wake up to a jolt like a charge or shock with cpap

The last two times I went to sleep with CPAP and my full face mask, I woke up with a jolt or tremor in my head/brain. It is hard to describe but very scarey. I have discontinued due to it. Has anyone else experienced this?

Hi - it's important that you find out if the machine has a problem, or if you do. Get the machine to wherever you got it from and ask them to check it out. If it's o.k., then you might be having a sleep related problem - they happen, but you'd need to get it properly diagnosed by (hopefully) a neurologist - don't let that scare you - or a real sleep specialist. There are a lot of odd symptoms that can accompany sleep in one way or another, whether or not they're OSA related, and at least one is like yours - sudden jolting awakening, but they're not necessarily serious at all, just need to be checked out.

I can't attest to a medical opinion but it shouldn't be machine related as far as electrical shock causing it. The hose and mask wouldn't be a source of conductivity for electricity; being plastic and all.
Hope you can find out the reason and get back to using it.

Fred

[quote="allymcshop1"]The last two times I went to sleep with CPAP and my full face mask, I woke up with a jolt or tremor in my head/brain. It is hard to describe but very scarey. I have discontinued due to it. Has anyone else experienced this?[/quote]
I can think of three causes for this:
1. Machine malfunction - for whatever reason you are the best route to ground for SOMETHING. It could be moisture buildup in the hose/mask making it conductive with the electricity leakage provided by your machine... or it could be vice versa with the electricity being provided by an electric blanket or something. You MUST check this out right now. Life and death.
2. Psychological: Awakening with a start of shock could simply be a psychological effect of deep REM sleep which you are not used to. Not being a psychiatrist or MD I would recommend that you talk to one to see if this is your issue.
3. Medical/physical cause: Plenty of reasons this can happen I am sure and again I would suggest that you see a GP for referral to a neurologist.
I would do the same as you and discontinue treatment in the meantime - but I would certainly seek medical opinion as quickly as possible. Here in Ontario with universal health care I would head to my local clinic or to the nearest hospital emerg (they are being looked at as a high level 'clinic' up here.

I certainly would NOT leave it. It is obviously not normal but there may be a simple explanation.

Good luck.

thank you so much for your responses. I will call my sleep physician tomorrow and make an appt. It seems like it isn't the machine or equip but not sure.
Thanks for all your great advice and caring!
Ally

sounds like a central . if you just started therapy ,they will probably go away after a couple weeks to a month . but its your body doing it most likely . do some research on this site but be your own judge of things .it is after all just advice

Some thoughts:

1. If you do not use a humidifier, and live in a very dry area, you might be getting a static shock jumping from some slightly conductive area in the mask. The air passing over a conductive area made of certain materials induces a static charge. It's called the 'Van De Graff effect'. When the voltage gets high enough, it arcs to your face.

2. It is almost certainly not your machine. There is almost no way an electrical leakage could propagate down the hose. A problem like that would also be manifest not long after you turned on the machine, and would be continuous.

3. You may be experiencing 'exploding head syndrome. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_head_syndrome . I have had this happen once.

Giid luck. The other advice is good advice.

.

Sounds like a "hypnic jerk" to me, which can happen to anyone.

Muffy

Oh thank you for all of your good advice. I live in Florida so it is not dry. It is more like a tremor than a shock. It happened two nights in a row so that is what has spoofed me away from the machine. I will see my Dr. again and research some of your wonderful information. We are all so lucky to have a site like this and mainly YOU guys.

A lot of stuff happens/can happen at sleep onset, but even the most scary-sounding thing ("exploding head syndrome") is NBD.

I had a couple of those happen, and it is kind of embarassing when you bolt up and scream "What was THAT?!"

Muffy

That said, if every night, when you start to fall asleep, there's a parade of historical figures marching around the room and the walls are melting, you might want to see somebody about that.

Muffy

timbalionguy wrote:If you do not use a humidifier, and live in a very dry area, you might be getting a static shock

That was my first thought, too. There is nothing about the therapy itself (that I know of) that would cause anything like that. And moisture in the hose would provide a path ONLY from the humidifier downstream.

But heated homes (even here in Florida) can be very dry. I use almost a whole tank per night in my humidifier--set on 1-- this time of year. In the summer, with full-time AC, I get 3-4 nights on a tank.

I'd blame it on Bob Van de Graaff...

Does anyone in your family have epilepsy? Not to scare you or anything, but you could be experiencing the early signs of epileptic seizures. Sometimes they don't manifest until much later in life and can surface when different environmental triggers present themselves.

Muffy wrote:... Sounds like a "hypnic jerk" to me, which can happen to anyone. ...

Funny, I always thought my father always was muttering "he's a jerk" around me. Maybe he was saying "hypnic jerk". ??

Yup. I've had this and the "exploding head" thing. I just ignore it and from conversations with others, I just assumed it's fairly normal.