I can't sleep because of the noise

kteague · Post by **kteague** » Thu Jul 10, 2014 1:34 am

I remember a related discussion on here years ago. It was pointed out how the machine sounds can differ with the different delivery type of machines and even between like machines based on settings such as pressure, exhale relief, or anything changing the work it has to do to deliver treatment. Based on the OP's description of sounds I'd suggest a starting point of machine placement. is it lower than the level of the mattress? And hose placement - is it placed where it is conducting sound, such as against the wall or headboard? Has anyone experienced a hose cover muffling the sound at all? Was your hubby using a full face mask before due to mouth breathing? Could the wooshing sound be his therapy air escaping his mouth? If so, that's important to address, and like has been mentioned, a liner could help, especially if he needs to go back to a full face mask. Let us know if you find something that works.

49er · Post by **49er** » Thu Jul 10, 2014 3:02 am

the wife wrote:49er

Would you pease let me know the name of the post by zoocrew?

Hi the wife,

Go to page one of this discussion as her post followed mine. But really, there are alot of other posts that have expanded on her suggestions.

I just thought it was better to troubleshoot the source of the noise before resorting to expensive options like noise cancellation headphones.

Best of luck to you.

ChicagoGranny · Post by **ChicagoGranny** » Thu Jul 10, 2014 7:13 am

the wife wrote:He tried a full face mask when he got the Transcend machine, but it squealed.

I don't have any experience with the Transcend machine. Maybe someone else who has one can comment on the noise level???

The Transcend machine is a travel machine. How did he end up with that for home use?

The current noise is a loud whoosh out and a louder whoosh in and occasionally a loud squeal.

I don't think any of us yet understand whether the noise is coming from the machine's fan or is coming from a leak in the hose or mask.

"Squeal" definitely sounds like a mask leak. Mask leaks are something all of us had to learn how to handle and prevent.

Can you look further into the "whoosh" to determine where it is coming from?

Drowsy Dancer · Post by **Drowsy Dancer** » Thu Jul 10, 2014 1:46 pm

the wife wrote:Thank you everyone who posted ideas to help. We will try each of them. He is currently using a new transcend ezex with a mirage (the one that fits on his nose). With his old machine he had to use a chin strap so that he did not snore with the sleep apnea machine. He tried a full face mask when he got the Transcend machine, but it squealed. If you ladies and gentleman have any other ideas to try to help the situation, please let me know. The current noise is a loud whoosh out and a louder whoosh in and occasionally a loud squeal.

To those of you who blasted me...thanks a lot, and I hope you never have to ask for help. Perhaps I could have worded my response differently as I am the one who gets up each night. He can sleep in the other available bed in the house, but our bed is the only one that is comfortable for me because of some health issues that I have -- hence the statement that I am thinking of making him sleep somewhere else. It never would have been a middle of the night decision, but a well thought out decision made by both of us. I am trying everything I can -- including making myself open to your criticism -- to try to keep us in the same room.

I have struggled through his snoring for many years and now through his sleep apnea for the last three years. I am the one who gets up and goes to the other room each night...and I have been for years. I understand that he needs the machine as I am the one who finally convinced him to go get tested, and I am the one who has required him to continue to use the machine nightly. He would have quit a long time ago and often suggests that he could start out without it. I tell him that he has to use it...even though I knew that I might get less sleep.

I have tried everything that I knew of to do before asking you guys for help. Earplugs, pillows on my ears, fans, other noises, etc. The problem is that I am a very auditory person, so even a fan in the same room is disruptive to my sleep. When I tried to sleep with noise canceling headphones, I would wake up with a headache because I never really got rest. When I tried to sleep with music, I would always wake up in the morning exhausted. As it stands, I get a full night sleep only about every 4 days when I am so exhausted that I can finally sleep or when he is not home.

Hmm. Isn't the Transcend a travel machine? If it's the machine I'm thinking of, isn't it supposed to be small and noisy?

jencat824 · Post by **jencat824** » Thu Jul 10, 2014 2:12 pm

the wife,

Sounds like your problem (or his) is the machine. As stated, the Transcend is a travel machine, you may need to buy another machine, either the ResMed S9 AutoSet or the Philips Respironics System One 560. The PR machine might be slightly less costly. Because of your problems with noise, it might be well worth the investment. Look at cpap.com for a new machine or SecondWind.com for a used one. Good luck with resolving your issues, I know you are trying.

