Waking up automatically

Hello

Sorry, hit send too quickly.

I have had sleep apnea all my life, and it got to the point where I was waking up several times a night.

Now that I have my CPAP machine, no matter when I go to bed, I automatically wake up it seems after 5-6 hours of sleeping. I usually go to bed around 2 am and I wake up at 8 or so, which is annoying.

Last night I tried to go to bed earlier (midnight) and, lo and behold, I woke up at 530 am!

Is there anything I can do about this? Is this normal? Will my body eventually adjust? I would really like to just sleep for 8 hours like a normal human being for once. Thanks!

How long have you been using the cpap machine?
How long did you sleep before using the cpap machine?
How are you feeling with the 5 to 6 hours of sleep now?

Pugsy wrote:How long have you been using the cpap machine?
How long did you sleep before using the cpap machine?
How are you feeling with the 5 to 6 hours of sleep now?

I have had it for a little over a month. The first time I ever used it, I slept for like 11 hours lol. Since then it has leveled out to about 5-6 per night so I am concerned.

Before using it I usually got 7-8 hours per night there were interrupted by waking up about 3 times to use the bathroom.

Now that I have it, I do feel more refreshed, but I'm thinking I could get even more rest.

Give yourself some time. Right now your body is likely so happy to get "good" sleep that it gets "restored" with just 5 or 6 hours of sleep when in the past it took a lot more sleep to get "restored". So it's good with 5 or 6 hours in terms how it feels in general.
It took me about 6 months to go from 5 hours of sleep (waking naturally) to 6 hours and then another year or so to work up to 7 hours.

Do you take any meds of any kind? Sometimes meds are a factor in premature wake ups.

What's waking you? Need to pee?

What happens when you try to go back to sleep at that point?

What was your typical sleep time and pattern before CPAP?

englandsf wrote:What's waking you? Need to pee?

What happens when you try to go back to sleep at that point?

What was your typical sleep time and pattern before CPAP?

Nope. No need to pee (that is what woke me up prior to CPAP), I just "wake up" if that makes sense.

When I try to go back to sleep...I take the mask off because my mouth is dry at that point and feels funky and I can usually log another hour or so before getting up. I'd rather avoid this and just sleep through the night all together.

Before CPAP I would go to bed around 1-2 and wake up every few hours needing to use the bathroom. So, I would get 7-8 hours generally but they would be interrupted.

BMCG wrote:When I try to go back to sleep...I take the mask off because my mouth is dry at that point and feels funky and I can usually log another hour or so before getting up. I'd rather avoid this and just sleep through the night all together.

Try to avoid the mask removal and then sleeping without the mask. Bad habit to start and bad habits are easy to make and hard to break.

When you have time please register so you can add your equipment to your profile.
If you have dry mouth that could indicate some mouth breathing. Maybe it's the dry mouth waking you up.
Depending on mask used and how much mouth breathing (if that is what you are doing) you could possibly be losing precious therapy pressure which of course is not something we want to do.
Hopefully you have a machine that will allow software usage to evaluate potential mouth leaks if you aren't using a full face mask.

Take a drink of water and put the mask back on and then go back to sleep. Don't sleep without the mask.

Pugsy wrote:

BMCG wrote:When I try to go back to sleep...I take the mask off because my mouth is dry at that point and feels funky and I can usually log another hour or so before getting up. I'd rather avoid this and just sleep through the night all together.

Try to avoid the mask removal and then sleeping without the mask. Bad habit to start and bad habits are easy to make and hard to break.

When you have time please register so you can add your equipment to your profile.
If you have dry mouth that could indicate some mouth breathing. Maybe it's the dry mouth waking you up.
Depending on mask used and how much mouth breathing (if that is what you are doing) you could possibly be losing precious therapy pressure which of course is not something we want to do.
Hopefully you have a machine that will allow software usage to evaluate potential mouth leaks if you aren't using a full face mask.

Take a drink of water and put the mask back on and then go back to sleep. Don't sleep without the mask.

OK, I will register shortly.

I always breathe out of my mouth -- always. I use a full mask. I do have software that keeps track of everything on my machine. What is a mouth leak?

Mouth leak is where the mouth is open and uncovered by the mask interface. Since you are using a full face mask then it doesn't really apply to you.
We worry about it if you are using a nasal mask because it can impact therapy pressure. Since you have a closed system where nose and mouth are both covered then mouth breathing leaks won't impact your situation.
Doesn't mean you aren't mouth breathing but at least the therapy pressure isn't lost.

Dry mouth is a common complaint from mouth breathers...either using the machine or not and full face mask or not.
There may be some options to help with the dry mouth depending on which machine you are using and/or if you have a heated hose.

Pugsy wrote:Mouth leak is where the mouth is open and uncovered by the mask interface. Since you are using a full face mask then it doesn't really apply to you.
We worry about it if you are using a nasal mask because it can impact therapy pressure. Since you have a closed system where nose and mouth are both covered then mouth breathing leaks won't impact your situation.
Doesn't mean you aren't mouth breathing but at least the therapy pressure isn't lost.

Dry mouth is a common complaint from mouth breathers...either using the machine or not and full face mask or not.
There may be some options to help with the dry mouth depending on which machine you are using and/or if you have a heated hose.

Thanks. I was going to say, the mask completely covers my mouth and trust me, when I breathe, I feel the air going down my throat. I don't think anything is leaking. It really may just be my body getting used to all this restful sleep. When I wake up I do feel much better than I used to, so that's nice. I will wait a bit and see if this goes away.

This is a swell community, by the way, lots of good information here.