Low AHI, still waking up

Yeaaaaah.

Here's my old thread. viewtopic.php?f=1&t=94908

So, since I've been on crutches since April 23rd, I've not been downloading my data into sleepyhead like I should, but if/when someone needs to see it I can pull the new stuff. I'm a lot more coordinated with my crutches now.

I've been 0.0 AHI about 40% of my nights this month, it's been up to about 0.4 most nights from there, and the occasional night of ~1.5 if it's a bad night. No real leaks either.

But I still am waking up every hour or two, still have been getting up to use the bathroom once a night if not just calling it a night and waking up at 6:30ish.

I will admit I've been dozing a bit without my mask but then as soon as I realize that it's happened I mask up the rest of the night. Just think I've been wearing myself out so hard with the crutches as soon as I get close to vertical I'm out like a light. Even if the bed is still adjusting.

I've also been swallowing air again the last 2 weeks or so. Enough that I've been waking up to adjust my bed and at a couple points even fell asleep no mask for about 20 minutes which I know isn't good. But then I'd wake up and re-mask and be able to sleep the rest of the time I had until I had to be up for work.

I did have one night where my numbers were a little funky high but that was also the night I pulled my cpap over again. -_- That was also the last night I let myself have the Vicodin, even though I probably should've had it from a pain standpoint a little longer, I just did not want to kill my machine. I've been off the pain meds except for daytime Tylenol for a couple of weeks now, as long as I keep my foot in the aircast when I'm not propping it/in bed.

Um, other things I think could be factors here:

1) My apartment's stupidly warm. When I got home from work it was 89F. It's down to 85ish last time I got up to check. Most nights for the last month it's been about 80 at night, if I'm lucky it'll get down to 76ish. 2nd floor. Oodles of fun, tips? I have a wall AC that doesn't do much AND it costs about 75 cents an hour to run. I have been instead running 2 ceiling fans, 2 stand fans I parked in front of the windows to get cross breeze, and a tiny fan that blows right on my head at night.

2) My apartment is located less than a mile from fire, police, a hospital, and about a mile and change from some train tracks. With the windows shut I couldn't really hear any of it but the train, but now I hear ALL of it. And the idiots booming their bass at 3am. Uh, is there a way to filter those out but still be able to hear my cellphone alarming that it's time to get up for work?

I dunno. I'm willing to try stuff. I have compliance for another week or two with the machine rental though, so I'd rather not dial-wing at this point. Once the stick's turned in for reports, I'd be willing to try a few things in that regard. In the meantime, I'm quite willing to play around with comfort settings and things that are more environmental.

Thanks again for any help, everyone

Not trying to be flippant, but have you tried a little Melatonin to get to sleep? I know the noise, and especially the heat would make sleeping hard and Cpap tends not to work well in the heat. And how are things in the leaks/mask dept?

With the exception of the leg thing, you have described my experience when at university. There is no fight all of what you described. Your problems are not with your CPAP. I have tried your machine! I am very sensitive to sound. You would find great comfort in the mild sound of your machine if you could solve all the other problems. The heat and noise of your surroundings is the problem. Do you have a routine before going to bed? It helps to develop one. I know what your are going through. I am an !insomniac

Meletonin, no. I have a med review with my therapist's office in a month but I can call and ask her what she thinks. I've been off the anxiety meds for a year now outside of panic attack breakthrough meds, but if it helps I'm willing to give it a shot.

Mask fit's been really pretty, actually. The Swift FX rotating with the Airfit P10 works nicely. If anything, I'm asking my DME about just how long a hose I can get next time I'm eligible.

I love the fans, they actually drown out the CPAP sounds entirely. I slept with a fan even in winter all through school.

I'm trying to break the tv-to-sleep which I know is bad but for a while it was the only way I was not freaking out when I first moved on my own. I've not used it at night the last couple weeks though, it's been too hot. I use my computer as a TiVo, it adds a degree an hour of heat! So no desktop for now, just the laptop and cell phone on wifi. I sometimes mix in ocean sounds on my phone I have this nice hour-long track. At uni I'd sleep with the tv all night to mask the campus police sounds and the drunkies who are gonna drunk. Running up and down the stairs that were attached to the other side of my bedroom on campus's wall. So still adjusting to no-tv. But overall it's been a fairly smooth switch with this many fans going!

I am falling asleep pretty quickly, I just can't seem to *stay* asleep.

I've been finding myself wandering around my apartment on crutches a bit the last week or two too around on average 2amish. Burping a fair bit more. The thunderstorms don't help as then I have to quick hobble around shut all the windows so the electronics don't get soaked.

If you're burping, you may have acid reflux and that could well be waking you at night. If it's likely, then you should try cutting out any caffeine beyond afternoons (or altogether if possible), pop, spicy anything, too much pasta at one sitting, and any meds which could be contributing... and maybe try a small (or even 1/2 of same) Tums right before bed.