Jen

BlackSpinner · Post by **BlackSpinner** » Thu Jul 10, 2014 3:48 pm

jencat824 wrote:the wife,

Sounds like your problem (or his) is the machine. As stated, the Transcend is a travel machine, you may need to buy another machine, either the ResMed S9 AutoSet or the Philips Respironics System One 560. The PR machine might be slightly less costly. Because of your problems with noise, it might be well worth the investment. Look at cpap.com for a new machine or SecondWind.com for a used one. Good luck with resolving your issues, I know you are trying.

Jen

And know that with a new machine you can use all the old masks. Machines and masks are a separate issue.
There are also mask liners that help with the leak issues as well as making the mask more comfortable.

If you can't afford a new-to-you machine build a box lined with foam around it - just make sure the air flow is there. Put the box as low as possible.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Oct 13, 2014 1:46 am

BlackSpinner wrote:
the wife wrote: I am ready to tell him to sleep somewhere else.
One doesn't tell the person who is looking after their health with a cpap machine to go and sleep elsewhere. YOU are the one with the issues and who doesn't have to lug the machine to where you are sleeping so YOU are the one to move. That cpap machine makes much less noise then the average air conditioner so the problem is somewhere inside your head.

Nonsense. The sound of the machine isn't constant, each time you breath it makes a noise, then it stops and then the noise repeats. This is NOT the same as an air conditioner which is a constant sound. I sleep with a HEPA air filter which is louder the the C-PAP machine, but that isn't an issue because like the air conditioner it is a constant sound.

eastcoastguyz · Post by **eastcoastguyz** » Mon Oct 13, 2014 1:56 am

OhHelpMe wrote:Maybe "The Wife" is overly sensitive to noise because she has untreated sleep apnea.

Unless you sleep next to someone who uses a C-Pap machine you can't know how annoying the sounds can be. The person wearing the C-Pap doesn't hear the same things as the person sleeping next to them. Also, from a short distance any lower frequencies of the drone from the machine can still be heard. This is because low frequency sounds like a truck down the street can carry a greater distance than the higher frequencies. So the drone of the C-Pap is the prominent sound from the distance of the other side of the bed.

Just because someone is annoyed by the sound, it doesn't mean there is a problem with them and they are "overly sensitive". To get a good night's sleep it has to be quiet. All those anecdotes about people sleeping next to train tracks and it doesn't bother them are not scientifically valid. There is a Mayo Clinic Sleep Book, which talked about a study where they connected machines to people sleeping who lived next to a train track, who by the way claimed the train noise didn't bother their sleep, and it showed in the lab monitoring equipment that it was indeed have an impact on their sleep. Simply because someone claims to have adapted or that it doesn't bother them, that's just a claim that has no real facts. The science supports that you must sleep in a quiet environment. It doesn't matter if the sound of the machine is a softer dB than something else, if it makes a sound that can be heard it's going to have an impact. So that should be taken into consideration of the person who is sleeping with you.

I hate solutions that blame the victim who is having the problem. That's just cruel. Both of you deserve to have a good night's rest, not just one of you at the expense of the other. If sound proofing and better machines can't be used to fix the problem then sleeping in separate rooms is a workable option. They are coming out with new technology each year it seems, so it's best to stay on top of it.

Julie · Post by **Julie** » Mon Oct 13, 2014 5:37 am

Ear plugs?

JimP · Post by **JimP** » Mon Oct 13, 2014 5:53 am

the wife wrote:Thank you everyone who posted ideas to help. We will try each of them. He is currently using a new transcend ezex with a mirage (the one that fits on his nose). With his old machine he had to use a chin strap so that he did not snore with the sleep apnea machine. He tried a full face mask when he got the Transcend machine, but it squealed. If you ladies and gentleman have any other ideas to try to help the situation, please let me know. The current noise is a loud whoosh out and a louder whoosh in and occasionally a loud squeal.

To those of you who blasted me...thanks a lot, and I hope you never have to ask for help. Perhaps I could have worded my response differently as I am the one who gets up each night. He can sleep in the other available bed in the house, but our bed is the only one that is comfortable for me because of some health issues that I have -- hence the statement that I am thinking of making him sleep somewhere else. It never would have been a middle of the night decision, but a well thought out decision made by both of us. I am trying everything I can -- including making myself open to your criticism -- to try to keep us in the same room.

I have struggled through his snoring for many years and now through his sleep apnea for the last three years. I am the one who gets up and goes to the other room each night...and I have been for years. I understand that he needs the machine as I am the one who finally convinced him to go get tested, and I am the one who has required him to continue to use the machine nightly. He would have quit a long time ago and often suggests that he could start out without it. I tell him that he has to use it...even though I knew that I might get less sleep.

