Ok, I'm not sure if this topic belongs on this board or the "Sleep Apnea Help" board but here goes:

I've now been on an Auto CPaP for about 8 days now. I know that, or have been told anyways, that it takes time to acclimate to the CPAP stuff and I accept that. The first few evenings before bed, I wore my mask around the house (feeling foolish but that's ok) to help acclimate me to the mask.

It did not prevent a very brief claustrophobic reaction the first night, but it did improve things over time. I no longer have any trouble falling asleep, which is good.

The problem is, I can't STAY asleep. I wake up almost exactly every 2 hours! To make matters worse, I can't figure out why. My mask isn't leaking to my knowledge (it isn't when I wake up anyways). I haven't rolled in such a way that it pulled the tubing out or displaced the CPAP device itself. I don't have any bodily needs (such as restroom or thirst) or discomfort either. That, itself, is an issue, but it isn't the impulse behind this post.

What is, was the reaction to this by my respiratory therapist/tech person. She told me that the solution to this was to wear my mask around the house more before bed! Is she for real or is this a bunch of bunk?

There's more, but I am going to wait until I get a general consensus as to whether or not this post is on the right board.

Did you wake often during the night before you ever started cpap or is this something totally new to you since starting cpap?

Do you take any medications of any kind? If so what?

Have you used available software to see if anything might be showing up on the detailed reports that might point to a reason for the wake up?
Don't know about the software?
https://sleep.tnet.com/equipment

If it is any consolation...I also went through a lot of wake ups early in my therapy that I couldn't ever figure out any reason as to why they were happening. Sometimes it's just the brain saying "hey dude, do you know there is an alien plastered on your face?"
With time they became less and less frequent as the brain came to accept the alien stuck on my face was a good alien.

Doesn't mean we can't try to sort it out though just in case something else is going on.
It's normal to have a few wake ups anyway. Most we don't remember because they are so brief and we just roll over and go back to sleep but sometimes we just wake up to a more alert status and remember it and/or have trouble getting back to sleep.
It's normal to wake up after a REM cycle is completed and 2 hours is about when we would expect to see the end of the first REM cycle.
As the night progresses we tend to have longer lasting REM cycles and they come on more frequently.

It's possible that your OSA is worse in REM and maybe some apnea events are disturbing your sleep. This is why I suggest looking at the software reports...see if maybe some apnea events are slipping past the defenses and might be a factor in the wake ups.

As for the idea to wear it more during the evening while awake....I would suggest that if you were having trouble falling asleep initially more than for wake ups in the middle of the night.

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I may have to rise but I refuse to shine.

Quit worrying about it, just roll over and go back to sleep.

It's completely normal to wake up every couple hours, in between sleep cycles, just usually people don't *remember* being either awake, or very almost nearly awake...

With the extra new stimulus of the cpap mask and stuff, you're slightly more aware and you remember waking up, then you think DAMNIT, I'M AWAKE! and that makes you more awake... just roll with it.

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Sleepyhead Info
How to format your charts

Now I have Steve Winwood stuck in my head.




You can pretty much post anything anywhere, we're pretty chill for the most part. We don't get a whole lot of traffic, so we'll find your post. You can keep adding to this thread, also.



I was thinking these things, too. If you used to wake up a lot, I know I did, it might be habit. Or possibly you are waking after an event. I woke last night gasping, which was a neat trick since my mouth was taped shut. Since I couldn't actually gasp for air, my leg swung out and I kicked the dog. When I checked SleepyHead today, sure enough, there was the event that made my dog mad at me.

Sorry for the lag in responding but I think it was either an unrecorded version of an "episode" like referred to by cindy or maybe I just needed to rant because the last two nights, though not completely resting, has been infinitely better.

I still wake up after 2 hours, but after that, I sleep no less than 5 hours straight.

I think I got frustrated too soon after starting, maybe.

In other news, the area around my nose feels like it's been sucked into the nose piece after I wake up in the morning. I checked the headgear and it isn't that tight. Is that something to do with the set temperature or should I use one of those mask cover things?