Do you wake up if you need to?

Don't have my machine, but I'm having questions in anticipation of getting it.

Will I still hear my alarm(s) (I have 3 to get me up) in the morning when I'm using the CPAP?

What about needing to go to the bathroom during the night? Will I wake up like I do now? (Actually, I dream about needing to go now - that's how I know to get up to go - is that weird?!)

DottyG wrote:Don't have my machine, but I'm having questions in anticipation of getting it.

Will I still hear my alarm(s) (I have 3 to get me up) in the morning when I'm using the CPAP?

What about needing to go to the bathroom during the night? Will I wake up like I do now? (Actually, I dream about needing to go now - that's how I know to get up to go - is that weird?!)

I can't really answer your first question, I still hear my alarm and I only need one to wake me. Sounds like you're a pretty deep sleeper, so you might not.

I used to be the same as you though, getting up several times at night to go to the bathroom, and often dreaming about it then waking up and urgently needing to go. Since starting CPAP 5 weeks ago, I think I've gotten up to use the bathroom twice. And I never dream about it anymore.

I have two alarms clocks that I use to wake up to. I hear them both when they go off with no problem. Most of the time I'm up minutes before they go off.

Hi there Dotty. Welcome to our club!

You should still be able to hear your alarms. The current machines are pretty quiet.

I am six months into therapy, and I have not gotten up once to have to go pee. The only exception is that I had an intestinal thing, but that was not related to apnea at all.

DottyG "Don't have my machine, but I'm having questions in anticipation of getting it.Will I still hear my alarm(s) (I have 3 to get me up) in the morning when I'm using the CPAP? What about needing to go to the bathroom during the night?

Your machine may not obstruct any outside noise. My AutoSet II is very quiet. I only hear noise if I pull the mask away, so I hear my two alarms just fine. It you are worried, you might want to ad another louder alarm to avoid worrying about your alarm when you adjusting to your XPAP. If you need to go, your bladder will speak over the XPAP as well. Some people do have a decrease number of trips to the bathroom with OSA treatment, perhaps this will decrease for you too.
Good luck as you begin your OSA treatment, sleep well, be healthy.

elg5cats

pitrow wrote:I can't really answer your first question, I still hear my alarm and I only need one to wake me. Sounds like you're a pretty deep sleeper, so you might not.

Not a deep sleeper at all. I'm a light sleeper and not getting anywhere close to "deep". I'm just not a morning person. So, I don't always react to the alarm.

I live in an apartment. A couple of years ago, my upstairs neighbor complained about me to management. Seems she could hear my alarm going off in the mornings, and it was bothering her. My alarm was not loud at all - it's a regular alarm clock. We just live in an apartment! Apparently, she's never experienced apartment living before, because when I gently informed her of just what I could hear from HER apartment, it shocked her.

But, nonetheless, being "told on" to management freaked me out enough that I decided I'd have to do something different. Now, I use the alarm from an old phone I had, plus the alarm from my current phone, plus the alarm clock set on the radio. Between the three, I, eventually, wake up.

I just hate mornings.

Yes, you will hear the alarm and wake up. You will still hear the noisy neighbors, too, and wake up.

Potty breaks will still occur. Though for some of us, less often. I've been a regular 3 am pee-er for most of my life - that continues. It's just a weird habit I've gotten into.

Now, in the early days, you might go into a really deep sleep and maybe miss a potty break or an alarm now and then. You should alert your work that you are going through this. Your early stages of therapy may mean you miss some work. Not necessarily because you slept through the alarm, but because you will have some just RAGGEDY ASS DAYS. It's typical when adjusting to therapy. FMLA should definitely be applied for, if you haven't done it already.

Good luck!!!!!
Barbara

Babette wrote:Now, in the early days, you might go into a really deep sleep and maybe miss a potty break

Ummmm...you don't mean wetting the bed by that, do you?

I hope not bedwetting! Get some Depends just to be safe!

Good idea about talking to your work. There will be rough days at the beginning but it's OH SO WORTH IT!

No no! Not bedwetting. I mean, sometimes I'm so fast asleep, the 3 am pee doesn't seem necessary. Most nights I've got a regular 3 am pee date. Used to be that all three of us would get up for what I called the "3 am Family Pee".

First me, then the dog, then the BF. With luck, when climbing out of the bed, I wouldn't STEP ON THE DOG, making it all much worse than it needed to be. As it was, I would negotiate with the dog "No Potty, No Biscuit! I don't pay for sniffing around the backyard!" BF on the other hand, would pay for Midnight Patrols Sans Potty. TSK!

Now it's just me. If I'm at my "new" BF's house (no dog) it can be funny/scarey in a new and different way. I sleep in the Dining Room at his house, because his tiny bed is just too small for my taste, so I sleep on a futon in the Dining Room, which is great, because I can lay there and look out at the trees in the forest through the sliding glass door and it's like camping. Anyway, I get up for my 3 am pee, and he's fast asleep, and I go into the potty and fall a little asleep, and then he wakes up, doesn't hear me in there, and goes in there, and EEEEECK!!!!!!!

We both scream and scare each other to death.

LOL,
B.

After starting CPAP ie should be easier to wake up and get up in the morning; after I started CPAP, I found that I don't even have to use an alarm clock once I become accustomed to waking up at a particular time. I all ways wake up by myself within 10 minutes of either side of when I normally get up. It takes me a few day to adjust to a new time.

For the past few weeks I have totally messed up my waking time (actually I have been in a constant daze) because I tried taking Elavil for fibromyalgia, and it makes me groggy all of the time. I used to normally wake up at 6 AM; this morning I woke up at 8 AM and decided that last night was the last night of the trial.

I am a rarity here, I stopped my 8-10 pee trips a night my first night on CPAP and that has never returned! I hope you have the same good results. As to needing multiple alarms , good luck with that until you start getting some restful sleep then you might not need 3

bearded_two wrote:After starting CPAP ie should be easier to wake up and get up in the morning; after I started CPAP, I found that I don't even have to use an alarm clock once I become accustomed to waking up at a particular time.

Hi,

I have noticed the same thing. I have only set my alarm clock twice since starting on the hose, and both times, I woke up before the alarm when off. I used to need 9 hours in bed, and then was groggy for another 2 or 3 hours. Since starting CPAP, I get up after between 6 and 7.5 hours in bed, and I am alert and ready to take on the day.

Before CPAP, I would get up every 60 to 90 minutes to go to the bathroom. With CPAP, I have not gotten up to go to the bathroom even once during the night. I have been in the habit of getting up after about 2 or 2-1/2 hours and watching TV for an hour or so, but even that is getting rare now that I can sleep through the night.

-john-

DottyG wrote:Don't have my machine, but I'm having questions in anticipation of getting it.

Will I still hear my alarm(s) (I have 3 to get me up) in the morning when I'm using the CPAP?

What about needing to go to the bathroom during the night? Will I wake up like I do now? (Actually, I dream about needing to go now - that's how I know to get up to go - is that weird?!)

DottyG,

Welcome, All I can say is YES, YES, & YES!!! If it takes you 3 alarm clocks now, it will only take one after you hook up to the hose, you're gonna love it!!!
Pre-cpap, I NEVER heard my (ONE alarm clock), post cpap, I hear it always & it's funny, sometimes, I wake up right before it goes off so I just go ahead and shut it off before it goes off, now everyone is different but for me, that's my story and i'm sticking to it...
SNM