Flow Limitation and UARS?

What mask are you using?
It would help us out if you would add your equipment to your profile like I have mine.

The headaches...totally new since therapy began? Wonder if they might be related to mask straps being too tight?
Do you wake up with a headache and have it go away shortly after waking or does it last all day?
Any sinus or nasal symptoms?
How's your neck feeling?

If they are totally something new since cpap therapy started then maybe related to the mask...maybe not but probably should mention it to the doctor just in case if you can't figure out a possible cause.

Ok, I added it to my signature too.

Yeah, it's been happening the past couple of weeks and I think that's when I started therapy again. No nasal problems but a little bit on the neck. I'm going to go to my primary today and check it out. Yesterday was really bad.

The Swift FX nasal pillow mask straps aren't well known for maybe causing headaches. They are pretty minimal unless you have them too tight. Now if you were using a full face mask that has those lower straps that rest along the base of the skull then maybe they might be a culprit for headaches.

Sometimes we sleep in weird positions subconsciously in an effort to minimize mask leaks and this sometimes puts stress on the cervical spine and when the C spine gets a bit tweaked it responds with muscle tension headaches.
So you might want to investigate a different bed pillow.

If you have a history of arthritis in your neck it's possible that the headaches are related to a combination of bed pillow, sleeping position and maybe the straps if they are too snug.

I don't know what to make of the frequent awakenings at this point.
If you can't pin point a cause for the awakenings it makes it really difficult to fix something because we don't know what needs fixing.
It's possible that you have sleep maintenance insomnia...again if we don't know why it's hard to fix it.

I don't remember if I asked this question already so please forgive me if I have...I can't see all the replies in this thread at the moment...do you take any meds of any kind even OTC? If so, what?

I used to take benadryl or melatonin from time to time to help me sleep.

But now I'm taking amitriptyline (10mg) to help anxiety since I have irritable bowel syndrome. One of the side effects of it is drowsiness.

Looking at your picture, your machine is set at 6.5-20, but your actual max pressure is 8.0 -- so the machine thinks that there is no reason you need any of those higher pressures. (As opposed to me, where my machine has an upper pressure set to 20 and I spend time in the teens every single night and have made it all the way to 20 one time.) So that's a good thing... Have you tried tinkering with temperature and humidity? There are lots of people who get headaches from changes in weather, which is, of course, changes in pressure. I've lost track -- have you experimented with a single pressure and turning the exhale relief totally off? Maybe you are hypersensitive to even small pressure changes.

I know about amitryptiline 10 mg. I take it myself but for nighttime pain control. In low doses it seems to help with pain and without it my sleep is fractured really bad due to pain. Earlier this summer I experimented with not taking it for 3 or 4 months. Bad idea on my part. My sleep quality really suffered. So I am back on it regularly.

Do you take 1 or 2 tabs at bedtime? I sleep better with 2 tabs but if I don't take them early enough in the evening I find it takes a couple of hours to get rid of the hangover effect the next morning. 1 tab and it's not too much of an issue but then the sleep is not quite so good.
I don't take it during the day though. I need to take it around 7 PM but invariably I forget and it's around 10 PM (or later) and then I have to decide do I take 1 or 2.
Since I am retired it doesn't really matter in terms of my morning wake up time if I have a bit of residual drowsiness but I would rather not have it if I can help it.

cathyf wrote:Looking at your picture, your machine is set at 6.5-20, but your actual max pressure is 8.0 -- so the machine thinks that there is no reason you need any of those higher pressures. (As opposed to me, where my machine has an upper pressure set to 20 and I spend time in the teens every single night and have made it all the way to 20 one time.) So that's a good thing... Have you tried tinkering with temperature and humidity? There are lots of people who get headaches from changes in weather, which is, of course, changes in pressure. I've lost track -- have you experimented with a single pressure and turning the exhale relief totally off? Maybe you are hypersensitive to even small pressure changes.

Yeah I've been going up and up on the pressure as the days go by. Maybe I should let it settle? I started around 4.0 last week and last night was at 6.5.

Pugsy wrote:I know about amitryptiline 10 mg. I take it myself but for nighttime pain control. In low doses it seems to help with pain and without it my sleep is fractured really bad due to pain. Earlier this summer I experimented with not taking it for 3 or 4 months. Bad idea on my part. My sleep quality really suffered. So I am back on it regularly.

Do you take 1 or 2 tabs at bedtime? I sleep better with 2 tabs but if I don't take them early enough in the evening I find it takes a couple of hours to get rid of the hangover effect the next morning. 1 tab and it's not too much of an issue but then the sleep is not quite so good.
I don't take it during the day though. I need to take it around 7 PM but invariably I forget and it's around 10 PM (or later) and then I have to decide do I take 1 or 2.
Since I am retired it doesn't really matter in terms of my morning wake up time if I have a bit of residual drowsiness but I would rather not have it if I can help it.

I take only 1 (10mg) and try to do it around 7-8pm as well. I'm in the same boat, if I take it too late, then it takes too long for it to take effect and I get that hangover feeling in the morning. I wonder if that could be causing my headaches too since I started that maybe like a month ago? But I've heard it is used to reduce pain, and like yourself, that's what you are using it for.

I doubt that the Amitrypline is the cause of the headache unless it is promoting staying in one position too long and you are getting what I call a "neck headache". I have really bad arthritis in my neck so I am familiar with "neck headaches" quite well.

My first thought about the headaches (if you didn't have them prior to cpap therapy) is most likely a combination of head and neck position on the bed pillow and maybe strap tension.

Second thought might be related to the absence of a humidifier until recently. Sinus headache type of thing.
But that should have been relieved with the addition of the humidifier unless the setting is too low. Plus most often you would be complaining of nasal or sinus issues if that was the case.

I woke up with a headache this morning myself. It was from a combination of things though. A combination that I know too well because I see it often when I end up sleeping in a weird position on my bed pillow. I use a buckwheat hull bed pillow and sometimes I end up sort of on it and off it with my neck sort of tweaked or torqued out of a good straight line...I woke up that way this morning and my neck told me it didn't like that position..plus it started raining last night and when it rains my neck hurts more. Technically I suppose my headaches are muscle tension headaches but I just call them "neck headaches" because I know who the culprit is.

While the Swift FX nasal pillow mask straps aren't known to be a frequent culprit for tension headaches...maybe that lower back strap is adding to the mix a bit with some pressure on the base of the skull which might tend to make any cervical issues more pronounced....so if you are wearing it low and tight..maybe move it up a little and loosen it a little. If you look in the mirror and the first thought through your mind is "piggy nose"...that top strap might be a little too tight. Anything that is too tight on our head can cause headaches.