Long Day's Journey Therapy Thread

[Long day's journey]

Do you take any medications of any kind? If so, what?

Yes, Levothyroxine .88 mcg

The pills I use to return to sleep are the generic versions of Xanax and Lunesta, alternating each night so I don't get addicted (my primary seemed to roll her eyes when I told her why I wanted two prescriptions)

Do you have other physical or mental health issues that might impact your sleep quality?

Would menopause count? The hot flashes seem to have subsided, but they'll probably return

Slight heart murmur (not sure this would impact it)

Anxiety, as you can probably tell

I have started wondering if being on the computer full-time for my job and then whatever time after work could impact sleep. Trying to read old-fashioned books before I go to sleep & avoid screens

Any idea what might be causing the wake ups? Did you have those wake ups prior to going on cpap therapy?

Yes, the early morning wake-ups have been with me for at least 7 years (diagnosed & started cpap therapy last summer). There have been some magic nights in the last year where I slept till 3 or even 4, but they're the exception. I'm clueless about a cause.

By all means give fixed pressure a try. While I tend to believe that it isn't so much the changing pressures that causes the wake ups for most people (I think it is the apnea events that the pressure is responding to that is the main culprit for most people) there are people who say they simply sleep better with fixed pressures. Hurts nothing to give it a try and at least answer that question.
You will probably need around 9 or 10 cm fixed though ...I am not so sure 8 fixed will be enough but you could try it and see what happens. Some nights 8 might get the job done but there are times you need more and if you used 8 and need more then the airway might try to collapse. So you might have to use more pressure all the time instead of some of the time if you want to go with a fixed pressure.

Yes, the charts do show that most nights my pressure does go higher than 8, so I'll try higher than that initially. (I've discovered that wish fulfillment doesn't get you very far with cpap, go figure.) Thanks Pugsy!

[Pugsy]

Actually menopause does count and is very significant and not just because of the hot flashes either.
All the hormone imbalances that go along with menopause most definitely can impact sleep quality.
AND...I know you don't want to hear this but those damn hot flashes don't go away 100%...I just turned 68 a couple of weeks ago and I still get the damn things every now and then. My husband says sometimes he touches me in the middle of the night and it's like touching a stove.

I suspect that your sleep issues aren't related to cpap or the therapy effectiveness and are instead related to all the other stuff in life that messes with sleep but it hurts nothing to keep trying different things in an effort to improve on sleep quality like a fixed pressure of some sort or even maybe auto mode but with a really tight range.
All worth trying and you never know but you might get lucky and stumble on something that helps.
Watch your software data. Make sure you don't have clusters of OAs or hyponeas show up on a consistent basis.