Sleep Apnea and CPAP Therapy?

Who has it? If you are on CPAP, what has been your experience?

I'm doing my sleep study in a week and the sleep thearapist/tech is 80% positive that I have Sleep Apnea...my wife says I shake walls with my snoring...I wake with frequent headaches and i'm always tired....can nap anywhere at anytime, I don't, but I could. I've been doing a lil research on the machines and masks...if you use them...which do you like...pros and cons?

It's weird, but i'm actually kinda looking forward to it...i haven't slept good in yrs.

Sorry if this has been discussed...I did a search and didn't see a thread anywhere.

 

I've been using an apap machine for over a year (auto positive air pressure). THe only difference is that it can adjust the amount of air it thinks you need on the fly instead of being static like a CPAP. Now while I still feel like I could sleep longer, I am more rested. I had the same symptoms as you. If I slept too much like on a weekend, i'd always have a headache walking up.

The one I use is an Resmed Airsense 10 with a nose pillow headset. It does take some getting use to and for the first month, i'd take it off in my sleep because i felt I couldn't breathe. But it ended up just being an adjustment on the machine to provide more air. Since then I sleep all the way through the night and the snoring is gone.

I also bought a SoClean machine which makes it so you don't have to tear it apart to clean it all the time. Look into those.

Good luck and I hope it works out for you!

 

6th year, second machine.

I now wear a Dreamwear mask with nose pillows. Its always been a bit of a problem since I'm a stomach-face-in-pillow sleeper.

Doing a lot better. The new gen machines are automatic and only need cleaning, no adjusting once you're dialed in. Records amazing detail data.

I recommend the humidifer kit and heated hose, as it helps reduce dry nose/mouth, particuarly when you are in AC or heat season and the home is drier inside.

It's really only a pain because I am fortunate to travel (for fun) a lot. So carry/set up/take down.

Good news is the airlines can't hold it against you as an 'item' you carry on, as it's medical. So I get almost all my electronics in the bag with the machine, extra carry space.

Bad news is that 'sometimes' a security person will want the unit out of the bag, (like you would a laptop), even though I'm a Global Entry participant, meaning auto TSA pre check. Of course that's only good domestic flying or reentering the country. In other countries you never know what they'll have you do.

Your Dr will point you to various companies in your area that have supplies, etc. Be sure to query the Dr on the quality of service that they may have had feedback from patients on. My first company was 'ok', but everything took 'effort' on my part. When machine 1 died and I needed a replacement, I changed suppliers, and they have been great so far.

Regardless, if you need the machine, use it.

 

I do my 2 night at home study starting tomorrow night. I'm actually looking forward to it. While my wife has complained about my snoring and urged me to do something about it, now that I am, and i tell her this is why i fall asleep in the evenings after dinner or on the weekends and possibly why i've been so irritable lately...she has mentioned a few times that i've been really cranky lately....I figured its just the stress of our first year as parents and because of work...I'm a Quality Control inspector over aircraft maintenance and we've been really busy lately. Anyway, she thinks i'm just using this possible sleep apnea as an excuse. I'm not lazy, never have been...i'm just always fucking tired. I wake up every couple of hrs whether its on my own or because of our crying (now) 11 month old....either way, I have to go pee....i'm like a zombie during the day...my coworkers are always commenting on why I yawn so much.

Anyways, looking forward to "fixing" this problem...been reading up on masks and machines, I have a feeling i'm gonna be using a full face mask as I'm a mouth breather. Hoping I get a good DME for equipment...I know what machine to expect.

 

Actually with the nose pillow, it sucks your mouth shut. It's the least intrusive I felt. The always tired thing was totally me. You aren't getting into REM sleep and getting fully rested because you stop breathing so much.

I should add that my diet was also causing some of the tiredness. Too many carbs.

Good luck with the test! I know how challenging all that is with new kids too. I have 4, the youngest being 15 months.

 

I've been on a CPAP since 1997. I use my CPAP every night and every time I nap. I'm 100% dependent on my CPAP. I have servere obstructive apnea. I was always tired, had servere allergies and got sick often. The best way I could describe my positive results using a CPAP, it
like the hand of God came down and touched me curing my exhaustion, allergies and my constant colds. Be consistent with you mask and wear it every time you sleep and you will get used to it.

