New user experiencing claustrophobia and headaches

You are coming along nicely!

Another explanation for the headaches may be that the humidity settings are not right. That's a user comfort thing, and not prescribed by your doctor, so feel free to adjust it. When there is too much humidity, it gives me a headache and some nasal congestion. Your mileage may vary, tough, some people feel better with more humidity, some with less. I suggest you either increase or decrease your humidity setting one "notch" and see if you feel better or worse. Don't make more than one adjustment every few days or so, or you'll never sort out WHAT helped or didn't help. It may take some tweaking to find your "sweet spot" for humidity.

As for the claustrophobia, hopefully your new mask will help. I grappled with a lot of claustrophobia at first, starting in a FF mask too, but even in less obtrusive masks at the beginning. What I learned later was that it was the APNEA that caused the anxiety that caused the claustrophobia, and once I got improved apnea the claustrophobia went away.

I had a few tricks to help. First, if I felt like I had to rip the mask off to breathe, I'd make myself count slowly to 10 while taking deep breaths before taking the mask off. After a while, I was calmed down long before 10 and didn't need to take it off. Secondly, if I ever removed the mask in a panic, the rule was I had to put it back on. No sleeping without the mask.

It took me three MONTHS to reach my ultimate goal (you're way ahead of me!), which was to simply and without much thought put the mask on and go to sleep without any drama or fanfare. You'll be there soon. And one morning you will wake up after a good night's uninterrupted, fully oxygenated and calm sleep feeling calm and at peace for the first time in years. Then you will know why we are all here. Shhhh, don't tell, or everyone will want a CPAP.

Thanks for all your hints and encouragement!

Interestingly, it was nightly headaches that sent me to the sleep study in the first place. I looked forward to those disappearing. So when the headaches came on sooner and harder with the CPAP, it was very discouraging.

The sleep study showed an AHI of 5.4, which is only very slightly above normal of 5. (REM AHI: 15.3) Oxyhemoglobin desaturation of 86%; I have no idea what normal is.

I've been claustrophobic since forever, so I doubt it's apnea/anxiety that causes it. Thankfully, the new nasal mask does not bring on claustrophobia. It will still take some adjustment to wearing something, anything, on my face, but at least I don't feel panicky.

-How do I adjust the humidifier?
-My machine is automatic, so I assume it is regulating my AHI and responding accordingly.
-How can I detect if the pressure is too low? Will increasing the pressure help alleviate the headaches?

On my air-curve you go into "my options" and the humidity level goes from off to 8. I am an Arizona girl used to low humidity so I leave mine set really low on 2. Each machine is a little different so hopefully someone with your same model will come along and be able to tell you how it works.

Changing pressure is more involved. You need the clinicians manual. There are links to all this stuff pinned at the top of the forum. Automatic machines can only raise pressure so fast and if they are set to low sometimes they can not respond quick enough to prevent events. Each person is very different in what works how much pressure is needed etc. To optimize your settings the experts will need you to post some charts so they can see where the issues might be.

Off2Sleep wrote: ↑

Wed May 01, 2019 12:53 pm

-How do I adjust the humidifier?

that big knob right next to the display screen? push it in until you see "My Options" highlighted. push the knob again. there you have a bunch of choices. you'll see humidity as one of the choices. dial down to that choice then push the big knob again. once you've adjusted big knob press back to menu. if no other choices are to be made dial knob up to home and press that.

Off2Sleep wrote: ↑

Wed May 01, 2019 12:53 pm

-My machine is automatic, so I assume it is regulating my AHI and responding accordingly.

yes and no. i mean, yes, it's going to adjust itself. but the machine is going to need a little help. it's best to find that just right spot for you to start out with. most of us are sent home with a range of min pressure at 4 and a maximum pressure of 20. but in reality, hardly anyone can breath comfortably at 4. usually, this needs to go up to a min of 7. there's more to this, but it won't really make a difference until you are further along in your therapy.

Off2Sleep wrote: ↑

Wed May 01, 2019 12:53 pm

-How can I detect if the pressure is too low? Will increasing the pressure help alleviate the headaches?

kinda/sorta ties in with what i said above. and to TRULY track your sleep, you need the available software. i use sleepyhead and it's available at the link at the bottom of my sig.

relief from headaches is one of the very first benefits you'll get when your therapy is optimized.

stick with us, right here, and we'll work on getting that therapy optimized!

The sleep study showed an AHI of 5.4, which is only very slightly above normal of 5. (REM AHI: 15.3) Oxyhemoglobin desaturation of 86%; I have no idea what normal is

Normal blood oxygen levels are 93 - 98 during sleep, so 86% explains your headaches--too low.

It takes a bit of time and sometimes some tweaking, to dial the settings in to get optimal therapy from the machine. Once you do that, it should help with your headaches.

Even though the machine is an automatically adjusting machine, it doesn't respond immediately. It takes some time to figure out if you are really having an apnea or just a leak and then it slowly raises the pressure until your apneas stop. When the starting pressure starts out low, it takes longer to get on top of the apneas, and the apneas may go higher until the machine catches up. You will be able to see exactly how this is happening if you use the free software to be able to see your graphs.

I've been claustrophobic since forever, so I doubt it's apnea/anxiety that causes it. Thankfully, the new nasal mask does not bring on claustrophobia. It will still take some adjustment to wearing something, anything, on my face, but at least I don't feel panicky.

I used to have much anxiety driving over bridges and when there's a solid barrier on the left (but not the right???) side of the lane I'm driving in. Surprisingly, since CPAP my anxiety for those things is much diminished. I think it does have to do with the fact that my body isn't bathed in stress hormones all night any more. But I had a much higher AHI than you do, so for you it may not make a noticeable difference.

