cpap not helping anymore

Ive a cpap machine since August..i Live in Germany the machine is called a Weinmann Somnibalance e..with a Joyce vented mask

I work as a delivery driver i Used to get up at 3am..maximum hours I used to sleep were 6..
The cpap machine was helping alot..felt like a different person was resting..was fitter and felt totally different..I had soo much energy..it's winter time now and noticed that I started to feel tired again..also left my job..and now I'm at home sleeping over 8 hrs a day...I'm scared now as the cpap is not helping anymore and I'm totally exhausted my brains a mess...and my stress levels are soo high again..

I just got me a humidifier to see if it will make a difference..3rd day with the humidifier and no change..also since it's started to get cold..I've noticed I feel like I'm suffocating with the mask..before I had no problems and I could tollerate it..

Any advice people..I've got no leaks as it is a good mask...just need some help people...I'm not working at the moment..just at home depressed..I don't think I'm gonna get over this

Any help would be much appreciated

How much do you know about your machine and your pressure settings?
http://www.weinmann.de/en/products/slee ... balance_e/
Does it have any data available on the LCD screen as to apnea events and AHI or whatever?

Here in the US we don't see this brand....normally APAP machines (auto adjusting pressure) will offer some data to see if the therapy is optimal...like AHI and leaks and such. We use software to evaluate the data that the machines gather.
You say leaks aren't an issue.....how do you know this?

When therapy seems to work for a while and then doesn't...we always look at the software reports to see if something changed their first if we can.

Are you simply not able to sleep at all...or are you sleeping 8 hours with the machine and feeling crappy or are you sleeping without the machine for some or all of the night? Or is your sleep fragmented with lots of wake ups and if so, why?

Do you take any meds? If so, what and dose and time of dose?

There is no data on screen...it's an auto pressure machine..
I say no leaks because when I wake up there is no leaks in the mask..
Somebody is coming on Tuesday to check the machine and the software
Only a technision can do that here...

I'm not taking any meds...
I would say my sleep is fragmented...I'm really struggling for sleep...sometime I wake up the pressure is 8
Sometime I wake up it is 12..I think my optimal is 12
I have noticed when I feel like I'm in a deep sleep..I wake up

So the weather change should not make a difference

I'm grateful that u replied....

The weather changes could have played a factor but without knowing about the data the machine collects we can't totally rule out something needed to be improved upon in regards to therapy.
Your waking up and not noticing any leaks doesn't really mean much except we can say that leaks aren't waking you up.
I have slept through some massive leaks myself...we can sleep through them.

Comfort plays an important role in the quality of our sleep. So your weather change could be a contributing factor if you can isolate something in the comfort line that is maybe bugging you.
With colder weather we use our furnaces and that dries out the air and colder air tends to be drier anyway...so that's why we think that maybe adding the humidifier (if someone doesn't use one) or turning up the setting to add more moisture might help but it only helps if the poor sleep was related to moisture in the air.

If you are waking up a lot...for whatever reason...that will sure make a person feel awful the next day no matter how many hours of sleep they get. Finding out the reason for those wake ups sometimes takes a lot of detective work and trial and error.
Finally sometimes we just have insomnia issues (getting to sleep and/or staying asleep) that we can find a reason for but we sure feel awful. We just have to keep trying to fix it as best we can.

When the tech gets the data off your machine...make sure he gets the detailed data and not just how many hours you used the machine...just to make sure that the AHI is acceptable and leaks aren't impacting therapy.
Make sure you get copies of it too...that way if you have questions then someone here can maybe help.

Something has changed for you to now feel bad and have poor sleep when compared to when you first started therapy...now what the change was/is...we don't know and all we can do is start ruling out potential culprits and hope we get lucky and find out what changed.

No change in meds I assume??? Add anything or change dosage?
Depression??? On any meds for depression? Under lots of stress? Is it possible the stress is causing the wake ups?
Do you have any other health issues? Had a complete physical lately with all the usual lab tests?

Remember the cpap machine is designed to fix sleep apnea issues and it doesn't do a good job fixing stuff that is unrelated to sleep apnea. We tend to want to blame everything that is wrong with us or our sleep or how we feel the next day on sleep apnea but there are a ton of other things that affect our sleep and how we feel the next day besides sleep apnea.
I wish it were that simple. My sleep as been fragmented lately and very short hours and my butt has been dragging during the day...but I have a new issue...it's a little dog that I took in when someone dumped it and my sleep is horribly fragmented because of her need to go potty or the cat not liking sharing the bed.
I know the reason for feeling like crap...it's the horribly fragmented sleep.
Fragmented sleep for any reason is simply going to make us feel awful the next day.

Hi,

Since you mentioned you started getting tired and depressed at the onset of winter, could your vitamin D level have gone down? Perhaps that needs checking?

I hope you feel better soon.

49er

kalx81 wrote:Ive a cpap machine since August..i Live in Germany the machine is called a Weinmann Somnibalance e..with a Joyce vented mask

I work as a delivery driver i Used to get up at 3am..maximum hours I used to sleep were 6..
The cpap machine was helping alot..felt like a different person was resting..was fitter and felt totally different..I had soo much energy..it's winter time now and noticed that I started to feel tired again..also left my job..and now I'm at home sleeping over 8 hrs a day...I'm scared now as the cpap is not helping anymore and I'm totally exhausted my brains a mess...and my stress levels are soo high again..

I just got me a humidifier to see if it will make a difference..3rd day with the humidifier and no change..also since it's started to get cold..I've noticed I feel like I'm suffocating with the mask..before I had no problems and I could tollerate it..

Any advice people..I've got no leaks as it is a good mask...just need some help people...I'm not working at the moment..just at home depressed..I don't think I'm gonna get over this

Any help would be much appreciated

The stress is probrarly from having no work anymore..
And maybe the fear I'm going to wake up feeling that crap again
Or mabye with a heart attack..I'm sleeping really early at the moment.
I'll check my vitiman d levels...maybe I need to sleep later..
Going to sleep a bit later tonight..
Me and my wife but the our son to bed at 8..and I end up falling asleep with him

I'll ask the tech for all the details..hopefully I can post them up

For everyone who replied I'm soo grateful..I feel so alone at the moment
And the sleep deprivation...is taking it's toll

While you are struggling to determine what is wrong, you might try putting yourself on a strict sleep schedule. Go to bed at the same time and get up at the same time every day. I found this helped me when I was struggling with not falling asleep at night. Within 7 to 10 days I began falling asleep soon after climbing into bed.