CPAP Dependancy

Welcome JHZR2, I think you will find there are many non obese sleep apnea sufferers. I myself lost 115 lbs and it made no difference to my sleep apnea. It is not as 'weight related' as you seem to want to believe. It is in some cases and maybe you will be one....I hope so since you really want this. It also appears to be a good motivator for you to get back in shape so that is a good thing.

Elle wrote:Welcome JHZR2, I think you will find there are many non obese sleep apnea sufferers. I myself lost 115 lbs and it made no difference to my sleep apnea. It is not as 'weight related' as you seem to want to believe. It is in some cases and maybe you will be one....I hope so since you really want this. It also appears to be a good motivator for you to get back in shape so that is a good thing.

Thanks for the welcome. Im not obese, but know that Im overweight and my wife has noted that my apneas got worse as I gained weight.

I do think that I have some anatomy-related issues too, because even when in shape, I was often having trouble waking.

Im hoping though that with lost weight, I can get over the anatomy part and be off the CPAP, we will see!

Thanks again!

RobsleepapniaGarcia wrote:...If the electricity goes out, will I convulse and not wake up...

Maybe. Unlike most people, I do not wake up when the power goes out, so I bought a power outage alarm (they cost about $15) & plug it into the same circuit my APAP runs on. When the power goes out, it flashes and beeps waking me up immediately.

Muse-Inc wrote:

RobsleepapniaGarcia wrote:...If the electricity goes out, will I convulse and not wake up...

Maybe. Unlike most people, I do not wake up when the power goes out, so I bought a power outage alarm (they cost about $15) & plug it into the same circuit my APAP runs on. When the power goes out, it flashes and beeps waking me up immediately.

Why do you want to be woken when the power goes out?

To the original LW, no you wont convulse and not wake up. Its just you trying to breath. You are addicted in a way because your body your body isn't using coping skills, like not falling into a deep sleep because you're breathing normally with the machine and don't need them. You'll just wake up with a headache and get tired early the next night.

Ineedanap wrote:Why do you want to be woken when the power goes out?...

Because when I'm asleep, without my machineI have severe obstructive sleep apnea. My body no longer has the high altitude adaptations it made trying to compensate for nightly oxygen starvation, like way above normal RBC, hemocrit, and RDW. I do not believe in playing games with my survival and apnea can induce fatal events.

When we are awake, we breathe much differently than when we are asleep, fuller and deeper -- I'd rather be awake than suffering oxygen starvation. I don't know if you're read the literature that came with your mask but it does warn against prolonged periods of time re-breathing which is what occurs breathing thru the mask without the power on to drive air to flush out exhaled breath thru te exhaust vents.

Ineedanap wrote:Why do you want to be woken when the power goes out?

If you have a nasal mask, you'll be rebreathing your exhaled air and you'll be getting extra oxygen deprivation unless you open your mouth. In theory, you'll open your mouth before you suffocate, but even so, you'll be getting less oxygen than if you take the mask off. If you tape or even chinstrap, it makes the problem even worse.

With a full face mask, the anti-asphyxia valve should open, but you'll still have somewhat restricted airflow.

It's better to take the mask off if the CPAP isn't working.

For some people, it might be better to get up and not sleep until the power comes back on. Or to find and fix the tripped circuit breaker. Or to roll over on your side or stomach where you get less apnea. or to go sleep in the recliner if that works.

I have a power out alarm too. I bought it after I slept through a power outage with my mask on. I was completely brain dead until I went back to bed that afternoon. Simple O2 deprivation.

Sleeping with a machine is not the worst thing--unless you got a really lousy fitting mask.

RobsleepapniaGarcia says -

Before I was diagnosed with Sleep Apnea, this did not happen. Is my body and lungs becoming dependent on my CPAP?

Hi

One of the myths in Alcoholics Anonymous is that the "disease" progresses even when a person is not drinking. So when they do drink again the effects are worse than when they stopped.

This, of course, is nonsense.

Whilst drinking the body develops tolerance, to try to mitigate the effects of the drinking. A person stops drinking, and soon afterwards the tolerance is lost as they get healthy again. They start drinking again, with the same thinking that they had before, but as the body has lost tolerance, the effects of the drinking are much worse than expected.

No disease, no progression, just a loss of tolerance.

So you use your cpap machine for a while, and the body starts to recover, and tolerance is lost. You stop using the cpap machine, and you are back to desaturating, but having lost your tolerance, the effects of the obstructive sleep apnea are worse than before .

Now I cannot prove the above is true in relation to obstructive sleep apnea, but it makes sense to me. Have a look at this rather disturbing article in the British Medical Journal.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC153851/

See what I mean ?

cheers

Mars

archangle wrote:

Ineedanap wrote:Why do you want to be woken when the power goes out?

With a full face mask, the anti-asphyxia valve should open, but you'll still have somewhat restricted airflow.

It's better to take the mask off if the CPAP isn't working.

Ahh I have a FFM and slept through a lengthy power outage. It was early in treatment so its likely I would notice now.