Newbie! Getting used to a new sleepy world....

It takes me right to that person's PM section so I can send them a message. So I compose the message and hit submit. Then it's sit in my Outgoing box. Never going into Sent.

I have 3 messages stuck in outgoing. It's not my internet, something is wrong.

I read in the FAQ that moderators can release messages. Well I PM'd a moderator and my message is stuck in my outgoing!

TheBigTenor wrote: ↑

Thu May 03, 2018 10:19 am

It takes me right to that person's PM section so I can send them a message. So I compose the message and hit submit. Then it's sit in my Outgoing box. Never going into Sent.

I have 3 messages stuck in outgoing. It's not my internet, something is wrong.

I read in the FAQ that moderators can release messages. Well I PM'd a moderator and my message is stuck in my outgoing!

Any PMs will stay in the "OutBox" until opened and read by whomever you sent it to.
Once it is read THEN the PM will move to the SENT box. It's how you know if someone has read your PM or not.

Which moderator did you send a PM to??? I am betting one that isn't active here anymore.
Try sending me a PM and watch what happens.

I was awakened last night with a bit of a rapid heart rate. It was about 85bpm (I average 62 when in sleep). I took off my pillows and actually got up out of bed for a few minutes then return after about 10 minutes. I ran my sleepy head report this morning and it shows an AHI of 0.0 perfect. However, I had an event at the time I was awakened with something noted as RERA. What is an RERA and if it had something to do with causing my increased heart rate, how do I stop it from happening again?

Since your machine is an automatic, try this.

Set the low on the whichever pressure that you were comfortable with. Then set the high to 15 or even 20. The higher pressure will only be delivered on an as needed basis. Most likely, you will only get the higher pressures when you're in the deepest sleep. Hopefully, you won't be awakened by that. You can engage or disengage the ramp as desired.

Note that the "official" measures of severity are the number of incidents, the duration of incidents, and oxygen desaturation. How you "feel" cannot be objectively measured. Your pressure settings are also not considered a measure of severity at this time (though that might change at some future date).

TheBigTenor wrote: ↑

Sat May 05, 2018 5:43 am

I was awakened last night with a bit of a rapid heart rate. It was about 85bpm (I average 62 when in sleep). I took off my pillows and actually got up out of bed for a few minutes then return after about 10 minutes. I ran my sleepy head report this morning and it shows an AHI of 0.0 perfect. However, I had an event at the time I was awakened with something noted as RERA. What is an RERA and if it had something to do with causing my increased heart rate, how do I stop it from happening again?

Respiratory Effort Related Arousal.

The machine thought your breathing was labored, and then you took some big breaths to recover... (and woke up, apparently).

Hi there Big Tenor. I can relate to some of what you're saying but as far as the real technical data goes, it's all Greek to me too. I can't comment on any of the SleepyHead data. However I believe that all of the anxiety you're describing and waking up with your mask ripped off, to me sounds normal. It's a huge learning curve to be able to sleep with a head gear and mask and hose hooked up to the machine. My first month I was always waking up with my mask in my hand, hose disconnected, or I'd just ripped the thing off. It probably took me atleast 2 weeks before I was marginally OK with it, same mask as you have by the way, magnetic straps, Resmed F20.

And also like you my sleep schedule was terrible. I would get 4 or 5 hours of sleep every night and then go do a demanding, stressful driving job. It's purely a miracle I didn't die. I remember one thing I used to do when going to bed was I'd put on my mask, lay down and focus on relaxing and slowing my breathing and heart rate, physically and mentally prepare for when I do hook up the hose and start pressure, that first initial couple of seconds used to wig me out a little bit, when the machine is adjusting pressure to you. Over time, I was surprised to see my sleep schedule adjusting naturally, I began wanting to go to bed earlier and sleep longer, now I'm used to getting around 7 hours of sleep and I miss it if I cut it short.

Washing your face, mask and if you're a guy, shaving, (I don't necessarily shave every day/night but DEFINITELY wash face and mask every night, I didn't used to, that's probably why I got pimples from my mask, I've learned my lesson, (disgusting, I know, I'm sorry, just being honest...) now I can't stand to see the previous nights facial oil buildup in my mask, wash with liquid dish detergent every time) will all help in keeping leaks to a minimum, and try to not over tighten your mask, especially with the F20, it will start to cut into the bridge of your nose, I have a scar from mine. The tightness of the mask changes when it has air pressure on it, it seems like it tightens up a bit when pressure hits, so the goal is to get it just snug, try it with pressure and I highly suggest using a pencil or marker to "mark" where the tips of the velcro straps are so that you can accurately (and evenly) make small incremental adjustments until you find the sweet spot.

I wore the F20 for about 8 months before finally upgrading to the Amara View, which I think is a far superior mask but some people don't seem to do as well with it. I love it. And it gets the mask off the bridge of your nose. Don't give up and try to understand you have to learn how to sleep on CPAP, it's a totally unnatural thing you're asking of yourself.

Well, I'm finally starting to get used to the CPAP now. I've switched to the nose pillows and it's much easier to use than the mask for me. I couldn't have continued unless I switched the pressure settings. They were set too high for my comfort. Now as I'm getting used to the pressure I'm even slightly bumping it up a little.

My issue I think was if I wore this device I would wake up the next day feeling like a new man. Well that was far from the truth. The first week was the worst sleep of my life. I then quit the device for 16 days. After a couple "episodes" where I would wake up not breathing and panicked gasping for air, I went back to try the machine. This time with the nose pillows. It worked!

So hopefully I can get the machine set perfect for my therapy. So far so good, but I want to tweak it a little until I feel I'm right in my pocket.

Thanks for your reply.