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I use the Optilife nasal pillow system system so I just hit the OFF button, then toss the headgear on my pillow. On return, headgear takes less than 5 seconds to put on and machine re-starts automatically. The most important things to remeber here are (1) DON'T TURN ON THE LIGHT! otherwise you'll never get back to sleep, and (2) only open one eye the whole time you're out of bed--tricks the brain into letting you fall back to sleep quickly.

I just take the whole thing off without turning it off or unhooking the hose. It's really my only option. The machine makes a loud beep when turning it on or off (which might wake my wife), so I don't want to do that. And I can't disconnect it because I use a fleece SnuggleHose cover, which covers up the quick disconnect. So I just take the whole thing off and put it under my pillow so that the wildly blowing air doesn't wake the wife (noisy). It only takes a second to get the mask back on when I return.

I am like hosecrusher. Done it so many times, off buton, mask off, bathroom, mask on, breath in and auto on. I am betting less than a minute. And asleep before the second minute.

Consider this, Bitman:

I began CPAP one year ago and had many of the problems you've mentioned but have found nocturnal bliss as I adapted to the CPAP gear and the way it works.

This is a the four-step program I devised. I had a tremendous sleep study at the local krankenhaus but ran into a granite roadblock as I attempted to get accustomed to masks on my own. You might want to give this a try:

My main advice is to back away from immediately trying to do all-nighters with your CPAP equipment. Use my four-step weekly plan WHICH WORKED WONDERFULLY for me:

1) During the first week sit, watch TV, or read with your equipment whirring away next to you. Get accustomed to the sounds, feelings of the moving air, and all the external trappings of the great chance at quality sleep you are nearing. Do NOT go to bed with the equipment.

2) Take the phone off the hook, draw the shades, evict everyone from the house, don't think about any nearby clock, and loosen your clothing as you lie on your bed in mid-afternoon. Turn on the CPAP gizmo, put the mask on your face, and close your eyes. Think peaceful thoughts, whatever they are to you. At some point in the week you WILL fall asleep. After you have this nap, you'll be amazed at what a refreshing experience it was.

3) During the third week have all your CPAP gear ready for action as you go to bed for the night. As you've done so many times throughout the years, you'll awaken far before morning. When you do, slap the mask on your face and turn on the CPAP gear before your groggy brain has any idea what's going on.

4) After successfully completing the first three steps at your pace, decide on a night (mine was March 3rd) when you have full confidence and will retire for the night WITH your mask on. You'll succeed!

My biggest mistake was expecting everything to go perfectly from the first night. One must be patient and keep anxiety as far away as possible. Come March 3rd, I plan on some sort of goofy celebration to mark one year of refreshing sleep I never had - over four decades - before last year.

Best of luck and God bless.

Apneanderthal wrote:... The machine makes a loud beep when turning it on or off (which might wake my wife), so I don't want to do that.

I'm surprised there isn't a setting to silence that - my 560 is silent except if I pop the SD card while powered.

CapnLoki wrote:I'm surprised there isn't a setting to silence that - my 560 is silent except if I pop the SD card while powered.

Believe me, I'm surprised too. The beeps are really loud. No settings to change it, not even in the administrative menus. It's a model 960, so PR must have added this loud beep later on. It serves zero purpose. I have the mask on my face for crying out loud, I know when the machine is on!

Apneanderthal wrote: The beeps are really loud. No settings to change it, not even in the administrative menus. It's a model 960, so PR must have added this loud beep later on.

Actually the absence of beeps upon the start of the machine is the newer...
There's a feature available only in the 60 series machine that enables the beep when the machine starts...to be turned off.
It's called silent mode. If the machine has silent mode enable it won't beep when started.

The 960 machine is a bit of a different animal and I don't know if the Silent Mode feature is available or not but if it is then it would be in the clinical setup menu. If you haven't looked in there you might go look just in case it's available.

Prior to the 60 machines...for years and years users complained about that annoying beep. Loud enough to annoy when going to sleep and not loud enough to wake a person up in the event of a big mask leak.

@Sheriff: Yelling inside the fitlife would probably fog it up completely.
The kid would be laughing so hard you'd have to carry him to bed.

I can't say. I started CPAP on 01.08.14 and have yet to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. What a change. I think I would just turn off the machine and take off the nasal pillow mask that I use if I did get up. When going back to bed I would put the mask back on and turn on the machine adn away I go..

Bitman wrote: it's allot easier to take off then disconnect the hose.

Not if you have the right equipment. Use one of these quick connect/disconnect adapters between the hose and machine.

https://www.cpap.com/productpage/hose-q ... nnect.html