Post
by mister_hose » Fri Aug 18, 2006 8:08 am
imsotired, stick with it. Five days is NOTHING. The problems will subside with time. You just need to get used to it. I started out with your exact same problems.... but now I've been on CPAP a little over a month, and it's no problem. Just another nighttime ritual. In fact, putting on the mask has become a signal for me to get sleepy... like the old Pavlov's dogs thing, conditioning. So now the mask actually HELPS me get to sleep faster, how about that? Bonus! =) Also, try killing the heat on your heated humidifier if you have one... using the HH made the air stuffy and humid (think: hot summer day) and thus gave me that hard-to-breathe, mildly-suffocating feeling. Try turning the HH off, it worked for me. Passover humidification only. The air's cooler and feels "thinner", and breathing's a lot easier. This may end your "suffocation" and "wanting to rip the mask off" problems, honest.
To folks taking the mask off in your sleep... three times before bed, tell yourself sternly (doesn't have to be out loud) that anytime you want to take off the mask, you must look at the clock, and if it's before (your wake time here), you will NOT remove the mask. Order yourself to follow that rule three times before going to bed. It works. I almost never wake up the with the mask off now, and some mornings I vaguely remember looking at the clock in the middle of the night, then deciding not to take the mask off because it was before my wake time... all while I wasn't really fully conscious. This technique of "pre-programming" the behavior of your mostly-asleep self really works. To make it even MORE effective, follow your own orders even when fully awake... that means EVERY TIME you ever take the mask off, look at the clock and make sure it reads after your wake time. It may seem silly doing this when you're totally awake, but do it every time... this will ensure you do it every time when it counts (during the night), too.
This idea came to me based on some techniques I'd read about that involve programming yourself to do certain things while inside dreams. The same techniques were employed (pre-ordering yourself to always do A in situation B, and always doing it, even when wide awake during the day). It worked, so I figured if I can pre-program my dream self, I can also pre-program my groggy, half-asleep self. I was right. Try it.
And for the folks saying that 4 hours of CPAP sleep beats 8 hours of apnea sleep... yes it does, but not just because it's 4 hours of deep sleep vs. 8 hours of light, fragmented sleep. The reality is 4 hours of deep, non-harmful sleep versus 8 hours of light, fragmented, extremely harmful sleep. It's not that the 8 hours of apnea sleep are MERELY "less good" than the 4 hours of CPAP sleep, it's that apnea sleep is ACTIVELY HARMING your body, and the cumulative effects will eventually kill you. So the stakes are a lot higher than just "effective sleep" vs. "less effective sleep".
"Mister Hose, that's my name, that name again is Mister Hose!"
