Question about bathroom breaks.

Turn off and remove mask for bath breaks.
Be kind to your spouse and don't cause a lot of air noise . A lot of health care people advise removing mask to help avoid falls (field of vision and all that), clear your head and take a moment to get your bearings to prevent tripping etc. Don't try to hurry , the older folks can fall easily late at night with no lights. As well as becoming unstable if you get up too fast.
Put the mask back on and turn on machine,this causes the least noise for my spouse . She tends to wake up with usual mask and air sounds to see if I'm okay . I just release one bottom clip on the head gear and slide it off and on . Then I lay it on my pillow , this seems to be easiest and less chance of tangling head gear , tried hanging it in dark --tends to get snagged etc.
I practiced this during the day when I first started to get the feel of the clips correct and if I get different mask I redo the drill. I did have to practice tearing down my rifle and putting it back together in the dark during the war ,so this was a lot easier.
Be safe and don't fall or run into things. You will get older and less stable no matter how you are now--- if you are lucky enough to get there.

Excellent answer, knightlite. I was concerned just unplugging the hose was detrimental to my health or might damage the machine. But all your reasons apparently don't apply in my case.

My wife has had a stroke and it works best for both of us if we sleep in separate rooms. Also, because I might have to get up to tend to her needs, I have night lights in all rooms and the bathroom, so walking around at night is no problem. At age 86 I know the problem of sitting up quickly, so I don't do it. I use a full-face mask and have found if I remove it during the night and then put it on again, it is better if I use a baby-wipe on it to clean it up and make it seal better. Doing all the steps you do would have me so awake it would take a long time for me to get back to sleep. Finally, my mask does not interfere with seeing while I'm walking around.

So, in my particular case, I just unplug the hose at the quick disconnect, go to the bathroom, get back to bed, plug the hose in, and I'm soon back to sleep. I have not seen anything different on the ResScan and SleepyHead graphs, except for the blank space while I'm disconnected which would also be there if I turned off the machine. This avoids ramping up time that might cause the machine to not prevent some incidents. Of course, you can avoid the ramping by fiddling with the machine, but if I did that I'd be wide awake by then.

So, we each do what appears to be appropriate for our individual cases.

Do NOT turn off the machine. -- Unplug the quick release hose connection at mask, carefully walk to the toilet, and get back ASAP.... The machines usually give 2-3 minutes of time before auto shut off kicks in. (Unless you toggle off the auto shut off and then it will stay on...)

If you turn the machine off manually, it will reset back to your original start pressure. If you have a fixed CPAP then fine, no problem it makes no difference, but if you have an APAP, you will have to go through a long ramp up back to the higher pressure you may have been at before the break, possibly causing poor sleep as a result.

hyperlexis wrote:If you turn the machine off manually, it will reset back to your original start pressure. If you have a fixed CPAP then fine, no problem it makes no difference, but if you have an APAP, you will have to go through a long ramp up back to the higher pressure you may have been at before the break, possibly causing poor sleep as a result.

That's only if you use ramp. I don't use ramp and there are alot of us who don't use the ramp feature or the auto off or start.

ypeels:

I surmise that since I've been asleep and having a good night, why take a chance of putting the mask back on in any one of many slightly askew manners that might cause me a problem the rest of the night? As my fellow Milwaukee Brewer fan (LSAT) stated, turn off the machine, unhook the hose and lumber into the privy with the mask exactly as it was before Nature called.

Hasn't failed me yet. I'm talking about the mask, too!

I don't use a mask and the nasal pillows go on and off easily.
Good responses though!

I also don't use ramp. How long does it usually take to ramp up?

If you want to leave your machine on and don't want to disturb your partner just put your hose end or mask under your pillow while in the BR.

ypeels wrote:I also don't use ramp. How long does it usually take to ramp up?

Depends on the ramp setting as to how long it takes. Might be 5 minutes ...might be 45 minutes (if that is what is selected as time frame to work its way up to the prescribed setting).

If someone was using apap mode...with no ramp...and the pressure needs are markedly higher most of the night than what the initial minimum pressure might start out to be (if the machine is turned off) then there might be some lag time there if the machine gets turned off and auto mode starts back at the minimum pressure because it doesn't go from minimum to maximum in the blink of an eye but it's unlikely that someone would go right back to sleep and immediately need the higher pressure anyway. Most likely a person would again go through whatever stages of sleep and physical changes that precipitated the need for higher pressures and the machine would be able to respond in the same manner as it did at the beginning of the night. While it can't go from minimum to maximum in the blink of an eye..it can get there in time to deal with most of the events it might face if the minimum starting pressure is optimal.

There's no real need to leave the machine on if someone doesn't want to...and there's no real need to turn it off either.
Personal preference and another YMMV sticker.
There might be a very brief spike in leak numbers associated with leaving the machine on and mask removed but that's about the worst of it. Not the end of the world either way.

I'm 57 and so most nights I'll need two or three trips to the bathroom

I turn the machine off, so I don't disturb Mrs Wife, and take the mask off. This allows me to also wipe my face and mask with tissue, to clear any drool and sweat, which I find can promote leaks. I have my ramp set to 5 mins, so no big worries about sleeping with sub-optimal pressure.

squid13 wrote:

hyperlexis wrote:If you turn the machine off manually, it will reset back to your original start pressure. If you have a fixed CPAP then fine, no problem it makes no difference, but if you have an APAP, you will have to go through a long ramp up back to the higher pressure you may have been at before the break, possibly causing poor sleep as a result.

That's only if you use ramp. I don't use ramp and there are alot of us who don't use the ramp feature or the auto off or start.

I have an auto and I do not use the ramp feature. I turn off the machine unplug the quick release and when I return I use autostart, Which is a feature I really like. No fumbling for the on button, just inhale.