Urgh, heading in the wrong direction

I had massive insomnia. Sleep study had an AHI of 6.6, mostly in REM, and my diagnosis was UARS.
I've been on my machine for about a month and really had no trouble getting used to it. I slept a lot more than I used to and--at least at first--was waking up somewhat less often than I used to and feeling a bit more alert.

But the last few nights I've been up and down all night again--bathroom visits, hot flashes, adjusting covers, pet the kitty, hear a car driving up the road, awake for no reason at all. Also, I've started the thing again where I wake up half an hour after I go to sleep. There's nothing going on the way of leaks or problems with my machine.

It takes two hours of mainlining coffee in the morning to become halfway functional. I'm tired. Honestly, I'm to the point where I don't even care if I'm breathing as long as I can get some sleep.

I'm now wondering if there's something going on besides breathing issues or if my machine just needs to be adjusted. I don't see my sleep doc for another two weeks.

Carmen, sorry things aren't going well. It could be just a temporary thing, or you could need an adjustment. The holidays are stressful and perhaps though you might not feel stressed this is contributing to your problems. I would try, hard as it is as I couldn't resist either, to not get involved in anything other than going to the bathroom, like petting the kitty, when you wake during the night unless you get out of bed and go back when you feel sleepier. If you don't mind taking an OTC sleep aid, some benadryl or other med may help temporarily. I like one of the PM pain relievers like Tylenol PM because sometimes we have low level aches and pains we ignore and the pain reliever may help. Do keep notes of the date this started and all the symptoms for your doc. Good luck, keep us posted.
Also, even though you feel like you're headed in the wrong direction as long as you keep trying you're doing the right thing. It's even harder to be compliant in these circumstances.

Carmen,

I'm so sorry to hear about the insomnia problems.

Some suggestions:

Carmen wrote:It takes two hours of mainlining coffee in the morning to become halfway functional. I'm tired. Honestly, I'm to the point where I don't even care if I'm breathing as long as I can get some sleep.

As difficult as it sounds, you may need to limit the caffeine consumption. Trying to eliminate caffeine cold-turkey will likely create additional problems, but cutting back on that "two hours of mainlining coffee" probably needs to be done. How many cups do you consume on an average day? And are there other sources of caffeine in your diet perhaps?

You might find light therapy useful in the morning. If you don't want to invest in a SAD light, then you could at least try putting a light on a timer in your bedroom. Have the light come on about a half hour before your alarm goes off.

In addition to Benadryl, you might want to try a very low dose of melatonin an hour or so before bed. That might help.

Cruel as it is to kitty, you may need keep kitty out of the bedroom altogether when you are sleeping.

A white noise machine may help keep the random "car on the street" noises from waking you up so much.

You may need to do some conscious work on "closure" at the end of each day before you go to bed---in other words, make sure that you are not worrying about things that went on during the day, things that might happen the next day, and things that might happen during the night. A good source for understanding what I'm talking about is Sound Sleep, Sound Mind by Dr. Barry Krakow. He has tons of good advice in that book about how to encourage your body to get ready for a good night's sleep.

And finally, if you've got some time off during the rest of the holidays, you might try allowing yourself to sleep in an extra hour or so to see if that helps get you over the temporary set back you're currently in.

Carmen,

I think what Mary and Robysue recommended are excellent tips and can't really add more to that. One thing I do (learned from being in AA) when I go to bed is to take a personal inventory when I lie down and go to sleep. Go through the good things and the bad of the day, and make a resolution to try and correct them the next day. I find that this does a number of things for me, but the important thing in this situation is it allows me to realize that I can't do anything about it right now, and I WILL take care of it tomorrow and not worry about it now. This in turn allows me to go to sleep.

One other thing I would look at, just to be safe is your data (if you haven't done so already) in one of the software packages. I think you have a data capable machine, and I would get a copy of your software, or sleepyhead, and see what is going on. Things I would look for are: Leaks; is your pressure where it needs to be; are you having an apnea event just before you wake up; flow restrictions. Hopefully everything is good, but it might be good to check.

John