Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by BeeAsleep on May 27, 2009 at 7:23pm

Hi Adriann,
I am sorry if you have answered this elsewhere, but why can't you sleep? The noise of the CPAP, the air, the mask, the thought of that thing on your face? I know that I spend a lot of time adjusting things to get them just right before bed. The straps the mask, the bed pillows, the hose. I think we all have our "before" CPAP bed rituals and when those are changed it is upsetting and hard to used to. I can't sleep in the same position as I used to with my arm across my chin because the air blows on my arm...etc.

All of the experts here can help you with specific CPAP or mask issues. My only advice is keep trying, don't give up. I know that sounds trite, but eventually you will work out your own system and you will feel relieved to be able to sleep with your new "buddie" and you will be saving your life as well.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Adriann on May 27, 2009 at 8:00pm

It's not the air or the thing on my face i'm totally comfortable with the air the mask and the noise, I'm really sleepy and then I lay down and I jsut dont sleep I try my hardest just to fall asleep. Maybe I'm trying to hard? I tried excedrin PM but that didnt work. and thanks for the advice but I will keep trying I have for the past two weeks! I want to make this work! Thanks again for the pep talk!

BeeAsleep said:

Hi Adriann,
I am sorry if you have answered this elsewhere, but why can't you sleep? The noise of the CPAP, the air, the mask, the thought of that thing on your face? I know that I spend a lot of time adjusting things to get them just right before bed. The straps the mask, the bed pillows, the hose. I think we all have our "before" CPAP bed rituals and when those are changed it is upsetting and hard to used to. I can't sleep in the same position as I used to with my arm across my chin because the air blows on my arm...etc.

All of the experts here can help you with specific CPAP or mask issues. My only advice is keep trying, don't give up. I know that sounds trite, but eventually you will work out your own system and you will feel relieved to be able to sleep with your new "buddie" and you will be saving your life as well.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Mike on May 27, 2009 at 8:12pm

i'm kind of irritated at your doctor for refusing the sleep aid. maybe this new study on the benefits of Lunesta at CPAP initiation will knock some sense into him.

Adriann said:

It's not the air or the thing on my face i'm totally comfortable with the air the mask and the noise, I'm really sleepy and then I lay down and I jsut dont sleep I try my hardest just to fall asleep. Maybe I'm trying to hard? I tried excedrin PM but that didnt work. and thanks for the advice but I will keep trying I have for the past two weeks! I want to make this work! Thanks again for the pep talk!

BeeAsleep said:

Hi Adriann,
I am sorry if you have answered this elsewhere, but why can't you sleep? The noise of the CPAP, the air, the mask, the thought of that thing on your face? I know that I spend a lot of time adjusting things to get them just right before bed. The straps the mask, the bed pillows, the hose. I think we all have our "before" CPAP bed rituals and when those are changed it is upsetting and hard to used to. I can't sleep in the same position as I used to with my arm across my chin because the air blows on my arm...etc.

All of the experts here can help you with specific CPAP or mask issues. My only advice is keep trying, don't give up. I know that sounds trite, but eventually you will work out your own system and you will feel relieved to be able to sleep with your new "buddie" and you will be saving your life as well.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by RockRpsgt on May 27, 2009 at 9:03pm

Maybe you need to see a pulmonary Dr. Maybe the Dr. wants to make sure that a sleep aid is right for this situation. We have several cases on this site in which the members have a learned dependency on sleep aids. I am not saying that you don't need a sleep aid, but I do feel that the Dr. is following the right protocals. Intolerance alone is not enough evidence(to me anyway) for a Dr. to say ok to the #2 most abused drugs in the world.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Connie Schrag on May 31, 2009 at 4:25am

Hi Adriann,

I had the same problem for about two weeks. I would go through my ritual and get everything situated, ready to fall asleep, but I just couldn't. I would lay there listening to the machine, listening to myself breathing as amplified by the machine, and looking all around the bedroom softly flooded with that new blue light. And I would worry about not falling asleep, worried I would not get enough sleep before I had to get up in the morning.

What finally worked for me, besides persistance, was that I found a late-night talk show that I enjoyed listening to on the radio. I began to incorporate that into my bedtime ritual - to get all hooked up and then lay there listening to the radio. Sometimes it was so interesting that I stayed awake longer that I might have otherwise needed to, but at least it distracted me from the machine and my own breathing so that I was no longer so concentrated on trying to fall asleep. It just happened automatically. It took a little while for this new routine to become a habit so that I could fall asleep fairly quickly after hooking up. Eventually I became less aware of the machine sounds and my own breathing to where I enjoyed laying there in the silence just enjoying the peace and quiet as I drifted off to sleep, no longer needing the radio for distraction.

Then I got a Blackberry. LOL Now my routine is to hook up, get situated, and then check CNN and my favorite tech gizmo site. In the morning I can tell exactly at what point I fell asleep because the Blackberry will still be displaying the article I was reading when I nodded off.

My advice for you is, don't give up. Find an interesting way to distract yourself from thinking "I have to fall asleep", don't keep score - it takes however long it takes to get used to it. And if you rip the thing off your face in the night - just try again the next night.

For me now, it is such a part of my life that I had actually forgotten how much trouble I had getting used to sleeping with my CPAP, and that it took approximately 4 - 6 weeks to get all those little adjustments worked out.

You can do it! Just stick with it - it is SO completely worth it.

• ▶ Reply

▶ Reply to Discussion