CPAPtalk.com

I'm just completing my full 3rd week with my CPAP machine and I'm all in. I'm sure terms like "miracle" and "Night and Day" are common, but the difference it's made in my life and the quality of my life is awesome. That being said. Sometimes I wake up in the morning with the mask off and I'm hard pressed (initially) to figure out why. Then I remember I woke up for some reason or another (usually my 1 year old or my 3 year old, lol) that necessitated me taking off the mask and then I fall back asleep before putting the mask back on. There are some nights when I go 100% of the time with it on. Even though that's not all the time, I'm still feeling the positive difference, but I want ALL of the difference and benefits. I'm not resistant or even passive-resistant to the CPAP machine, really I'm not. I don't even find it annoying.

I was just wondering, has anyone else experienced this in the beginning? -Z-

Give it some time and it will become an ingrained habit.

Where do you put the mask when you take it off to take care of the kids in the night?

I'd try leaving the mask right smack in the middle of the pillow---somewhere where you HAVE to make a decision about what to do with the mask before you can climb back in your own bed. That may make it easier to make in an ingrained habit.

And congrats on feeling so much better so soon!

Early in my treatment, falling sleep before putting my mask on (or back on) was common. I couldn't even sit on the edge of the bed until my mask was already on or I'd fall asleep. As I began to get some sleep and wasn't in such a stupor, it improved to where I could sit on the edge of the bed to mask up. Haven't fallen asleep in bed without the mask on since 2006. However, even all these years later, I would never trust myself to lie down in bed before masking up. I just had to learn my limitations and work around them.

DJSTEVEZ,

Perhaps you could do what I do when getting up in the night and do not remove your mask at all. When I get up to let the dog out or the very rare times now that I may get up to use the bathroom, I just unhook the hose from the humidifier and wrap it around my neck. The chance greatly diminished that you would come back to bed and just lie down and go to sleep without re-attaching the hose, in my opinion.

If you are worried leaving your 'gear' on and the kids seeing you like that and getting scared, just make it into something funny, like you are elephant (Sesame Streets Mr. Snuffleupagus) or something else like it ...

John

I have to take eye drops right before bed, with 3 minutes tear duct occlusion.
I have fallen asleep numerous times before masking up.
That 3 minutes is too relaxing.
---maybe if I put the FX on and THEN do the drops. . .

Great stuff gang. Much appreciated. Thank You! -Z-

DJSTEVEZ wrote:That being said. Sometimes I wake up in the morning with the mask off and I'm hard pressed (initially) to figure out why. -Z-

I'm into week three with CPAP therapy, and I'm doing that as well. It only started three nights ago but I've done it three nights in a row ...

I've awaken during the night to discover it hanging on the chair next to my bed and I immediately put it back on. Perhaps I'm so tired that I don't remember getting up and going back to bed ??