Off2Sleep wrote: ↑

Wed May 01, 2019 12:53 pm

Thanks for all your hints and encouragement!

Interestingly, it was nightly headaches that sent me to the sleep study in the first place. I looked forward to those disappearing. So when the headaches came on sooner and harder with the CPAP, it was very discouraging.

The sleep study showed an AHI of 5.4, which is only very slightly above normal of 5. (REM AHI: 15.3) Oxyhemoglobin desaturation of 86%; I have no idea what normal is.

There is NOTHING 'normal' about an AHI of 5, though that IS considered by too many as an acceptable level.

When I got mine below 1, I noticed a BIG improvement in my morning attitude.

You guys! Your encouraging notes mean so much to me! Not only do you give me very useful information that keeps me from feeling overwhelmed by all this, but you do so with empathy and humor. You are kind and friendly and so generous in your support of a stranger. It feels like a virtual hug. Thank you ever so much.

Janknitz, when I read that you experience anxiety crossing bridges and driving alongside concrete barriers (me, too!), I felt understood, but also gleeful that my CPAP might help diminish some of my daytime anxieties. (BTW, the anxiety from left-side barriers is because they are RIGHT next to you. Right-side barriers are on the passenger side, so they are not as "threatening".)

SDBud, thank you for letting me know there is NOTHING "normal" about an AHI of 5. I was feeling like a wuss at "just" 5.4.

Zonker, I think my humidity is fine, but nice to know how to adjust it if and when I need to. Thanks.

Also useful to know that my "auto" machine is slow in building to the pressure I need. Should I shut off the auto? Or just turn up the minimum pressure? Can I do this without a doctor's prescription? I think Medicare needs to see that I am following doctor's orders. (I'm new to Medicare; I don't want to jeopardize their coverage.)

Medicare only cares about you actually using the machine for the minimum required number of hours so they don't feel like they are wasting their money paying for the cpap stuff.
Medicare doesn't ever get involved with the settings or even the AHI results when on cpap.
All they look at is hours of use.

Yes...when a machine isn't able to respond quickly enough to something then the best option is simply give it a better head start with a little more minimum.
Some doctors care if you change the pressure....some don't care.
Medicare doesn't care though.

It's easy enough to change anything if you know the secret handshake or combination of button pushing to get to the clinical setup menu for any of these machines.
The clinical manual (not user manual) explains how to get to the setup menu area.
If you don't already have a copy of the clinical manual...get one and read it. There's some really good information in it about the features on your machine that you might find useful or educational.
You can go here and request it via email if you don't have it.
https://www.apneaboard.com/adjust-cpap- ... tup-manual

And while you can solve the slow to respond issue simply by changing over to fixed cpap mode....it likely will mean that you are going to have to use a much higher pressure all night long instead of only just when needed. Example....I need maybe 6 to 8 cm more pressure only during REM stage sleep. REM makes up about 20 % of the night...I would sure hate to use 15 cm all night long just to deal with what happens in REM...instead it is much more comfortable to use around 8 or 9 most of the night and let the machine go up to 15 only when it needs to.

Off2Sleep wrote: ↑

Thu May 02, 2019 7:37 am

You guys! Your encouraging notes mean so much to me! Not only do you give me very useful information that keeps me from feeling overwhelmed by all this, but you do so with empathy and humor. You are kind and friendly and so generous in your support of a stranger. It feels like a virtual hug. Thank you ever so much.

Janknitz, when I read that you experience anxiety crossing bridges and driving alongside concrete barriers (me, too!), I felt understood, but also gleeful that my CPAP might help diminish some of my daytime anxieties. (BTW, the anxiety from left-side barriers is because they are RIGHT next to you. Right-side barriers are on the passenger side, so they are not as "threatening".)

SDBud, thank you for letting me know there is NOTHING "normal" about an AHI of 5. I was feeling like a wuss at "just" 5.4.

Zonker, I think my humidity is fine, but nice to know how to adjust it if and when I need to. Thanks.

Also useful to know that my "auto" machine is slow in building to the pressure I need. Should I shut off the auto? Or just turn up the minimum pressure? Can I do this without a doctor's prescription? I think Medicare needs to see that I am following doctor's orders. (I'm new to Medicare; I don't want to jeopardize their coverage.)

Consider yourself virtually hugged!!

whoa nellie! your kind of putting the cart in front of the horse. (see what i did there?) you can indeed change pressures just as pugsy said. and that's a good thing.

but you might not want to just go changing things to be changing things. your first step should be to download the sleepyhead software. this will allow you to track your sleep by giving you real data. the great thing about this is that it will present you with a graph of each night's sleep. you capture that image and post it here. when the experts (i am NOT one!) see it, they will be able to tell you what you need to change in order to optimize your sleep.

here's an example of what a sleepyhead chart looks like-

purdy, ain't it? and baffling, too. but others can evaluate it and see what needs to be done to get one's sleep going on the right path.

the link for sleepyhead software is in my sig below.

Off2Sleep wrote: ↑

Thu May 02, 2019 7:37 am

You guys! Your encouraging notes mean so much to me!

that's impossible! we've been told we're a bunch of jerks!!

zonker wrote: ↑

Thu May 02, 2019 10:33 am

Off2Sleep wrote: ↑

Thu May 02, 2019 7:37 am

You guys! Your encouraging notes mean so much to me!

that's impossible! we've been told we're a bunch of jerks!!

Are you taking that criticism to heart, Zonker?