I was curious to hear from successful CPAP users about your nightly routine (keep it clean   ). For example, do you hook yourself up to the CPAP and watch TV for a little while, watch TV and then hook yourself up or any other things that you do that help you fall asleep with your CPAP. I am picking my CPAP up today and wanted some ideas incase I have a rough first night. Thanks.

I usually check my e-mail one last time, maybe go into an apnea chat room if anyone is there (altho THAT can be addicting and you end up staying in chat until your head is bobbing onto the keyboard!), take my nightly meds and maybe play a few games of Free Cell, Spider Solitiare or Solitaire. Then I brush my teeth, fill my humidifier, don my mask, turn my xPAP on and close my eyes. I'm retired so I can stay up later than most and since I was also NOT a morning person, I try to keep my bedtime at midnight. I'm awake any time from 6 to 8 AM.


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Some people are like Slinkies... Not really good for anything, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs.
Resmed VPAP Auto. Humidaire 3i, Simplicity & Micro masks, ResScan 3.4, S8 ResLink, Embla oximeter.

I'm pretty new to this, but for what it's worth--
I wash my silicone mask interface and the mask itself with hot water and Ivory liquid every morning when I get up-- it takes only a minute or two to wash them and set them out to dry. If the humidifier is low, I fill it in the morning too.
In the evening I wash my face, put my mask on and start the machine, then read for five or ten minutes. I usually fall asleep pretty quickly.
I tried the EPR feature but felt it's better for me and my lungs to breath out against the pressure... that may be faulty reasoning but I've always believed use or lose it where muscle function is involved and since the diaphram is a large and very important muscle, it makes sense to me to keep it limber!
 
I have a ResMed S8 and use two full face masks, a Mirage Quattro and a F & P Flexi-fit 432, and the pressure on my machine is 13. My nightly AHI index is usually around 5 with the AI portion frequently less than 1. Since I started the therapy I feel great! No more falling asleep in (and out of) my office stool, falling asleep 6 or 7 times a day or more, even in meeting, snapping at my peers, etc. Day and Night difference!


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We can't change the wind, but we can adjust the sails!

I turn out the light, grab the mask, put it on, lay down, let it autostart, pull my mask slightly away from my face, let the mask settle down on my face, go to sleep.

When I wake up in the morning; I sit on the edge of the bed, take my mask off, put it on my nightstand, and head off to the bathroom.

Bearded One wrote:

I turn out the light, grab the mask, put it on, lay down, let it autostart, pull my mask slightly away from my face, let the mask settle down on my face, go to sleep.

When I wake up in the morning; I sit on the edge of the bed, take my mask off, put it on my nightstand, and head off to the bathroom.

Sounds about the same for me.


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Respironics M Series BiPAP Plus with BiFlex, Heated Humidifier
Resmed Ultra Mirage II Nasal Mask with Headgear
Pressure @ 6/11

I fill my water chamber, spill some on the floor, swear, climb into bed, slip on my mask and turn out the light....king size bed...have to ask my DH to snuggle over to me cuz I am tethered, beg for a back rub and off to LA LA land!


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CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO~ http://tinyurl.com/69q52a

BiPAP Auto M 13/8 Mirage Nasal Swift. 20 years+ undx'd. RLS/PLMD, Hypersomnia & more.

Bearded One wrote:

I turn out the light, grab the mask, put it on, lay down, let it autostart, pull my mask slightly away from my face, let the mask settle down on my face, go to sleep.

When I wake up in the morning; I sit on the edge of the bed, take my mask off, put it on my nightstand, and head off to the bathroom.

Pretty much my routine.

Daniel.


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The untreated Sleep Apnoea sufferer died quietly in his sleep.......
Unlike his three passengers who died screaming !!!!!!

(Anon)

I watch the news, and while it's on, I brush my teeth and wash my face.  I get in bed, and if I'm really tired, I put my mask on while the news is on, and go to sleep.  If I wait until after the news, and sometimes don't go to sleep right away, I put on a set of headphones and listen to As It Happens from Canada, and broadcasts from the BBC.  Or sometimes I just listen to the news from KCBS in San Francisco.  I'm usually asleep pretty quickly after that, even if I don't always stay there!    

