CPAP adjustment period

I`ve survived my first night of CPAP therapy after a year of avoiding it. I`m committed to giving it up to ten days as to adjust to the machine and mask. It`s better than having a stroke or waking up fatigued. How long on average did it take for you to adjust to CPAP therapy?

Thank you.

I was lucky and had no adjustment issues.

However, if you are serious about your health, I wouldn't give yourself a 10 day limit. Some people need to work up to keeping the mask on all night, every night. For many it is a process that you can't put a time limit on.

Good luck.

Realistically, ten days isn't long enough for most people to feel 'comfortable' with XPAP.

If you want to avoid, prevent, lower the chances of a stroke, heart attack etc., then you'll keep at it until you are adjusted to therapy.

IMHO there are a couple of things that make XPAP therapy successful. Number 1 is ATTITUDE - if you are determined to make it work, then you will. Number 2 is your MASK - keep searching until you find the best mask for you, tweak it with or without liners, covers etc., until it's the best you can make it.

There are a bunch of other things that help with your success, but the first 2 are imperative. Things like your bed pillow, room temperature, outside noises, bed comfort, good sleep hygiene etc.

Hang in there - it's worth the effort - 10 days might prevent complications for 10 days - if you give up after that - you're treading a very thin line.

Cheers,
xena

Yes, I`ve come to discover that is in my attitude, and I`ll take any advice offered here. I`ll keep trying and explore the variety of masks available for comfort.

Last night was my 16th night, and I feel like its the first night I've slept relatively well despite the mask and machine. Unfortunately I had to get up early today, so I'm still short on sleep and tired... looking forward to this weekend when I can let myself sleep myself out, to see what happens!

Hi Waffles,

Welcome to the forum and welcome to xPAP therapy.

Ditto to the cautionary statements about not placing an arbitrary limit on your therapy. It’s much too important to your long term health.

I have been on therapy for almost five months. I was fortunate to have virtually NO problem with adjusting to the machine and mask. However, I had serious issues with getting the equipment to effectively address my apneas. It took about 60 - 90 days. Now, being “papped” is no different than before therapy.

I would suggest that you complete your profile and use TEXT to identify your equipment. That will help members when they respond to your posts. Then keep coming back to this forum with you issues and successes. You’ll find all the support you need to succeed.

Best of luck in your therapy!

Waffles Kincaid wrote:I`ve survived my first night of CPAP therapy after a year of avoiding it. I`m committed to giving it up to ten days as to adjust to the machine and mask. It`s better than having a stroke or waking up fatigued. How long on average did it take for you to adjust to CPAP therapy?

Thank you,

Waffles

10 days is almost a waste of time. It can take up to a month for your mind to accept the fact that it is safe to sleep deeply without dieing according to my sleep doctor.

Adjusting to cpap can take from 8 hours to 6 months or more.

Welcome to the forum.

So what are your expectations that you want to see happen? What problems did you have last night?
I am assuming since you are writing about a time line that you didn't wake up experiencing the overnight miracle that a few lucky people have.

Please add your equipment to your profile. Hopefully you are using a machine that offers full data and software so that you can actually see if the therapy is working as it should (at least on paper).

Tell us your machine and we can tell you about software if there is any.

When I first started therapy I felt horrible at my prescribed pressure. Took me 2 weeks to get the software and I discovered that my AHI was still too high and I needed a bit more pressure.
Once I got the pressures adjusted...I started having some positives signs that the therapy was working but I didn't have the "miracle". Since I knew that Oxygen levels in the low 70s were really bad (without cpap use) even though I didn't feel the "miracle" I still chose to use the machine as a "preventative" measure.

Sometimes there are other factors that affect how we feel that are unrelated to sleep apnea and the machine only works on one thing....sleep apnea....and doesn't work or address other issues.