Still only sleeping 4 hours a night..

I have been on cpap for five years now, still only getting four hours of sleep a night. I go to bed put my mask on fall asleep and wake up four hours later every night. My doctor put me on a sleeping pill that cost $600.00 a month,that was bad enough. But it did not help much, plus I woke up really groogy, even 3mg of melatonin makes me groogy when I wake..I have heard something about aromatherapy, should I tyry this....


Sleepy in Ohio

glenwood73 wrote:I have been on cpap for five years now, still only getting four hours of sleep a night. I go to bed put my mask on fall asleep and wake up four hours later every night. My doctor put me on a sleeping pill that cost $600.00 a month,that was bad enough. But it did not help much, plus I woke up really groogy, even 3mg of melatonin makes me groogy when I wake..I have heard something about aromatherapy, should I tyry this....


Sleepy in Ohio

What ?????? $20 a pill ????

Yes $20.00 bucks a pill, more than Viagra..

What happens after you wake up? Do you lie there trying to go back to sleep? Get up for the day?

Do you get sleepy in a while?

I get up for the day most of the time, or try and fall asleep on the couch..

OK, here are some things to try.

When you wake up after 4 hours, get up, turn off the machine, and go to another room. Get something not exciting to read and read quietly for 30 minutes or so. If you start to feel sleepy, then go back to bed, mask up and see if you can go to sleep.

If this doesn't work the first time (you don't go back to sleep within another 30 minutes), do it again and try a second time.

No reading in bed. No TV in bed. Until this issue gets resolved, bed is only for sleeping, masked up.
Don't try to get back to sleep on the couch.

What you need to accomplish is the creation of a new habit. "I'm in bed so I mask up and go to sleep."
Getting up and going to a different room and trying to fall asleep on the couch interferes with developing this new habit.
Hope this helps.
Try an internet search on the topic of "Sleep Hygiene" and you can see if you have any other habits that interfere with your sleep.

Edit:
Links for information about Sleep Hygiene

Info on Sleep Hygiene
Sleep Hygiene Recommendations
Sleep Hygiene Tips

Thanks, I will try right now....

Lots of us have been there. Occasionally, I wake up after a few hours and can't get back to sleep. I used to struggle lying there until I figured out that was non productive. Now when that happens, I get up and read or watch some really boring TV program the comes on late at night until I feel sleepy. Then I go back to bed and try again. Usually that works but sometimes I end up just getting up for the day. So don't get discouraged if this happens to you for a while. It all takes time.
Hang in there.

Do you wake up with your head sort of buzzing and your nervous system key'd up? Do you have to urinate immediately? Do you have a headache upon awakening? Do you suffer a lot of stress in your daytime hours? Maybe it's your adrenal glands acting up.

Perhaps it's time to consult an endocrinologist. I had the problem of 'night jitters' for years and managed to beat it with some relaxation techniques and a few mineral supplements.

As a side note: Thyroid problems can cause similar sleep problems... something else to check out.

A few things come to mind...
...Do you take any evening meds? Some can disrupt sleep and are better moved to morning.
...Are you taking the melatonin before bedtime or when you wake up? Have you tried a much lower dose of melatonin? A smaller dose might be as effective with less hangover.
...If you do choose aromatherapy, I would use it at bedtime when you do fall asleep. This way you're building an association - mask+scent=sleep. When you wake up, unmask and do a couple things from your bedtime routine, even if it's just a potty run then remasking and refresh the scent. Maybe take a teeny tiny dose of melatonin. This may not help immediately but may help over time. Choose a non-stimulating scent.

Try Atarax (hydroxyzine) 25mg or 50 mg. Safer than barbs or mild Ambien. Don't understand $20 pill unless super barbiturate.

tedburnsIII wrote:Try Atarax (hydroxyzine) 25mg or 50 mg. Safer than barbs or mild Ambien. Don't understand $20 pill unless super barbiturate.

The drug mentioned is the newly FDA approved sleep med called Belsomra (no generic yet) which is a new modality that is supposed to not affect the GABA receptors but somehow stops the chemicals that are released in the brain which stimulate middle of the night wakefulness. Search this forum for Belsomra and you will find several posts on it. Yes, it is crazy expensive like most new meds. Early reports seem to suggest that it only works for a small subset of insomniacs, however time will tell.