Debbie  .

This is definitely a case of do what I say and not as I do.  I try desperately, and often not successfully   , to get on my mask before I fall asleep.  Yes everyone, I know how I should be doing it so don't scold me.  Here is what happens.  I wash my silicone insert when I wash my face.  I throw it in the bed (mistake #1) and dive in after it.  I lie down and close my eyes and think about putting on my mask (mistake #2) I wake myself up and try to reach and find the hose and then follow it to my mask.  I find the mask and remember that it doesn't have the silicone insert in it.  I feel around for the insert in the dark.  I say oh s..darn, and I turn the light on.  I can't find it anywhere and I tear the bed apart trying to find it.  No luck so then I start looking under the bed and I'm wide awake.  Just when I think I’ll have to go find a spare insert, I find it.  I breathe a sigh of relief and then go on to the next challenges.

I fight with setting the insert in the mask, then I have long hair that I hate on my neck so I grab it and pull it through the top of my headgear.   Everything would be great now except  that  one of the straps keeps inexplicably slipping out of the headgear and the mask pops off my face (I forgot to say that my CPAP autostarts).  Unlike Bearded One, I have to set my mask on my face with my CPAP off, otherwise it leaks.  Therefore, I turn my CPAP off so I can fix the strap and pull my hair back through my headgear and set my mask.  My CPAP goes on and I pass out.  It is amazing that I am completely compliant except for the (too frequent) times when I pass out before I can get through this routine.  If that happens, then I stay in an apnea induced “help me I’m trying to wake up” state for a few hours, usually hearing my daughter yelling at me to “put your CPAP on” and I finally wake up with a severe apnea headache so then I get up, take some Tylenol, lay back down and make sure I complete the routine.

I then have my physicians, family, friends and mental health professionals scream at me to do it right so my physical and mental health does not suffer.

And that is my bedtime routine, Vicki


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That which does not kill you makes you stronger-Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich must of had apnea.

Earlier in the evening I clean my mask and fill my  humidifier with distilled water then I watch the 10 PM news and put my hair up, Yes I have long hair! middle of my back what is left of it, I wear it in a ponytail, and I can't sleep on it, so I put the ponytail in front and pin it up! ( to much info??? Actually after I retired from the Air Force I grew a beard and then about 10 years later I let my hair grow out what is left of it! I still have my beard and it is white as snow! But my hair is dark) anyway after I do that and wash my face and teeth good I then kind of do the CrohnieToo routine I take my nightly meds and get on the computer, I haven't started doing the chat room yet but I have observed, and I do play solitiare till my head starts bobbing, anyway then I go put on my mask that takes some doing, I do the  Hybrid but with my mod with the clips and hair elastics, so I have to use the mirror to get it all done right. Then I have to walk down the hall to turn on the Oxygen concentrator, and grab the remote and get my bed adjusted,( I have and adjustable bed, I sleep in a sitting up  reclining position) Then I put my ear plug in and tune in some nice soft music and hook the hose up to the mask, the VPAP starts up and with any luck in 15 or 20 minute I will be asleep, sometimes I tune in talk radio and then I might be awake for hours! Anyway thats my routine

I don't put on the mask until I'm in bed and ready to go to sleep. I used to use the ramp feature, but after I got used to the full blast of air (I'm a 19), I cut that out and now just hit myself full blast ;).


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ResMed S8 Elite / ResMed Quattro Mirage full face mask
Pressure 19
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Life is something that happens when you can't get to sleep.
Fran Lebowitz

I wash my insert in the morning when I get up so that it's dry by evening.  

When I go to bed, I brush my teeth, separate the cats (they don't get along), wash my face, get in bed, place the mask, attach the headgear, autostart and I'm asleep in less than 5 minutes.  

I've found that my mask/face interface needs to be squeaky clean or I get significant leaks.  I have some face fur so I get some leakage.

I don't use the ramp feature because I found that I was having to re-adjust the mask once it reached full pressure - it would start making rude noises as it leaked.  I'm happier going full-blast from the git-go.

