Hello! My name is David and after three sleep studies, I was diagnosed with mild OSA last month at 32 years old. I'm not a smoker or much of a drinker and I'm not overweight. My doctor told me that since I am experiencing symptoms (daily daytime grogginess/fatigue, trouble concentrating etc) I could try either the oral appliance method or the CPAP.
Here are my stats from the sleep study that diagnosed me:
Mild obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome with exacerbation in REM sleep with REM RDI of 7.1/hr
Short sleep latency with normal sleep efficiency. Reduced REM latency with reduced duration of REM sleep, excessive
N1, normal N2, reduced N3 sleep.
No EEG or EKG abnormalities were noted.
No significant periodic leg movements in sleep were noted.
Sleep related Bruxism was noted.
2 obstructive events
12 hypopneas
19 RERAS
RDI is 5.8
So I have a mild case, but nonetheless I do not get quality sleep and I've spent months looking for the solution. I never feel fully rested when I wake up in the morning. I just don't know what that's like. I do snore, and that's what led me to looking into a sleep study.
My question is: I have been prescribed the Resmed Airsense 10 and I have it now. Tried it last night and in 2.5 hours wasn't able to fall asleep. Not because I found it uncomfortable, but because I am (irrationally?) scared that because I have a more mild case, using the CPAP is going to cause me to stop breathing in my sleep and kill me. In my final sleep study, I used a CPAP and they told me I did fine, but I can't shake this anxiety. I live/sleep alone for the time being, so I guess that's not helping my anxiety about this. My pressure is prescribed at 7, which isn't even that high -- but I'm just worried that I'll fall asleep and won't wake up. The tech who performed my last sleep study was telling me about central apnea caused by CPAP if you don't get the pressure right, so that didn't help things either.
Anyone else feel this way? Is this completely irrational? I was so eager to start using the CPAP because I want to feel better and get better sleep, but now that I have it I'm too chicken to use it! Any thoughts, tips, and advice on this would be greatly appreciated and Happy Thanksgiving!
