Taking my mask off subconsciously at night

Hi, I am new to wearing a CPAP mask. I have been recently been diagnosed with OSA and I was prescribed a cpap machine. I currently have a Respironics machine and a Respironics easy life mask. The pressure is set to 6 and I do not feel uncomfortable while wearing the mask when I am awake, but I wake up in the morning and the mask will not be on my face. I cannot remember taking it off at night but I have been told by family members that I take it off as soon as I begin to move in my sleep. I was wondering what solutions there are because I really want to keep this mask on and I'm trying but its not working. I have been wearing it for a month as well.

Give it time,it all gets better.

sportsfan90 wrote:Hi, I am new to wearing a CPAP mask. I have been recently been diagnosed with OSA and I was prescribed a cpap machine. I currently have a Respironics machine and a Respironics easy life mask. The pressure is set to 6 and I do not feel uncomfortable while wearing the mask when I am awake, but I wake up in the morning and the mask will not be on my face. I cannot remember taking it off at night but I have been told by family members that I take it off as soon as I begin to move in my sleep. I was wondering what solutions there are because I really want to keep this mask on and I'm trying but its not working. I have been wearing it for a month as well.

There are several things you could try...
!. Wear the mask during the day for short periods to get your face use to the feel
2. Wear a chin strap over the mask to secure it to your head
3. Tape the mask to your face so it is harder to pull off,...You will wake up if you pull hard enough to dislodge the tape.
4. A pressure of 6 is very low...possibly you are not getting enough air while you sleep and you pull it off to help you breathe better.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=69515&p=644874&hili ... ll#p644874

While I didn't pull my mask off every night when I first started, I did remove it a couple of times without realising I had. One night I apparently took the mask apart in my sleep as I woke up to "parts" on the coffee table! lol! Like Lsat, I would recommend you wearing it while awake...it does help your face to adjust to the feel, but I also agree your pressure sounds awfully low and that could be the problem as well. I know my titration set me at 7...I now use 12, so the number they start you with may not be the one you actually need! Good luck!

LSAT wrote:

sportsfan90 wrote:Hi, I am new to wearing a CPAP mask. I have been recently been diagnosed with OSA and I was prescribed a cpap machine. I currently have a Respironics machine and a Respironics easy life mask. The pressure is set to 6 and I do not feel uncomfortable while wearing the mask when I am awake, but I wake up in the morning and the mask will not be on my face. I cannot remember taking it off at night but I have been told by family members that I take it off as soon as I begin to move in my sleep. I was wondering what solutions there are because I really want to keep this mask on and I'm trying but its not working. I have been wearing it for a month as well.

There are several things you could try...
!. Wear the mask during the day for short periods to get your face use to the feel
2. Wear a chin strap over the mask to secure it to your head
3. Tape the mask to your face so it is harder to pull off,...You will wake up if you pull hard enough to dislodge the tape.
4. A pressure of 6 is very low...possibly you are not getting enough air while you sleep and you pull it off to help you breathe better.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=69515&p=644874&hili ... ll#p644874

Thanks for the advice, I really appreciate it.

1) Honestly, I feel comfortable with the mask on during the day.
2) I was planning on buying a chinstrap, does it help a lot?
3) I will start taping the mask onto my face at night.
4) The pressure is 6.0 cm H20, thats what it displays on the lcd of my respironics machine. It used to be 5,0 cm H20 but that was way too low.

Could one of the reasons why I take it off at night be psychological? Before i got my pressure changed to 6.0 cm H20 I was using a very uncomfortable mask and the pressure was on 5 so when I would wake up it felt like I was suffocating. Also, when I take naps or sleep where I feel like I keep waking up, I keep the mask on for on extended period of time. Also, my lcd displays a number. Is that number of hours worn?

Early on I did that a night or two... remove the mask.

What I found that worked was more of a mental conditioning
than anything else. The next day I simply said to myself several
times that I needed this therapy and would not be removing the
mask again that evening... it worked and have not had an issue
since.

sportsfan90 wrote:Also, my lcd displays a number. Is that number of hours worn?

Depends on where you are seeing the number. There are several "numbers"..Blower hours which is total hours of the machine being on. Therapy hours which is total hours you have used the machine. If a new machine the blower hours and therapy hours will very close to each other. There is also a number for days that the machine was used for more than 4 hours.

Which machine model do you have? Could you please add it to your profile so we can see is at a glance.
Please use text option as all the models look alike in the image selection.
wiki/index.php/Registering_Equipment_in_User_Profile

If your machine is a model that collects full data you have some software choices available to see for sure what is going on. viewtopic.php?f=1&t=64906&st=0&sk=t&sd= ... re+options

If your machine is a Phillips Respironics System One Remstar Plus with CFlex (PR System One in the equipment list drop down menu) then the only data it gathers is compliance data to satisfy insurance requirements. Therapy hours and days with usage greater than 4 hours. Hopefully you will not have that machine.