Request advice - Maximizing my results starting ASV

Hello there,

I am requesting the board members advice on the best method to approach maximizing my success with getting used to the ASV treatment I am going to start in the next few days. I have been in-lab sleep studied three times and developed severe centrals with deoxygenation on CPAP and bilevel and ST thus the ASV choice. At least at the sleep studies I would wake at about 3 or 4am and then not sleep at all until waking time. Perhaps this experience will continue at home so my question is which is the best way to maximize my tolerance and success in adapting to my new "adventure"? My equipment is listed below.

1. Keep the mask on for the full eight hours of my planned sleep whether I sleep or not.

2. Take the mask off if I can not go back to sleep at some point and try to increase my tolerance time with the mask in an incrementally increasing way.

My intuition tells me that it would be best to keep the mask on the entire time no matter what so that I never develop the habit or excuse to take it off.

I am committed to making this a successful experience and am looking for your advice on the best behavioral techniques to become a successful life long user of my machine.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

I think you are asking a sleep hygiene question.
So .. here's what I do under the circumstances you describe.
Sometimes when I wake up at night (several times each night) and I can't immediately go back to sleep and about 20 minutes go by, then I just get up, go to another room and read for a while until I feel sleepy again and then back to bed and the machine.

I think that lying there for a long time, mask on but not sleeping can help convince your brain that its OK to be in bed and not asleep. That's the sleep hygiene part, convincing your brain (developing a habit) that in bed with the mask on means go to sleep. I wear a pulse-oximeter from time to time and I notice that my heart rate when I get in bed is frequently above 100 bpm but that, as soon as I get in bed and mask up, it drops down to less than 70 bpm in a couple of minutes. That's my body responding to "we're in bed and masked up so we must be going to sleep."

It takes a while to develop this habit but consistency of sleep hygiene will get you there sooner rather than later.

Hmmmm, never thought of this as an option. Of course I didn't have this as an option in the sleep lab.

I guess my real concern was whether to be rigorous about not taking the mask off at night.

My thought was that if I was lying awake in the early morning with the mask on that taking the mask off would probably drop me right back to sleep but this might be a slippery slope..

any other thoughts?

I can say the first time I have slept more than 2 hours strait in the last 3 years was with this machine... I love it!!! I threatened the doctor when he started suggesting I didn't need this machine..

It did take a couple nights to get "used" to how the machine does things, and after a month, it still likes to give me some 7 cm to 13 cm pressure jolt just as I am falling asleep and it kinda startles me... but I am getting used to that also... it knows when my breathing is getting shallow....

so far the hardest part has been the mask, I finally found one that works for me... When the pressure goes up its like a balloon and compresses on my nose more and stops the leaks, its awesome..

If you don't go back to sleep quickly, then the problem is to avoid developing the habit of teaching yourself the its all right to be in bed, masked up and not asleep. Its not all right to be in bed at sleep time and not be masked up. Its not all right to be in bed and reading or watching TV, etc.

So never just take your mask off and roll over.
Never just lie there after about 20 minutes. 20 minutes is about the average sleep latency time for going to sleep.
Getting and being successful at CPAP therapy depends on developing the new habit "i'm in bed and masked up therefore I am going to sleep."

Don't do anything that interferes with this new habit. If you are rigorous in this habit development, success will follow.
Getting the right mask, getting the right pressure settings, etc. are all part of developing this new habit.

JDS74, This is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks so much.

so, if I find myself up for a half hour or so in the middle of the night, I take it I should take the mask off and move to another room and perhaps read. Do you have any suggestions on light level and how long to go before returning to bed? If I still can't sleep do you recommend repeating this?

I usually (without xpap) sleep soundly through the whole night. So the sleep lab experience x3 of lying awake through the early morning hours were rough on me and alarming. I just want to have a sound strategy in place if this experience repeats itself when I start at home two days from now. So, thanks for answering these last questions about what to do once I get up.

I use a reading lamp in another room. I just wait until I feel a little sleepy. Sometimes it takes me a couple of hours but normally less than an hour.

Just keep on with keeping on. It will work.

Cool! and thanks so much.

I believe that most people who are new to cpap have a certain amount of anxiety about sleep apnea that they eventually will overcome. Not being perfect right out of the box is okay.

As has been said earlier, sleep hygiene is very important. What worked for me was to setup a routine that I followed every night. Regularly scheduled time to go to bed each and every night is a must! I keep the lights dimmed while I'm preparing to go to bed. No harsh lights or loud music or loud TV during the last hour or so before bedtime also helps me to feel sleepy at bedtime. There was a lot of trial and error before I found the routine that works best for me.

Helpful advice; thank you.