 

I completed my 2 night home sleep study this weekend. I'm turning in the equipment this afternoon...hopefully i'll know something in a day or two.

Man, SJC2081....I am going through the same shit...I used to hardly ever get sick, and i never had Allergies...Now, I am fighting the seasonal allergies and I got pretty damn sick back in Jan and early Feb.....usualy get a seasonl cold every year for the last few yrs....before that...Never. It might sound crazy, but I'm hoping to get put on a CPAP...i'm ready to feel good again.

 

Vitamin, I hope you get relief soon. A few other things you may consider, no matter what the sleep study tells you. I'm a dental specialist that treats sleep disorders among other things. This is not a diagnosis for you, just some things I see in my own patient population that are common.

Sleep 'hygiene' will affect you no matter if you are using a CPAP or not. That means taking care of your sleep. Going to sleep around the same hour each night will help you get more quality of sleep, as you body will be getting ready at the same time and establishing a natural rhythm to getting to deep sleep cycles. You should also avoid looking at an illuminated screen within one hour of going to bed (damn you TW forums for your sick addicting action!). Also avoid heavy meals and hard exercise close to sleepy time, along with caffeine after 5pm. Alcohol intake, for many people makes you sleepy, but interferes with getting good restorative rest.

For apnea, both central and peripheral, CPAP is the best treatment, and at first you may have trouble getting used to it. You may need to try different masks and multiple fittings to get it right, but there are more choices than ever. If you can't tolerate a CPAP machine there are dental repositioning devices, but these are significantly inferior to the CPAP in terms of dealing with apnea. Either way, the CPAP is the first choice and with any treatment you should have a follow on sleep study to make sure that they have your pressures correct and that you are not just having 'better' sleep but still having cessation of breathing during the night. This is all general knowledge and any good pulmonologist that treats apnea should be able to help you with specific questions.

The other posters were right on with the comments about the use of the newer devices, and the ones with humidifier kits are the way to go. My father in law loved his results so much from his CPAP use that he got a second unit that is specifically for travel.

FYI - I have three little kids and think that one of their main goals, especially for the first two years of life is to ruin your sleep. Kind of like gazelle know how to run within 15 minutes of being born, human children can sense that you are in your deepest phase of sleep and choose that instant to scream to feed/change/rock them. It's instantaneous.

 

I've been using CPAP for about a year and a half. It's made a huge difference. I use a respironics with humidifier and nose pillow mask. One sleep study confirmed what we already knew. With the CPAP I'm much more rested when I wake up and during the day. I also put a lot of focus on going to bed and getting up at the same time and getting at least seven hours of sleep. Makes me wonder why I didn't do this years ago.

 

I got my results in and diagnosis...Sever Obstructive Sleep Apnea...had 80 events in an hour with a low O2 level. Now waiting on insurance to approve a titration test. They said I most likely will get prescribed a BiPap. Either way, i'm so ready to get this done and therapy started...I had a pretty rough night last night around 3:30 and never got back to sleep...at least that is how i felt all day...dizzy, light headed just felt weird.

 

Good for you man. I think the first night I had 75 and the second I had 90. I never had to do a titration test though, they just put me right into a machine.

 

I'm very tempted to tell them I don't want the titration test, just set me up and let me be on my way

 

at first I used to take it off everynight when I was sleeping, found out I needed a full face mask, over nose and mouth. ever since that, I have no issues with it. I do notice if I don't use it when I sleep, I never get a sound sleep, toss and turn all night. had it since 2009.

 

I run sleep studies as a profession, so I can probably answer questions you all have.

 

Don't do that. You need the titration to find the correct setting for you. They typically start a CPAP titration at 5cm and it can go up to 20cm. They can switch to BiPAP if they need still more, up to 25cm. It's pretty rare to see that much pressure, but I've done it a handful of times. The point is, there's a wide range of pressures and PAP settings they can use to customize the therapy to you. If they just try to guess and use too little pressure, you'll still have apneas and still feel like shit; too much pressure and it will be uncomfortable and might actually cause some additional problems like treatment emergent central apneas.

