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pulling off mask while asleep--help!
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Post pulling off mask while asleep--help! 
Hi!  this is my first time posting.  I was diagnosed with sleep apnea two months ago and have been on the full face mask with a cpap machine for almost six weeks.  I felt great the first two weeks and then I started pulling the mask off in my sleep.  I wake up and find it on the floor, so I'm only sleeping with it 2-3 hrs. a night.  My dr. increased the pressur from 11 to 14 which seemed to make things worse.  I had her put it back to 11 and felt great the first night, slept with mask for five hrs.  Now I'm back to pulling it off and only sleeping with it for 2 hrs.  Any suggestions???  How do you know if the pressure is right.  Thanks.


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almost everyone does this, at first    some also switch the CPAP off in their sleep
attach the mask with sticking plaster and the pain on trying to remove it  should remind you not to


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Kim,

Gee, I've never tried Lynn's idea, sounds interesting.

I pulled my mask off in my sleep lots of times too, in the beginning.  It happened less and less.  
Finally, just when I thought I had kicked it, I mentioned in on this forum, and the very next night I pulled it off again!!  Power of suggestion, I suppose.
But I haven't since.  It's just your mind reacting to this foreign feeling on your head.  Eventually your mind gets used to it.
Once I actually was half awake when I noticed I was starting to take it off.  I actually yelled at myself, "Don't you dare!!"
You know?  That seemed to work!  I've heard others say that happened to them too.  Haha!
It may take time, but eventually everything will work out ok.


Linda


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Thanks for the advice!  I hope it will get better soon.  It's been two months and I am getting frustrated, but hearing these stories helps.  Thanks again.


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Kim:  I had the very same problem about two months into my CPAP use, and like you I posted the same question.  It helped me to read that other folks were having the same trouble.  It took me awhile to "accept" the sleep apnea.  But onto more practical tips.  I told myself before I went to bed not to take the mask off.  Now if I take my mask off, I'm usually awake enough to make a choice.   Sounds dumb, I know, but it worked. Trying a different mask helped too.  I'm on my third type of mask, and I find that I switching between two kinds is better for me.  If I wear one mask more that a few days, my tender nose skin (one mask attaches of the outside and the other fits within the nostrils) starts to object.  Hope this helps!

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