Mojo Request Well I guess it is no surprise… your hefty friend smurfco has “severe sleep apnea”

[GomezAddams]

I'm not going to lie - getting used to CPAP is not easy. If you don't decide right up front that you ARE going to make it work no matter what, you'll give up. Also, you may not feel better right away. It took a good six months for me to feel better after starting. It takes a while to rewire your brain after years of no REM sleep. But please do stick with it - the results for most people (me included) are striking.

Oh - one important bit of wisdom I forgot to mention: you can use tap water in the humidifier. Just clean it once a month by filling it with vinegar, letting it soak for an hour, then swab it out with q-tips.

And don't watch any Alien movies. I roll a lot at night and sometimes get the hose wrapped around my neck. I wake up in a panic because I think I have a face hugger on me.

 

[GomezAddams]

I wake up a lot to pee, but that is a different issue than yours. I hope you get one soon and I hope it helps.

My older brother used to say the only thing golden about the golden years is the amount of peeing you have to do at night.

 

[Guitar Heel]

aw, sorry man. I'm quite sure I have it to some degree.

 

[dmn23]

Okay, so speaking as a person who sleeps pretty well with no difficulty and the occasional 3am trip to the bathroom, what were the symptoms that made y'all seek out a sleep test? How did you know you were potential candidates for a CPAP? Were your partners/significant others telling you that your snoring was out of control?

 

[frunobulax]

This is an interesting article I saw recently:

https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/10...ter-until-he-finds-a-simple-no-cost-solution/

 

[Chicken Man]

Okay, so speaking as a person who sleeps pretty well with no difficulty and the occasional 3am trip to the bathroom, what were the symptoms that made y'all seek out a sleep test? How did you know you were potential candidates for a CPAP? Were your partners/significant others telling you that your snoring was out of control?

I think snoring is the usual giveaway, apart from the extreme cases where people are violently lashing out in their sleep as they struggle against suffocation.

 

[jbj]

I also have non-weight related apnea. Losing weight is a good idea if you don't feel good because of your weight, but it won't necessarily fix your night breath.

I get it when I sleep on my back. It developed when I was in the Middle East when I was the slimmest I've ever been in my adult life

 

[MonkeyZero]

My wife tells me I die several times a night. I scared the shit out of my brother in law when I fell asleep on the couch next to him. His face was pure terror when I woke up.
They say I stop breathing for well over a minute most of the time. Does that frighten me? A little. I should probably get the sleep study done.

 

[baimun]

My wife tells me I die several times a night. I scared the shit out of my brother in law when I fell asleep on the couch next to him. His face was pure terror when I woke up.
They say I stop breathing for well over a minute most of the time. Does that frighten me? A little. I should probably get the sleep study done.

Yup.

It was one thing when my wife would tell me this, and I thought she was over-reacting.... it was another thing when my kids were worried when I would fall asleep on the sofa or something and start snoring really loudly... then just... stop.. breathing..... gasp-snort... snoorr...

When I wake up, I'm often disoriented to an alarming level.. where am I... what day is it?... aaahhh....

And now when I use the machine and wake up, I don't feel like I'm crawling out from underneath a bus that ran me over. It's a refreshing change of pace.

 

[GomezAddams]

Yup.

It was one thing when my wife would tell me this, and I thought she was over-reacting.... it was another thing when my kids were worried when I would fall asleep on the sofa or something and start snoring really loudly... then just... stop.. breathing..... gasp-snort... snoorr...

When I wake up, I'm often disoriented to an alarming level.. where am I... what day is it?... aaahhh....

And now when I use the machine and wake up, I don't feel like I'm crawling out from underneath a bus that ran me over. It's a refreshing change of pace.

I like to say that CPAP has changed "waking up" from a process to an event.

 

[BlockInlay]

Glad you got it checked out. Losing weight will significantly help.

I think I saw cpaps for sale at cvs recently. Or maybe it was just the masks. Worth taking a look though.

I tried a cpap for 7 or 8 months and it just didn’t work out for me. I actually started throwing it across the room, in my sleep! The Mrs didn’t like that too much. I got a mouth guard thingy that pulls my jaw out and it has helped a lot.

if you can wear it and sleep with it on, you’ll start feeling great in many ways.

 

[MonkeyZero]

Glad you got it checked out. Losing weight will significantly help.

I think I saw cpaps for sale at cvs recently. Or maybe it was just the masks. Worth taking a look though.

I tried a cpap for 7 or 8 months and it just didn’t work out for me. I actually started throwing it across the room, in my sleep! The Mrs didn’t like that too much. I got a mouth guard thingy that pulls my jaw out and it has helped a lot.

if you can wear it and sleep with it on, you’ll start feeling great in many ways.

The mouth guard is what I want to try first. I tried on my brother's cpap and can not imagine being able to sleep while wearing that thing.

 

[Dudeman1967]

I started using CPAP about five years ago. I had severe sleep apnea. I tried the nose/mouth mask and couldn’t get along with it. I then tried a mouthpiece without CPAP that pulled my jaw forward. It helped but did not cure. I was miserably tired all the time. I tried a CPAP with nose pillows and was able to tolerate.
Holy crap did it make a difference in my energy level. Won’t try and sleep without it.

on another positive side note. After not snoring like a bear for five years I think I now might have a singing voice.

Best of luck with yours!

 

[Chad]

Okay, so speaking as a person who sleeps pretty well with no difficulty and the occasional 3am trip to the bathroom, what were the symptoms that made y'all seek out a sleep test? How did you know you were potential candidates for a CPAP? Were your partners/significant others telling you that your snoring was out of control?

I snored like crazy, but that wasn’t it for me. I could sit down anywhere, anytime and be asleep in 45 seconds. We had family over at 4:30 in the afternoon. They put on the World Cup and the next thing I know, I’m waking up at everyone laughing because I was asleep and snoring in no time. But the final straw was, sitting at a stop light and having the guys horn behind me wake me up.

The crazy part was I used a cpap for like 4 or 5 months, then I got a horrible head cold and I couldn’t sleep with it on so I stopped for a few weeks. My snoring stopped, I didn’t fall asleep in the middle of the day or while driving, so I never went back to it. My wife said she had never noticed me stop breathing before I used the cpap and my sleep study was on the border of of apnea, but technically I didn’t qualify. I had to answer some questionnaire to get the machine. I’ve sense had another study and ended up not needing it.

 

[baimun]

I started using CPAP about five years ago. I had severe sleep apnea. I tried the nose/mouth mask and couldn’t get along with it. I then tried a mouthpiece without CPAP that pulled my jaw forward. It helped but did not cure. I was miserably tired all the time. I tried a CPAP with nose pillows and was able to tolerate.
Holy crap did it make a difference in my energy level. Won’t try and sleep without it.

on another positive side note. After not snoring like a bear for five years I think I now might have a singing voice.

Best of luck with yours!

The nose/mouth thing was what they used at the Sleep Study place.... I had to pull the edge of the mask away and listen to it "leak" until I was able to chill out enough to fall asleep.

I've always used the Nasal Pillow (Phillips Dream something or other), and had good results... only took a day or two to remember to shut my damned mouth while sleeping so air didn't launch out.... and my newer CPAP machine is much easier to fall asleep with. It ramps up and down, adjusts, and generally doesn't feel like it's always on a high pressure like my old one. I still use my old one.... but it's in a separate bag to put in my suitcase when I travel.

The only times I've not used it to sleep in the past 8 or so years have been when I was soooo sick, or soooo congested, that it was better to snore and snot on my pillow than have it blow air against blocked sinuses and fill my lungs with more congestion.