I work nights and outdoor noise (traffic, sirens, kids, etc) made it impossible to sleep without doing something. I ended up just wearing earplugs and getting a louder alarm clock. I can actually hear my alarm fine through my ear plugs but it drowns out everything else, most noise I hear is my own breathing which to me is actually kind of soothing. I have narrow ear canals and most plugs get uncomfortable, but I found that Howard Leight Max Lite disposable earplugs were perfect. Wear them every night and they never get uncomfortable. I just bought a big job box with 200 pairs for about $20, and wear each pair for maybe a week until they wear out or get dirty. Here's a link if you're interested. No, I'm in no way affiliated with them or the seller. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005CJ42L ... mp_s_a_1_3

I'm also taking melatonin and it really helps, but not because of the noise, I just wake up for no reason all night if I don't take it.

Well, as an update: have not tried the melatonin. Did get approved for it from my doc, but on the 23rd I saw the orthopedic surgeon through Worker's Comp and it turns out the regular doc missed that I broke 3 bones in my foot. (They apparently broke in a way where nothing popped out of place and with the swelling initially it didn't *look* broken, but now it's clear.) I'm now in the process of 6 weeks non-weight bearing. I am currently getting help from my parents for rides to and from work and with cooking, and I also was prescribed a rollabout so I can get around work, it's so biiiiig around work. Like, do nearly a mile with crutches and handicap parking most days, big. Once I get to the desk it isn't bad, but the bathroom's not terribly close.

So, since I can't get up the stairs into my apartment without weight bearing (tried. scooting on my butt like the doc suggested worked until it was time to get up off the ground, then it was even more weight than partial going up the stairs more normally with crutches! Ow!), we got me into an extended stay hotel, which solves the stair problem, and the bathing one.

Weird thing though, I'm noticing that my APAP's showing a 24/30 compliance, but when I look at sleepyhead I'm getting >4 hours for at all but 2-3 of those nights. (2 were at 3.9 hours. whoops. One was 2.5, I fell asleep when meds kicked in...lights on, tv on, sitting up!! Usually I have a full arousal well before then so I can at least get 4-5 of my 6 true sleep hours by the time potty breaks are figured in on-cpap. Leg strength is just not that good at 4am.) Any ideas there? Is there times where sleepyhead shows >4 but the APAP won't? Like, does the 4 hours have to be continuous for it to count to the APAP? My machine showed like, 26/30 and the DME showed 29/30 to their report when I took the card in a couple weeks ago, so they said I passed and I don't have to compliance-game for the insurance company anymore. If it's just not reacting to the way I have lots of wakeups half the time as I'd expect, I can deal with it, but I don't want there to be something wrong with the machine and not get it in for fixing.

I will say as long as I beat my meds kicking in to getting the cpap on I'm doing well with the compliance, but I've now several times woken up to hose and mask in my hands in the last week. ^^; This is getting a bit frustrating as then I'm waking up with headaches and extra pain and it's just starting to get in a yucky loop.

The hotel is very nice and quiet and the air condition's lovely though. As long as I can get my foot-in-boot-cast in a relatively ok position I am staying asleep. Points to environmental at my apartment, for sure. On the nights where I got the cpap on before falling asleep I have actually slept 7 hours straight at a few points! Amazing!

I'm actually looking at those sleephones from our hosts since I like some sound to mask out creepy-sounds. I have a lot of ocean sounds tracks and things like that.

SleepyStar wrote:The hotel is very nice and quiet and the air condition's lovely though. As long as I can get my foot-in-boot-cast in a relatively ok position I am staying asleep. Points to environmental at my apartment, for sure. On the nights where I got the cpap on before falling asleep I have actually slept 7 hours straight at a few points! Amazing!

Yep. And don't forget to add in the pain from the undiagnosed broken bones---you may not have noticed it so much when you were awake with other things to distract you, but pain itself is highly disruptive to sleep patterns. Add that the not very good sleep environment, and it's no wonder that you were waking up so frequently at home.

Wishing you a quick recovery from the broken foot ...

Yeah, they'd given me the same meds, but was operating on the assumption that it was a sprain or possible tear for the first few weeks. MRI ruled out any tears but the first doc didn't catch the breaks in that same MRI. Go figure.

Thank you I hope it heals quick too!

Even before the break happened though, my sleep's been so screwy for so long...I'm hoping to not do meds to fix it because I"m really bad at remembering just my daily birth control, never mind any other pills...I dunno. I think I need a 101 course on how to sleep some days. I just...wow, looking back I've had more nights with at least 1 wakeup with 20 minute-hour gaps than not.

Have you seen the S9 Autoset say a different amount of days as meeting compliance than the software before, Robysue? Or heard of anyone else seeing that? That's the bit that currently has me a bit worried.