First night on CPAP...not a success......

Well I have to say that last night I did as well as I could possibly have hoped for.

It helped not having my son wake me up at 2:30 for a potty break!

Got my nose salined on the inside, lubed on the oustide with Ayr. Put on the mask at about 10:00 and laid there for about 5 minutes before turning the light off. I turned the ramp low setting up to 5, so it's not much of a ramp....5 to 8, but I find it hard to get my breathing slowed to sleep level with it on 8 to start. Before I turned the lights off, my upper lip felt sweaty and gross...too much Ayr gel. So too much is a bad thing. Check.

This time I brought my secret weapon. White noise. I am a white noise kind of guy, always have been. I thought that listening to the machine doesn't bother me that much, but I was worrying what my wife was going to think when I got home. So I turned on the humidifier. Much louder than the machine, and I fell asleep instantly.

Woke up a little while later and I knew it was early. Not a good sign. Clock said 11:30, but I went right back out.

Didn't wake up until 5:30. Yippeee! Felt good, pressure felt normal. The mask was a little off kilter so I fixed it. I felt rested and refreshed, even though it wasn't time to get up. This is where I ran into my first snag...it is impossible to side sleep or belly sleep with this thing. The pillow just knocks the device about 1/4" to either side of my nose and it's noisy and leaking. I really wanted to get back to sleep, so I fashioned a support out of my arm and laid on that. Worked ok, but it was finicky.

Woke back up at 6:00. Again, I felt good, but not time to get up yet. Didn't feel like wrestling with the mask, so I just took it off and dozed for 20 minutes until the human alarm clock down the hall went poop and woke me up.

So a great night. Some issues...mouth breathing. I know I was doing it for a certain portion of time. In fact at one point it barely woke me up with a "pop" when you first open the back of your mouth to let the air out. When I woke up at 5:30, I had cotton mouth like I had a couple of beers before bed, but not so bad as to recall college. Also, my eyes were a bit dry and itchy, but not tremendously so. And I know it's not from the vent, and not likely from leaks...probably from the pressure in my sinus going back up my tear ducts.

Now the good part: felt good. No mask marks. Not irritated nostrils. No irritated nasal passages.

Hooray!

Just have to find a white noise generator to replace the humidifier...don't think we're going to run that much longer now that the warm weather is here.

Your first night is what my typical night is at almost a year of use. I guess nothing worthwhile ever comes easy!

Peaks and valleys. I have one great night, think I have everything worked out, then problems the next night, rinse repeat. I think 90% of the problems are from sleeping position. I am a back sleeper, I have come to terms with that. On occasion I will stay the night on my side and the numbers are great, then on the back - numbers go up, leaks go up, I wake up. I have had some of the best numbers yet in the past two days, yet yesterday I fell asleep at my desk, this morning I overslept and was an hour late for work. Something is still causing me to wake up 5 or 6 times a night. Peaks and valleys.