CPAP: adverse reaction even when awake. Press. relief help?

Hi all.

I started CPAP for the first time two months ago. At first results were amazing but within a week I had more trouble tolerating the machine and most of the benefits in energy level etc had disappeared. Using the machine now causes some level of pain and leaves me feeling completely drained, but a couple of my nastier symptoms are controlled and I don't feel like I've been beaten up every night, just exhausted all the same. My AHI has been shown to be under 1.5 when treated.

Does anyone have experience of physically reacting badly to the machine while awake? As soon as the pressure starts I feel my usual muscle and joint pains increasing. The higher the pressure the worse the effect.

According to Krakow, UARS-type patients (I fit the profile exactly) have hyper-sensitive nervous systems which don't tolerate CPAP well due to the difficulty exhaling. I'm wondering if this is the source of the problem (my machine has no pressure relief). Exhaling doesn't feel very difficult to me (pressure of 6), but I also know that my body does react strongly to subtle things if my brain has decided that they are some kind of threat. I also know that my brain/body never changes it's mind about these things, so I'm unlikely to just "get used" to the machine/pressure, if anything I've gotten better at sleeping through the discomfort and noise at the cost of my wellbeing during the day.

Has anyone had problems like these: CPAP causing insomnia, headaches, feelings of great discomfort and even rage...which have been resolved by a switch to a machine with pressure relief, be that BI-PAP, A Flex or EPR?

Irl.

Please add your equipment to your profile. It would help if we knew what you were using.

Irrelevant wrote: My AHI has been shown to be under 1.5 when treated.

Is this statement from the cpap use during the titration sleep study or do you have a machine that tells you the AHI?

You might read this http://adventures-in-hosehead-land.blog ... er_19.html
You aren't alone.

You may be dealing with carbon dioxide maintenance issues. I do due to excessive central nervous system activation from Post Traumatic Stress.

It is worse for me in the winter near the time of the anniversary of the event. So during winter time I use EERS[1].

Have a great weekend!

Todzo

[1] :
Gilmartin G, McGeehan B, Vigneault K, Daly RW, Manento M, Weiss JW, Thomas RJ.
Treatment of positive airway pressure treatment-associated respiratory instability with enhanced expiratory rebreathing space (EERS).
Source: J Clin Sleep Med. 2010 Dec 15;6(6):529-38. Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA.
Link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21206741

I spent my first 8 nights on an Intellipap Auto-CPAP which showed AHI on its web reports, mostly it was 0.5-1.5. The auto was easier to sleep with as it spent less time at max pressure, but ultimately my body was hating the experience same as now. I did a sleep study last night (no machine) in order to try getting onto NHS care. It'll take six weeks or so before I get the results and see a doctor.

On EERS: can you buy these as kits somewhere? I'm familiar with the work of Frolov et al and have one of the breathing training devices. At the moment I'm not using it in order to have a clear picture of what is going on with CPAP. It certainly has a relaxing effect when used, and not in the way that CPAP does which seems to relax one system while irritating another.

On the subject of UARS patients reacting to masks, I went through a few before settling on my current one. If it hadn't worked out then using CPAP would've been impossible. For me the issue was whether the mask puts on enough pressure to interfere with my already troubled circulation: both blood and sinus flow.

Irrelevant wrote: On EERS: can you buy these as kits somewhere? I'm familiar with the work of Frolov et al and have one of the breathing training devices. At the moment I'm not using it in order to have a clear picture of what is going on with CPAP. It certainly has a relaxing effect when used, and not in the way that CPAP does which seems to relax one system while irritating another.

I simply built mine under the watchful eye of a doctor.

It has always calmed my breathing while using CPAP.

I do believe that anything you can do to reduce stress in your life is likely to also help the most, probably more than PAP or PAP with EERS or a Frolov device.

Take care,

Todzo