I've been on CPAP for about a month. I have severe apnea (60 events per hour). My CPAP is set to 7cm and I use the Swift mask. After some effort to figure out the mask and sleeping positions so that I'm now compliant, I use the machine every night. My wife and I both see improvements from the therapy.

My challenge is that I alternate between a good night of sleep and a bad night. One night I'll get 8+ hours of great sleep and I wake refreshed. The next night I'm unable to fall asleep at a reasonable hour. I leave bed, watch TV or read wide awake, going to bed way too late with my CPAP and waking up after 4 or so hours of sleep unrested. The cycle repeats every two days. I've had 6 cycles in the past twelve days...like clockwork.

Any thoughts?

Pidginbil

I have moderate sleep apnea (setting of 10 out of 20) and have used the CPAP for 3 years.  I have never experienced the "night and day" improvement that some people experience when using the CPAP.  While I definitely see an improvement in feeling tired when I use my machine vs. when I don't, the whole experience of having to sleep on my back, having a mask strapped to my face that never really seems to fit right, etc. sometimes detracts from getting a good night sleep.  While I have never had the cycles you mention of good nights and bad nights, I occasionally am unable to fall asleep right away while using my CPAP.  On those nights if I don't fall asleep within 30-60 minutes, I give up on the CPAP, roll over and go immediately to sleep.

If I were to guess what your problem may be, I'd say that you'll need to find a night of sleep (i.e. 7 hours or 8 hours) that works best.  Sleeping 8+ hours may wake you up refreshed, but perhaps, you're getting too much sleep which won't let you fall asleep on time the next night.  This causes you to not get enough sleep which causes you to fall asleep early the next night resulting in 8+ hours again.  Try experimenting with different lengths of sleep to see which works the best and try to stick with it.  For me, 7 hours works best.

pidginbil wrote:

My challenge is that I alternate between a good night of sleep and a bad night. One night I'll get 8+ hours of great sleep and I wake refreshed. The next night I'm unable to fall asleep at a reasonable hour. I leave bed, watch TV or read wide awake, going to bed way too late with my CPAP and waking up after 4 or so hours of sleep unrested. The cycle repeats every two days. I've had 6 cycles in the past twelve days...like clockwork.

Any thoughts?

Pidginbil

That's sort of how it works for me, too, only without the regularity. I have good nights and bad with the bipap. A long night for me is 6 hours, average is 4-5 hours. No night is without many wake ups. I didn't know it was supposed to be any different until reading posts on this forum. The best I can say after two and a half years on bipap is that my lungs hurt in the morning if I don't use it. I'm still tired and sleepy all the time.

pidginbil wrote:

I've been on CPAP for about a month. I have severe apnea (60 events per hour). My CPAP is set to 7cm and I use the Swift mask. After some effort to figure out the mask and sleeping positions so that I'm now compliant, I use the machine every night. My wife and I both see improvements from the therapy.

My challenge is that I alternate between a good night of sleep and a bad night. One night I'll get 8+ hours of great sleep and I wake refreshed. The next night I'm unable to fall asleep at a reasonable hour. I leave bed, watch TV or read wide awake, going to bed way too late with my CPAP and waking up after 4 or so hours of sleep unrested. The cycle repeats every two days. I've had 6 cycles in the past twelve days...like clockwork.

Any thoughts?

Pidginbil

I think it's good that you're monitoring the quality of your sleep, your habits.  
keep it up, keep a log or something, maybe.  It's only been a month, and maybe the regularity of it will change.
It may be a matter of adjusting to this after a long time of untreated sleep apnea.  
But it's still good to watch how things go.


May not be related, but I found an annoying side affect to all this.  
I felt better right from the start (began cpap a year ago).  But I found as I went along that I would stay awake longer during the day (which was wonderful since before I had been so exhausted), and staying up later and later at night.
It was almost working TOO good!  
So then I would be bad, stay up late, when I had to be up early the next day.  .......... hey, like old times!!!   Same old bad habits!

Just want to clarify a common misconception.  The severity of apnea is based on the number of events per hour, not the pressure required to overcome the apnea.  Severity is graded this way:

5-15   events/hour    mild
15-30 events/hour    moderate
>30    events/hour    severe

It is possible, and not uncommon, to see someone with severe apnea who only requires a low pressure (5-8 cmH2O) to overcome it.  Conversely, one can have mild apnea which requires a high pressure to open the airway.

Vicki


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

Vickie that little bit of info regarding the relationship between pressure settings and apnea severity went a long way with helping me review and understand the postings. Thanks


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Thanks to all, Michael