Hi everyone.  Nice to know there are so many others with OSA.  Never really knew about it until I asked my doctor about my extreme daytime sleepiness.  I've fallen asleep more than once on a conference call, only to wake up to see someone else from the call walking past my cube while I'm still holding the phone......

Anyhow, my problem is that even though I put the mask on every night, I wake up every morning with it hanging on my bedpost.  I never remember taking it off, so it seems when I do take it off, I don't have much control over it.  I always read the number of hours on the cpap so I can figure out the next morning how long I used it, and it appears that I'm taking it off after about four hours every night.  

Has anyone experienced this and does anyone know how I can discipline myself to keep it on all night?  Some people sleepwalk.  Some people sleeptalk.  I sleeptakeoffmymask.

Thanks!!

Hi Sleepy....

This is a very common problem and I have struggled with it myself.  You have not indicated what mask you are using...I am using the nasal pillow.  I think what was happening is that when I was rolling over at night, it would tug at my face (it has the hose only on one side so it is "heavier" on that side).

When I strapped the hose to the top of my head (there were pictures on the cpaptalk website), it seems that I quit taking the mask off.  I think what happpened is that the whole mask system got stabilized by mounting the hose.  I believe this is the biggest reason I don't take my mask off as much anymore.

Hope that helps.


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Dave

hi sleepy
everyone takes the mask off in their sleep  a t first, I did  some also turn the CPAP  off in their sleep

attach mask with lots of sticking plaster so the pain will remind you not to
patience and lots oif positive thinking is needed

lynn543 wrote:

hi sleepy
everyone takes the mask off in their sleep  a t first, I did  some also turn the CPAP  off in their sleep

attach mask with lots of sticking plaster so the pain will remind you not to
patience and lots oif positive thinking is needed

Funny, I haven't done that. I sometimes wake up anyway in the middle of the night and have to intentionally take it off for a while. Then I go back to sleep and when I again wake up, I put it back. But unintentianally, no.

JohnP

Sometimes I take it off for a restroom break, go back to bed, and forget to put it back on.  I find it still pumping out air when I awake. Oops!
There are times, though, when I have to admit I take the thing off on purpose.  I have the Swift nasal pillows, and have to admit that if I really want to get comfortable,  I have to take the constant air pressure out of my nose.
It's not good for me, I know.  But even after using it for a couple of months, it's still quite unnatural for me.
I know I'll keep it on all night soon.  My body is still adjusting,  I suppose.

yep.  I took my maskoff for the better part of two months,  then I quit doing it..   I still wake up sometimes without it,  but I figure some quality sleep is better than none.  and as long as the missus gets to fall asleep and get four hours before I start the snoring chainsaw, then she is better off as well.

I quit drinking in the evenings--that helped
I played with the strap tensions on the mask.  that helped as well.
and I got a new pillow,  one that maintained a dent and wouldn't let me roll over as easily.   if you are on a king size,  get a poly-filled pillow that holds the "cranium dent" well, and is one of the extra large king bed pillows.   you will need to get comfortable with no tossing and turning, but eventually you will not remove the mask at nite.

also:  make a tool for holding the air hose.   take a wire coat hanger, and stretch it out of shape.   jam the coat hanger between the matress and the box spring, leaving the hook exposed at the side of the bed.   put the air hose in the coat hanger hook, and lightly crimp the hook around the air hose, taking care not to restrict the diameter of the flexible hose.  this will relieve some of the weight of the hose pulling on the mask.   it might help, and it is cheap to build.  

alternatively, I have experimented with a flexible belt worn while sleeping, where I attach the air supply hose to the belt, and this alleviates the tension in a similar way as the coat hanger trick does.

Somehow last night, I awoke to my forehead piece disconnected from the nose mask.  I couldn't get it together during the night but when I woke up this morning and looked at it, all I had to do was slide it back in under the clips (firmly slide it back it).  I must of tugged at it real good in my sleep to disconnect those  


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Sher