Top Topics
@Kyle Sadly no, though I was surprised at my last doctor's visit that they asked me to bring in my SD card, and then the doctor loaded up the data on his laptop running... SleepyHead! We then got to go through the data together with him explaining a few things along the way. So you might ask your doctor about doing something similar the next time you have an appointment!
It's a really impressive piece of software, but I don't use it all that often, mainly due to limitations outside of the software's control. For example, it's a pain to have to take the SD card out of my CPAP to read it (Phillips has an app that supposedly gets similar info via the CPAP's wireless modem, but it's yet to work for me, and according to the app store reviews it doesn't look like it works well for anyone).
It would be great Sleepyhead had some kind of automated tool for making suggestions based on your data. I know enough to see where my AHI goes outside the normal range, but that's about it. If the data indicate that I might benefit from, say, changing the pressure on my CPAP (assuming such a thing can even be inferred from that data), I wouldn't know it if I saw it.
I had a period of really bad (like, financee asked me to sleep on the couch because it was keeping her up bad) RLS, which turned out the be an iron and/or vitamin D deficiency (I had both, but I think they specifically attributed the RLS to a lack of iron). I got on supplements for a while and though I still have it sometimes, it's not nearly as bad. Obviously avoiding caffeine, etc in the evenings is necessary, too, and exercise helps.
I've got apps that let me track exercise, apps that let me track sleep, apps that let me track food, and on and on, but I've never found a single app that lets me track all those things, plus hour-by-hour subjective ratings of my mood, concentration, and energy levels. I would really like to be able to track all those things in one place so I can then dig through the data looking for patterns.
Does anyone have recommendations? Bonus points if it can read data from my CPAP card a la Sleepyhead (really cool, free program if you aren't familiar with it and have a CPAP).
There's an Android/iOS app I used to use called SleepBot, which I keep meaning to try going back to. It makes it easy to tap in/out of clocking your sleep, and a while back they added an option to have it track motion if you put it on your bed, and record sounds, so you can see if you snored (or if you said something weird in your sleep, I guess).
The main thing keeping me away from it is that I am trying to keep track of all my stats in one place, and even though the fitbit app isn't nearly as good, it syncs up with all my other fitbit data. As far as I know, sleepbot doesn't integrate with FB or anything else. If you're ok with a standalone app though, it might be worth checking out.
@Kyle I have a fitbit (the kind that goes on your wrist), and by its self it is indeed useless for tracking. It always thinks I went to sleep hours after I actually did, and either I have a sleepwalking problem no one has ever noticed, or it keeps having hour+ long stretches in the middle of the night where it seems to think I was fully awake, but of which I've no memory.
Now, part of my problem is that I tend to be restless, so maybe I'm just not a good baseline, but suffice to say I was disappointed.
That said, I have found the fitbit useful as a supplement to manual sleep tracking. If I use the fitbit app or another sleep tracker app to manually clock in and out when I go to bed and wake up, once those times are entered into fitbit, it maps the motion it tracked onto the sleep record, so I have (giving fitbit some benefit of the doubt) an accurate record of when I was restless during that time.
I've tried several masks. Nasal-only masks don't work for me because even with a chin strap my mouth blows open and I end up making embarrassing noises. Full face masks are a problem if my nose itches, which it inevitably does, so I ended up settling on a mouth mask with nasal pillows like this one (http://www.cpap.com/productpage/RespCare-Hybrid-CPAP-Mask.html). I definitely find that one the most comfortable I've had by far, but I still take it off.
Part of the problem is that, since I'm asleep when it happens, it's hard to say why I take it off. The times I do (hazily) remember taking it off, I recall a sensation of breathing CO2, or a feeling like the CPAP is "out of sync" with the rhythm of my breathing. It's hard to describe, but whatever it is it produces this urgent feeling that I can't breath, and need to get this thing off my face right now, no arguments.
Does that help? Does it sound familiar to anyone else?
I've been using a CPAP off and on for years, and yet I almost never make it through a whole night, or even a few hours, with my mask on. If it was just a matter of discipline and determination I think I could do it, but the problem is I keep taking the mask off (and even turning off the CPAP, which I guess is thoughtful of me, at least) in my sleep. My doctor gave me a prescription for a small dose of Ambien to see if that would help, but when I take it, more often than not I still wake up with the mask off, only this time I was too zonked to turn off the CPAP, so it's been running all night without me.
I've tried putting a shirt over my head, even putting socks on my hands like mittens. Basically, I am way beyond dignity at this point, and yet I'm still not getting the most out of my CPAP.
Does anyone here have tricks that have helped them keep their masks on while asleep?