I have tried everything that I knew of to do before asking you guys for help. Earplugs, pillows on my ears, fans, other noises, etc. The problem is that I am a very auditory person, so even a fan in the same room is disruptive to my sleep. When I tried to sleep with noise canceling headphones, I would wake up with a headache because I never really got rest. When I tried to sleep with music, I would always wake up in the morning exhausted. As it stands, I get a full night sleep only about every 4 days when I am so exhausted that I can finally sleep or when he is not home.

I don't think you'll find another couple as loving and affectionate as my wife and myself. We do sleep in separate bedrooms as do several other couples I know. Its not about what you do when you're asleep as what you do when you're awake. Even if he wasn't on a cpap machine, different bedtime schedules, tossing and turning during the night, more frequent bathroom runs as we age all contribute to losing sleep. Get a good night sleep and when you're awake...get your cuddle time.

DeadlySleep · Post by **DeadlySleep** » Mon Oct 13, 2014 7:49 pm

eastcoastguyz wrote: they connected machines to people sleeping who lived next to a train track, who by the way claimed the train noise didn't bother their sleep, and it showed in the lab monitoring equipment that it was indeed have an impact on their sleep.

I used to know a man who lived hard by a train track. Every morning at 3:00 a coal train rumbled through. He had adapted to it and it never woke him.

One morning the trestle was out 46 miles up the line. At 3:00:05 he sat straight up in bed and said, "What was that!?"

eleong2 · Post by **eleong2** » Tue Oct 14, 2014 4:44 pm

the wife wrote:Thank you everyone who posted ideas to help. We will try each of them. He is currently using a new transcend ezex with a mirage (the one that fits on his nose). With his old machine he had to use a chin strap so that he did not snore with the sleep apnea machine. He tried a full face mask when he got the Transcend machine, but it squealed. If you ladies and gentleman have any other ideas to try to help the situation, please let me know. The current noise is a loud whoosh out and a louder whoosh in and occasionally a loud squeal.

To those of you who blasted me...thanks a lot, and I hope you never have to ask for help. Perhaps I could have worded my response differently as I am the one who gets up each night. He can sleep in the other available bed in the house, but our bed is the only one that is comfortable for me because of some health issues that I have -- hence the statement that I am thinking of making him sleep somewhere else. It never would have been a middle of the night decision, but a well thought out decision made by both of us. I am trying everything I can -- including making myself open to your criticism -- to try to keep us in the same room.

I have struggled through his snoring for many years and now through his sleep apnea for the last three years. I am the one who gets up and goes to the other room each night...and I have been for years. I understand that he needs the machine as I am the one who finally convinced him to go get tested, and I am the one who has required him to continue to use the machine nightly. He would have quit a long time ago and often suggests that he could start out without it. I tell him that he has to use it...even though I knew that I might get less sleep.

I have tried everything that I knew of to do before asking you guys for help. Earplugs, pillows on my ears, fans, other noises, etc. The problem is that I am a very auditory person, so even a fan in the same room is disruptive to my sleep. When I tried to sleep with noise canceling headphones, I would wake up with a headache because I never really got rest. When I tried to sleep with music, I would always wake up in the morning exhausted. As it stands, I get a full night sleep only about every 4 days when I am so exhausted that I can finally sleep or when he is not home.

I know this post is a bit late in coming, I also have a Transcend EZEX, it is my travel machine. I agree it is a bit loud, makes you sound like Darth Vader. Because the air path is straight through the air movement sound is going right to your face. I found if you disrupt that path the noise is a lot lower. You can do that with a viral bacteria filter, it knocks the noise by almost half. I also plugged it into my PRS1 humidifier and it becomes real quiet. Playing around I built a little muffler using a 4 oz cosmetic jar and the Transcend is now pretty quiet. I suggest you buy a few viral bacterial filter to see if that helps, they are pretty cheap (few $ each) and you have pretty clean air.

dadbar1 · Post by **dadbar1** » Wed Oct 15, 2014 10:33 am

I keep my unit under the bed so it is quieter for my wife. You just have to check the filter more often. My wife likes the sound of it...when I travel she thinks it's too quiet now.

eleong2 · Post by **eleong2** » Thu Oct 16, 2014 8:43 am

dadbar1 wrote:I keep my unit under the bed so it is quieter for my wife. You just have to check the filter more often. My wife likes the sound of it...when I travel she thinks it's too quiet now.

Since you don't use a humidifier you might consider buying one of those viral/bacterial filters for your machine, it will quiet it down quite a bit. I tried one on my PRS1 (460 CPAP) without the humidifier and it did bring the noise level down. Also since you have the unit under the bed, it filters the fine stuff the PRS1 foam and white filter misses.

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