The cat that sleeps in our room doesn't like the exhaust from my mask so she doesn't sleep on my chest anymore.  

 


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Philomath, a two stop-light town in western Oregon
*
Butter is my favorite vegetable.
*
Respironics BiPAP Auto M with heated humidifier
Resmed Quattro

My bedtime routine seems to take forever.  I do wash my mask in the morning, in Ivory dish soap so that it has time to dry during the day.  Once a week I take it apart and wash all the pieces, the hose, the humidifier tank and that odd soft seal on the top of the humidifier.  So that's usually a morning deal.
 
Before bed I brush and floss my teeth, wash my face with a cleanser and water (no moisturizer or I will have a leaky mask), put my eye drops in (wait two minutes) go back to the bathroom to do another special medicated eyelid wash, put my mask and hose together and hook it to the machine, check and fill the humidifier...somewhere during all this I am watching the ten o'clock news. Sometimes I wander back to my computer after the news so I can check this forum and my email.  I let the dog out for one last time so she doesn't get me up by five in the morning, I get her shut into the bedroom with me (and the cat out because he will keep us awake all night).  OK, by then I am pretty tired but I try to read for a while to help me settle down. I read lying down without my glasses on. When I find myself dozing, I put on the mask, turn on the machine, shut off the light and....I am gone before I know it.  Now that I am trying out an APAP, I seem to get up to use the bathroom much less often.
 
Too much info?  Oh well, I wish you luck with your CPAP.  You may have some rough nights getting used to the mask and trying to eliminate leaks, etc.  Be patient.  A lot of us went through some miserable times adjusting but eventually it becomes routine.
Grandma


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ResMed Quattro Full Face Mask
ResMed S8 Escape with heated humidifier
Pressure set at 11

Vicki wrote:

This is definitely a case of do what I say and not as I do.  I try desperately, and often not successfully   , to get on my mask before I fall asleep.  Yes everyone, I know how I should be doing it so don't scold me.  Here is what happens.  I wash my silicone insert when I wash my face.  I throw it in the bed (mistake #1) and dive in after it.  I lie down and close my eyes and think about putting on my mask (mistake #2) I wake myself up and try to reach and find the hose and then follow it to my mask.  I find the mask and remember that it doesn't have the silicone insert in it.  I feel around for the insert in the dark.  I say oh s..darn, and I turn the light on.  I can't find it anywhere and I tear the bed apart trying to find it.  No luck so then I start looking under the bed and I'm wide awake.  Just when I think I’ll have to go find a spare insert, I find it.  I breathe a sigh of relief and then go on to the next challenges.

I fight with setting the insert in the mask, then I have long hair that I hate on my neck so I grab it and pull it through the top of my headgear.   Everything would be great now except  that  one of the straps keeps inexplicably slipping out of the headgear and the mask pops off my face (I forgot to say that my CPAP autostarts).  Unlike Bearded One, I have to set my mask on my face with my CPAP off, otherwise it leaks.  Therefore, I turn my CPAP off so I can fix the strap and pull my hair back through my headgear and set my mask.  My CPAP goes on and I pass out.  It is amazing that I am completely compliant except for the (too frequent) times when I pass out before I can get through this routine.  If that happens, then I stay in an apnea induced “help me I’m trying to wake up” state for a few hours, usually hearing my daughter yelling at me to “put your CPAP on” and I finally wake up with a severe apnea headache so then I get up, take some Tylenol, lay back down and make sure I complete the routine.

I then have my physicians, family, friends and mental health professionals scream at me to do it right so my physical and mental health does not suffer.

And that is my bedtime routine, Vicki

Vicki, this is too funny!  Maybe we should start an America's Most Funny Sleep apnea videos.  Yours would definitely win!

My routine:

1 - Top off humidifier.
2 - Climb in bed.
3 - Put on mask.
4 - Turn on machine.
5 - Breathe deeply.
6 - Asleep within minutes.

In the morning.

1 - Turn off machine.
2 - Remove mask.
3 - Get out of bed.

Simple!