New user keeps taking off mask while sleeping

Hi everyone,

29 year old male, slightly overweight, but do strength train 5 days a week. I do have a very large neck and can be told that is a factor here so wanted to mention it.

I have been having issues with sleep for at least 4 or 5 years now. I can fall asleep pretty quick, as I usually set a podcast or some music to fall asleep to with a 20 minute timer and I would say 48 out of 50 times I am asleep before it turns off. I also do usually wake up a few times at night, to either go to bathroom or for an unknown reason. I can almost always fall back to sleep quickly after waking up as well. My sleep schedule is not great, it has been better lately but I usually try to go to bed between 12 AM and 2 PM and wake up usually between 9 AM and 10 AM. My sleep schedule has been better lately but I can be a night owl so sometimes I get in the work zone or something else and the schedule goes out the window. I do know how important a good schedule is so I have been working on it a bunch and trying to be better.

The issue has been no matter how much sleep I get, even 10+ hours, I never ever feel rested. I have thought I had sleep apnea for a couple of years now but put off doing the sleep study over and over and eventually started trying to find a doctor and that led to more procrastination. In February of this year I heard online that you could do at home sleep studies and immediately signed up for one from Lofta. Did the study one night with the WatchPatOne device and then waited for the results. I will add that I did not sleep very well at all the night of the test, felt like I was awake more than asleep, not sure if it was just nerves around the finger sensor or stress from the test but it was a very bad night of sleep. I got the results back and they diagnosed me with "Moderate Obstructive Sleep Apnea" and recommended a APAP with a rate of 4-20 CWP and EPR of 3. They said my AHI was 21, RDI of 37, snoring 23.9, oxygen saturation min was 90% and average was 95. I find it easier to fall asleep while laying on my right side but do also find myself waking up on my back and left side from time to time. The Lofta test reported my AHI was 24 while on my back but 7.7 while on my side.

After feeling so bad waking up every day for so long I quickly ordered the ResMed AirSense 11 and one mask, a ResMed N30I and received them on 3/9/2023. The machine came preconfigured with the 4-20 rate and I quickly found that at 4 I felt like I was gasping for air frequently. After maybe a week I found how to change the settings and went up to 8 based on some suggestions I found online and this felt better. I defaulted to using the N30I and found I was taking it off a decent amount but I would wake up and put it back on so I was getting maybe 6 to 9 hours of usage depending on how many hours I was sleeping. I found the more I wore it the more i kept taking it off so I decided to try a full face mask as I do have a full beard and I am also know to breath through my mouth so I got the ResMed Airtouch F20. I had a few OK nights with this mask but then started waking up feeling stressed by it so eventually went back to the N30I.

To get to the current issue I originally thought the mask was either falling off while I was sleeping or something, but I have come to realize that either in my sleep or waking up (without being conscious, or remembering it) I am removing the mask. I know this because I am starting to find the mask on my night stand disconnected from the hose. It has gotten to the point where I even have tried taping it to my head using skin tape and found I took that off too and placed it on the nightstand. The further I get away from March 9th the less I am seeming to wear the mask at night. Once I wake up I do put it back on and sometimes after that it stays on but sometimes I take it off again. I am not sure if there is real data behind this but my gut feeling is the closer to wakeup time I put it back on it seems like I am more likely to sleep all the way though with it on.

To give some examples here is how long after putting it on I am taking it off over the last week,

1:37
1:19
1:08
2:11
1:30
2:31
:47
1:07

I am pretty sure the CPAP does work when I successfully wear it as there have been a few nights where I got good usage and I also do have a Oura ring that I use to sleep track and I can clearly see much lower heart rates (sometimes significantly lower) while wearing it.

I am very frustrated as I am not sure why I am taking it off. It's gotten to the point where ive thought about getting an IP camera to record myself while I sleep so I can see what I am doing. I have tried playing with the machines numbers some to see if that helped including raising the minimum pressure to 9, 10, 11, 12. I also tried lower pressures as I seemed to wear the mask more when I first got the machine, so it's currently set with a minimum of 6. I have EPR set to 3 and ramp turned off as I found it did not do much for me.

I am looking for any suggestions or insight into what people think may be happening to me. I just want to successfully wear the mask and hopefully start sleeping better and feeling better.

I am going to attach as many Oscar readouts as I can and will gladly provide any additional data or answer any questions.

hexlabsnick wrote: ↑

Tue May 30, 2023 9:38 pm

After maybe a week I found how to change the settings and went up to 8 based on some suggestions I found online and this felt better.

The images you posted show a minimum of 6, not 8.
Why?

ozij wrote: ↑

Tue May 30, 2023 11:30 pm

hexlabsnick wrote: ↑

Tue May 30, 2023 9:38 pm

After maybe a week I found how to change the settings and went up to 8 based on some suggestions I found online and this felt better.

The images you posted show a minimum of 6, not 8.
Why?

I have tried 6,8,9,10,11,12 for a few days to a week or more each time so far with no luck, I still take the mask off every time somewhere between 1 hour and 2 hours in. I did bump it to 8 last night and will keep it on there for now.

This Imgur link has more screenshots, I could only post 3 on the forum,

imgur . com/a/11Ur0TK

hexlabsnick wrote: ↑

Wed May 31, 2023 5:57 pm

This Imgur link has more screenshots, I could only post 3 on the forum,

imgur . com/a/11Ur0TK

might i suggest you go back to imgur.com. call up an image. on the right hand side of the image, you'll see quite a few options. find "BBCode". click "copy".

find a fresh line here and right click. choose "paste".


like above. do it for each image on a fresh line and they will appear in your post as mine does above.

good luck!

Wanted to provide an update. I bumped the pressure to 14 to 15 range (been experimenting in .2 increments) and Ive found over 14 I do not take the mask off while sleeping anymore.

Is it "normal" to need a minimum pressure this high? I haven't seen many others anywhere near this range. i am experiencing a high rate leak at this pressure but so far events have been way down so I am going to keep at this rate for another couple of weeks and then see if I need to make any further adjustments.





Thanks all!

Good job getting the charts posted!

“Normal” is whatever works for YOU. When I was on apap, my minimum pressure was 17.