during my first 1 month trial of CPAP. That first month was beautiful, I slept with it on all night and was very compliant and I even felt some of CPAP's benefits. I thought it was supposed to get EASIER.

I feel like I need a sleeping pill to keep me out for the night and keep that mask on my face, but then I know that sedatives and the like are not recommended for people with OSA.

So frustrated and tired! Very confused as well. Any ideas as to what the heck is going on with my sleep?

And please forgive the mess that is my above post. I am so tired that I am hardly making much sense in my posts. Hopefully it makes some sense to you all.

Well, I can offer some maybes, but that's really all they would be. Do you think it could be that the first month you were so depleted you really crashed when you slept, and that you aren't crashing any more because you've gotten some rest? If you aren't sleeping so hard, you may be just now be aware of the odd sensations of this stuff on your face. But, taking the mask off and sometimes even going thru elaborate procedures is spoken of pretty often on here. Some say they've disassembled everything and put it in a drawer even. I haven't heard anyone say they still do these things later into the treatment. One thing I did when I was taking my mask off in my sleep was to put a bandaid across the strap along my cheek so that the pain of removing it would wake me enough to stop. At some I just quit taking it off. If you are prone to a lot of activity while asleep, you might consider taking steps to secure your machine so it doesn't get pulled off or damaged.

What you describe may be somnambulism. That is definitely something to bring up with your sleep doctor.

this may be off the wall, but have you checked the filter lately? if it is clogged, or if there is some other problem with the airflow, maybe you are taking it off to try to breathe better?