Cpap and getting better sleep: What's your experience?

Good morning everyone. I have a question for John Bishop...since you have the same machine as me. My balloon has popped! No sleep at all last night until I took off the mask at 4:30 a.m. I was so excited about my good night's sleep the other night...now I am flattened. Last night, within five minutes of wearing the new mask and turning on the machine, I developed a headache again across my forehead and face. The respiratory therapist has told me to "play" with the settings for heat and humidity until I am comfortable. I had the heat at 2 and the humidifier at 3. That didn't help and caused condensation so I raised the heat to 3 per my therapists advice if there is water in my hose or nasal pillows. I still had the headache. I tried to relax and not pay attention to the headache but at 4:30, after not going to sleep at all and being totally frustrated, sleep deprived and depressed...angry also, I just took off the mask and shut down the machine. I was actually afraid to fall asleep. Within 10 minutes of doing this, the headache was gone and I was asleep. Interesting that the first mask which did not fit me right did not give me a headache. I don't know if it is the mask which I love or the humidity. John, do you have preferred settings on your heat and humidity? I am so frustrated. Thank you for your help.

Hi @cece55, I've played with the humidifier heat and heated hose settings and right now have them both set at 4. For awhile I just turned them both off because I had a "stuffy" feeling also. The way the sleep medicine doctor explained it to me (and told me to play around with the settings because we are each different), the heated hose setting ideal setting should be higher by one number to keep condensation out of the hose. I started at 2 for the heat and 3 for the hose also. Then turned them both off. Now I'm at 4 for both but I think in my case it's because my bedroom is in the basement and the temp during the winter is around 60 degrees at night (love them electric blankets ☺). In the summer I may go back to having them both off again.

I think if it's a condensation problem I would leave the hose setting at 3 and drop the heat setting to 1 and see if that helps. The heat setting would add more moisture to the air the higher the number. I think it's relative to the amount of humidity in your home. I also have a whole home dehumidifier that helps control the amount of humidity in the summer and winter. I keep it around 45 to 50 %.

I think @dawn_giacabazi and @thankful may also be able to offer some input on the heat settings.

Don't be discouraged and keep at it. It will come around. Keep posting and we can help each other!

Hi John, again...thank you for responding so quickly. I am not usually a complainer and this is all so out of character for me. I am a little confused as to how the humidifier works. I am glad that we have the same machine....it will help me understand. I understand the heated hose but when you refer to "the heat" are you referring to the humidifier? Can you give me a crash course on how the humidifier works? 🙂 When you refer to hose setting and heat setting can you change what you are saying to heated tube and humidifier? The terminology in throwing me a little. Thanks!

Hi @cece55 - I probably through in some confusion by not using the same terminology...sorry. The heat I was referring to is the humidifier. It controls the heat setting of the plate in the humidifier tank. Here's a few good YouTube videos that explain it. The second video that starts shows a few hidden settings that are normally overlooked. Like the Preheat setting.

Hi John, Your advice was excellent! I had the humidifier at 3 and the heated tube at 4 last night. I fell asleep in 5 minutes and only woke up once. No headache and 7 hours of sleep! My nose pillows were slightly moist but that's o.k. The tubing was fine. I just have a low grade sinus headache today. I am hoping that my body will get used to air being blown up my nose and eventually my sinuses will settle down.

I also loosened my mask a little and that helped. I realize that there will be good and bad nights for awhile ....thank you for listening to me and giving me some ideas to try!

Happy Sunday,
CeCe55

Thanks for your good information John. I track my nightly score on my Resmed and I have not been able to figure out how to reduce my hourly events to 5 or or below. It seems as though the fewer the hours I sleep the fewer hourly events I have. Any suggestions please.

Hi Alan @alanbruce -- I am a work in progress myself Alan ☺ My doctor wants the AHI to 4 or less. I do get between 7 and 8+ hours sleep a night but I've not had too much consistency with the numbers. I started last July and have had a handful of days under 5 and 2 under 3 for AHI but most of the time I'm going up and down. Last night my AHI was 5.5 and the night before was 5.9 but the night before that I was at 8.1. I think my problem may be related to pain from my bad knee and having to constantly roll back and forth to get comfortable.

Does your mask feel comfortable? Seems like when I don't feel claustrophobic with the mask I have lower numbers. I shave with my electric razor and wash my face with a warm washcloth before putting on the mask. Hoping some others have some suggestions because I can use some too!

I have only been using a Resmed for four months and the current mask feels really good. Some nights when I have PMR shoulder pain I do not sleep as many hours however the number of hourly events tend to be lower.

@johnbishop, @alanbruce- I wish I could have my earlier numbers when I 1st started using C-pap, but that was too many years ago.
Currently I have 1-2 events throughout the night and stay in the range of 1.3- 1.7 ahi. I avg. 7.5 hrs. per night and consistantly that has been the case months on end. Perhaps longevity in using the C-pap is the real answer here and I'm an old pro at this one. You heard me say often that the mask is key for how well you take to C-pap and I still believe that, but I do believe that will take some time for everyone to settle on that's just right for them (kinda like the 3 bears :)) The one thing that I have also found that is key is that once we become aware of leakage issues there is a tendency to over correct the tightness of the mask and that often leads to further discomfort. I have found that all it takes is the slightest adjustments that really make a difference and add to a much better experience. Compared to where I started, I wear my mask much less as tight as I ever have. I still get an occasional sad face as far as leakage, but for the most part I ignore that and keep going. Happy Zzzz's Jim @thankful

Hello again everyone. It is the newbie here. I have good nights and not so good nights but I am trying the best that I can not to take a "vacation" night! I have a couple of questions.

The first question is about cleaning all the pieces that make up our Sleep Apnea Devices. All my literature says every night. My respiratory therapist told me once a week was fine. I am cleaning everything with hot, soapy water and rinsing every morning. Am I overdoing it?

The next question is about the SoClean. I know that there is another location for the SoClean questions and I did read all the responses but they seem to be 1/2 a year old so I thought I would ask again...thoughts on purchasing a SoClean? I realize I still have to wash everything at least once a week along with using the SoClean and that is not a problem. The odd smell I am reading about is the problem. I am hyper sensitive to a lot of things and if there is an odd odor to the mask and hoses once they go thru the machine and you use them at night, I would like more info about it. Does it go away after a couple of minutes or does your mask smell that way until you get a new one? I guess where this is going is .....if I don't like the smell can I wash it away? 🙂

On one last note...I am finding as a new user of CPAP, I tend to get a little anxious right before bedtime. If I let my mind and body do this and start thinking about the mask and that this is the way I sleep for the rest of my life, I will have trouble relaxing and falling asleep. If I don't let my mind go there... I can fall asleep much easier. Any advice on acceptance and not thinking about it at around 10 p.m? Thank you everyone for your support.