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Last night was my first night wearing a full mask C-PAC machine. I wouldn't call it a comfortable night but it wasn't uncomfortable either... if that makes any sense. I didn't wake up at all and usually, 1 to 2 or 3 times a night, I make a trip to the bathroom. Not last night. the machine said I slept 6.9 hours which if true was basically(almost I turned the light off 71/2 hours before my alarm set) the whole time from when I went to bed. I did notice that all the water was out of my reservoir but only had a slightly dry mouth. In the past 6 or 8 months every time I woke to go to the bathroom I had a very dry mouth and easily drank 2 to 3 bottles of water throughout the night. I guess that's partly why I in the bathroom so much at night. I like sleeping on my side but I did not feel like the mask was sealed well when I did so I spent most of it on my back. That's ok but I am more comfortable on my side. I hope this works out 1 way or another cause I feel this will be my biggest challenge when it comes to the machine. Any advice is appreciated, thanks for taking the time to read my first impressions of "MyApmea".
Welcome to the forum. It sounds like all considered your first night went very well. I recall my first night with a CPAP was my second worst night of sleep ever. The worst was when I did my home sleep study to get my apnea diagnosis. Some comments:
Home CPAP machines only count machine running time. They may report it as sleep time, but they have no good way of determining if you are asleep or not. 7-8 hours of sleep is a good target.
I have a ResMed AirSense 10 AutoSet, and it does run pretty close for water, but as long as I fill it to MAX it never runs out. We live in a pretty dry climate. You may want to check your humidifier settings. I have a heated hose, and set my humidity on Auto. That combination seems to work well.
You should be able to sleep on your side. What specific mask do you have? There may be some tips based on the mask type. Most avoid sleeping on their back because it does tend to increase the frequency of the apnea events.
I also noted that I now get up in the night much less frequently too. Most nights I don't get up. Your water and getting up issues remind me of when I was diagnosed with diabetes about 20 years ago. Being thirsty, drinking a lot of water, and getting up in the night are common signs of diabetes. If you have not had a blood glucose test recently you may want to ask your doctor about it. Kind of like sleep apnea, the % of non diagnosed diabetes cases are alarming.
Sierra,
Thanks for your input and let me start off by saying since my family has a history of diabetes I do keep an eye on that and get tested frequently at a doctors request but thankfully and issues has been handled through diet. Not sure how long that will last but I'm crossing my fingers. We have always been water drinkers but the middle of the night drinks just started when dry mouth showed up. I have a DreamStation with a mask that covers my nose & mouth, not sure what they call it but I can check when I get home. I did have water to the max fill but it is dry in my home due to our radiator heating and I have been thinking of buying a room humidifier maybe it's time to pull the trigger on that cause it would help I'm sure. I also have a heated tube and can set the humidity level and temperature of the tube. last night I just ran everything at the factory set levels. Maybe I'll drop the humidity 1 level the tube temp was at 1 so not sure if I should drop to zero or bump it up 1. I guess I will need to try a few things until I find what works best.
Do you clean yours by hand or did you buy one of those auto cleaning machines like SoClean? I think I want to buy the machine because I want to make sure it stays as clean as possible. Do you have any thoughts on that? Thanks again for the input, I really do appreciate it.
Good to hear you are keeping on top of the diabetes risk. I suspect the consequences of undiagnosed diabetes is much worse than undiagnosed apnea.
I have a ResMed, but I set the humidity at Auto. It defaults to that when I plug in the heated hose. I set my temperature at 27 C (81 F). I do make it through the night with those settings. It is pretty dry here in winter. At least on my machine if I run out of water it gets pretty stinky. I suspect that even with demineralized water there is some residual in the water reservoir and that gets kind of cooked when you run the thing dry.
I am not a believer that the SoClean is necessary. I also worry about the effect of ozone that it uses on the life of my equipment. My standard procedure is to rinse the complete hose, mask, and reservoir with full strength household vinegar. I follow that with some warm water and Dawn dish washing soap, and then a final rinse with just water. I try to do it first thing in the morning and then hang it up to dry for the day, so it is ready for the evening. I also think once a week is enough.
It sounds like you have a full face mask. They tend to be quite large and can be moved during the night when you sleep on your side. One of the tricks is to try to sleep right at the edge of your pillow with your mask hanging over the edge of the pillow. I also find that using a satin pillow protector instead of a standard cotton pillow case lets the mask and headgear slip more easily on the pillow without displacing the mask.
Thanks for all the tips, I suppose I will just need to try a few different things until I find what I like best. So far, So good as night 2 was also a good night. Thanks again. :)
One other adjustment you may want to try is the type of pillow fill. I found that memory foam was too stiff and pushed back too much. I now use a down alternative pillow (cheap at Costco). It behaves like down and conforms to your head/mask, and does not push back much. But, it is kind of a personal thing. I have heard others have good success with My Pillow.
I haven't thought about that, I do have a memory foam pillow and you're right it is not as giving as down. I may need to buy one to try it out. It will be worth a few bucks. Thanks.
I clean nasal pillow almost daily with warm water and baby shampoo, clean hoses likewise about weekly. I use only warm/hot water on humidifier weekly as well. Has worked well for me, and have not had so much as a sniffle or cold in the 3 years I have been doing this. (Wow, those 3 years flew by!)
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