Billymadison420 wrote: ↑Wed Jul 13, 2022 6:36 am
do people find that they have insomnia with the mask because of getting adjusted to it? And how did people try to deal with that?
Some do and some don't. You are going to find out that everything associated with cpap and/or masks and/or therapy comes with a huge YMMV sticker.
We do usually suggest that people use the mask and machine while awake for prolonged periods of time (reading, watching TV, etc) when not under the pressure of "I need to fall asleep" so that the brain/body has time to get adjusted to the new normal. The brain will adjust if you give it time.
Billymadison420 wrote: ↑Wed Jul 13, 2022 6:36 am
She also mentioned, like I have read a bunch here and on other websites, that I have accrued years of sleep debt and that it will take an adjustment period and time even while it is working effectively to begin to feel better. Is that the general experience of people here?
I am not so sure that I go along with the "years of sleep debt" thing that needs to be addressed before people can feel positive effects but there is usually an adjustment period in general just from the newness of everything and it does take a while for the body to seem to heal itself after the years of damage from untreated OSA.
While some people do report significant marked improvement immediately or almost immediately...they are actually in the minority. Most people will tell you that it took a while to see much improvement.
Or they tell you that they saw immediate relief in some areas but other areas the improvement took a lot longer.
Again this is another one of those YMMV things.
Your overall attitude is going to be real important. Negatives are easy to find but positives are somewhat elusive...so look for positives and don't target the negatives so much.
My story...I had immediate improvement in 2 typical OSA symptoms...morning killer headaches and nighttime nocturia.
Those went away within a couple of weeks (took me a couple of weeks to get therapy pressures optimized) but the other stuff was a lot slower to see much difference. It took my brain about 3 months to get to be best friends with the mask even though I actually didn't have any problems with the mask. My brain kept waking me up during the night just to alert me to the fact that "hey dudette, do you know that there is an alien on your face blowing air up your nose?"
My brain did that a lot and of course it messed with my overall sleep which in turns will mess with how we feel during the day. Until we sleep soundly for the most part we just aren't going to feel all that better.
I was one of those people who welcomed my diagnosis because I knew there was a fix for my problem...so I had a real positive attitude about things yet other than the 2 initial symptoms going away quickly, the other improvements took a bit longer. I really expected the cpap machine to fix problems that it couldn't fix....I thought it would change me into a "morning person with tons of energy" then I was sad it didn't....then I realized that never in my life have I ever been a morning person and no matter how good a job cpap did with my OSA prevention it couldn't change me into something I never have been. I had some unrealistic expectations. Lots of people have unrealistic expectations and when they don't meet those expectations they think that cpap "isn't working" but in reality they were expecting cpap to do something beyond what it was designed for.
Be patient and look closely at your expectations so that you don't fall into that trap.
Good luck. Just remember that any question or problem you might face isn't going to be brand new. Lots of people have faced the same thing and worked through it. You will too.
I may have to RISE but I refuse to SHINE.
If you want to try the Eclipse mask and want a special promo code to get a little off the price...send me a private message.