You had a home sleep test - this time you'll go into a lab for a more thorough setup with EEG monitoring among other things. You'll start on CPAP and they will spend the night titrating the pressure until they can clear your obstruction (the cause of your apneas). It might be 9cm, it might be 17cm. There's no way to know without doing the titration. They can use CPAP, might switch to BiPAP, and there are a few other modes that you probably won't see but are possibility.

 

Insurance came through a lil quicker this time...and my sleep center is able to get me in this Wed night.

A friend offered to loan me their backup cpap...it's the lowtime Resmed AirSense 10 autoset...got it set from 8cm to 20cm...just to get me through this waiting period...I will say, just in the 4 nights i've used it, I feel a lot better already.....I've got no issues sleeping with a mask on all night.

I was told on my last phone call that more than likely with my results that it was highly possible that I would get a BiPap.....I guess we'll see come Wed night or Thursday morning.

 

Cool, good luck with your test.

Yeah, the auto PAP set from 8 to 20 will more or less cover everything. The way auto PAP works is it's an automatically adjusted CPAP. The machine senses if you're providing resistance like a heavy snore or an apnea and will adjust between 8 and 20 based on what it senses. So basically you're getting at least 8 and at most 20 cm at any given time based on whether or not you're having apneas (apneas tend to get worse during REM/dream sleep and especially while sleeping on your back rather than your side).

There's a couple reasons you might need BiPAP: 1) 20cm isn't high enough to get rid of your obstruction/apneas completely, 2) high CPAP pressure is causing central apneas (where your brain basically gives up and you don't even try to breathe for 15+ seconds), or 3) CPAP pressures are too uncomfortable - BiPAP is more comfortable for a lot of people.

Bi-Level PAP works the same as CPAP, it's just that you get two different pressure settings, one for the inhale and one for the exhale (which the machine senses in real time). So your BiPAP setting might be something like 18 in / 13 out. It makes it easier to breathe on the exhale, which is where a lot of people get some discomfort trying to push air out against 18cm of CPAP.

At any rate, they'll figure all of this out during the titration study. It might be taht CPAP works fine for you. I'd let them know when you get there that you've been borrowing an A-PAP from a friend set from 8 to 20 and have had no problems with discomfort so far and already are feeling loads better.

Not at all exaggerating when I say it will change your life, so use it religiously. Good luck!

 

This is also good advice. Most machines should be humidified these days (with a reservoir you fill each night before bed with DISTILLED WATER). But the heated hose usually costs extra or you need to buy it from a third party and is WELL worth the money. It not only keeps the humidified air warm all the way to your airway, which indeed does reduce congestion and dryness, but it also reduces "rain out" from condensation so your tube doesn't get moisture in it which can make it's way into your mask.

 

Back in 2012 I was diagnosed with sleep apnea and was given a CPAP machine . I've tried numerous times but can't get comfortable to sleep since I'm a side sleeper

I've tried numerous masks from different mfgs and nothing will work for me . so since 2014 I've stopped using the CPAP

 

Side sleeping can be difficult especially for full face masks. It might be easier to wear the nasal pillows since they are typically small and therefore less opportunity for them to be displaced. There are a lot of new masks that might work/fit better for you now that may not have been available 5 years ago.

Having said that, I know it can be a pain in the ass sometimes to wear it, but think of it this way: your alternative is not breathing and waking up x times/hr for the rest of your life. In the short term, having frequently interrupted sleep basically just makes you tired, easily fatigued, unfocused, etc. Not the worst symptoms, but they tend to create a cycle of low energy, low activity, weight gain, worsening apnea, and back around we go. Over the long term, apnea puts accumulating stress on your heart when your heart and the rest of your body should be chilling out and recharging for the next day. What that means is that after 15, 20, 30 years of untreated apnea you will have ventricular hypertrophy, hypertension, and congestive heart failure among other possible issues.

So it is well worth exhausting all your possibilities to try to get your apnea treated. It's unfortunate how different an experience it can be for different people - some people take to therapy easily and it's very difficult for others.