SleepingUgly wrote:Sung to the tune of REO Speedwagon's Back On the Road Again (Does anyone know that song besides me?)
LOL, yes I recognize that song. And you definitely the rhythm right in your lyrics
More seriously though: I'm not sure I know what you mean by folks "who don't need to be on the hose" Like you, I don't desat at all with apneas and "hypopneas with arousal" and I have absolutely NO other medical issues, but clearly my sleep doctor, my PCP, my ENT, and my neurologist all seem to think I need to be on the hose.
Sleeping Ugly, I am so sorry to hear about the problems you've had with CPAP therapy disrupting your sleep, causing daytime sleepiness, and overall having a negative affect on your quality of life. I could easily have written your post many times since Sept. 23. Heck, I *have* written things very similar more times than I want to remember. I know I've written "I dread bedtime" more times than I can count---starting with night 3.
I know you've been following some of my posts at least off and on. Try not to let them get you too discouraged. And though it seems an awfully long time (to me at least), I am now grateful that I'm beginning to have genuinely good days---days where I have written "woke up refreshed" in my insomnia log. Not many of them yet. But a few. And they are getting a little less rare now. And if I can do it with the wonderful support from the people here, so can you. But I won't lie: The way will likely be long and tiring and frustrating: Lots of two steps forward and one step backwards. But we'll be here to catch you when you fall Sleeping Ugly!
For what it's worth, here's some of what I've learned as a (almost former) "light sleeper" who found every little thing about CPAP horribly irritating and deeply disturbing for the first three to four months of therapy and who is now (six and a half months in) now beginning to feel really good on some days and almost as good (cognitively speaking) as I was back before starting CPAP.
1) Don't accept "Give it more time, you'll eventually get used to it" either from your sleep doctor or from us. If you've identified specific problems related to CPAP that are leading to problems with sleep disruption, you're entitled to real ideas of things to try and real sympathy rather than blandly being told "give it more time". But the more specific you can be about the problem that needs to be solved, the more folks on the forum can help: I got more help than I ever thought I would on two threads entitled
Chapped Lips and Chapped Nares and
Does CPAP tickle the back of ANYBODY else's throat? which both started out as "I need to vent threads."
2) Read every suggestion given to you here on cpaptalk---even the ones that you don't think will work. Evenutally you may be desperate enough to try one of those "crazy" ideas and you might just find that it works--at least sort of. Never thought I'd use a neti pot, but finally I got brave enough to try after it was suggested one too many times as something to try with my seasonal allergies kicking in.
3) Deal with the INSOMNIA issues at the same time you're trying to adjust to CPAP. Since you are a light sleeper, you probably already know all about sleep hygiene. But go back and see what you can work on---there's always something that can be improved. It's a pain in the butt, but that "thing you don't want to do" for the insomnia may be the critical piece that's missing from the puzzle of solving your sleep problems. For me, I'd been able to resist for years the need for consistent bedtimes and wake up times
seven days a week instead of sleeping in on my days off. When the PA insisted that I put that into place at the beginning of the year, it was a critical part of the progress I've made in genuinely taming my insomnia monster.
4) Consider keeping a sleep log for a while. Make notes (IN THE MORNING) about any thing you remember about CPAP-induced wake ups. The log will help you sort out what the
biggest, most bothersome CPAP issues actually are. And that will give you a place to start working on the adjustment issues. The log will also likely help you identify the first subtle signs that the CPAP is finally making a positive difference. And it may also help you see progress you start to make on dealing with the light sleeping and more general insomnia issues as well as CPAP-related sleep disruption.
5) Give it your absolute best effort to put that mask on every single night: Any night that you
choose to not mask up allows your mind and body to continue to believe that they do not have to learn how to accomodate the hose. And so they'll continue to scream at you the next time you put the hose on about all the things that are currently making you dread bedtime.
Best of luck and remember: You deserve your own threads as you try to readjust once more to CPAP.
How exactly does this work? I've never used the Report Spam button. Are Johnny/Carolyn aware of the "reporter"? What are the consequences of an "illegal" spam report? Is there a way to know who did this? Can SU's original post be restored?
