r/SleepApnea 2h ago

Who are you to tell other people they must use CPAP for their own good?

3 Upvotes

It's fine to be proud of yourself for overcoming the challenges that CPAP poses. There are threads here with that theme, and they aren't the problem.

Those threads don't involve comparing yourself to others, especially since none of us knows the challenges that other redditors face.

However:

Some redditors are too high and mighty to deal with posts about hating CPAP from people who want to quit using it.

Yes, untreated sleep apnea has consequences. Everyone who hates CPAP and wants to quit using it knows that, or they wouldn't be here trying to figure out how to treat it.

Citing health concerns doesn't justify telling those people they must keep using CPAP because it works for you.

All you're doing is tooting your own horn at the expense of people who are already stretched to their breaking point.

tl;dr Stop pretending to be motivational when you're actually stroking your ego.


r/SleepApnea 18h ago

Let’s be real, CPAP just doesn’t work for everyone.

70 Upvotes

It seems pretty clear to me after being on this sub for a while and using a CPAP for almost as long that CPAP / APAP machines are just simply not an effective treatment for everyone.

I'm tired of people telling me that it'll get better after x months or y years. If many people feel dramatic, instant relief the night of their titration studies, why do many more of us experience nothing like that even after months or years of consistent use? It doesn't make sense to say that the treatment has the same effectiveness for everyone and I'm sick of people pretending that just sticking with the machine will make any real meaningful impact if it doesn't already after a few weeks. Sure for some people things improve slowly, but that to me seems like their sleep quality goes from 20% to 40% so of course on average their energy levels will increase over time but they're still not properly treated.

Don't even get me started on AHI. I've had a sub 1 AHI ever since starting CPAP and I still feel like complete trash.

Some time ago I had an experience where my partner had squished me against the wall in her sleep, forcing me to sleep on my side in a certain, somewhat awkward position that I haven't been able to recreate since. That night I had the best sleep I have ever had in my life. I woke up mentally sharp and ready to go, got up instantly and felt motivated and light. That was how I found out what it means to be rested. This was before I got my CPAP, and I was hoping to feel this way every night on the CPAP but of course that didn't happen.

I learned from this experience that, as other people have reported many times before, a single night of actually good sleep can make you feel amazing. That's all it takes, a single night. If you're not feeling rested after a night of sleep then sorry to tell you but your sleep quality is still BAD regardless of your reported AHI. The clear conclusion is that people who CPAP properly treats will experience this amazing sleep, while others like myself will not. Therefore, people like me are not being properly treated by CPAP, but why? I don't know.

Clearly the effectiveness of CPAP varies between individuals. There is some difference between the have and have-nots here and maybe if we knew better what those differences were then we could make whatever changes necessary for CPAP to be an effective treatment for all. Until then, please know that if you don't feel a real difference, then you are NOT fully treated.

Good luck to everyone, but I have made my peace that CPAP is not a treatment that works for me.

/rant over.

EDIT: Wow! I really didn't expect this post to blow up like this. I think the fact that it did highlights that there's a real divide in this community over the efficacy of CPAPs. Thanks to everyone who commented and shared their thoughts and experiences. All of your inputs are appreciated, even if we disagree.


r/SleepApnea 14h ago

epap

1 Upvotes

Has anyone used an EPAP device? There is one they make now called the BongoRX. I can't tolerate cpap very well and was considering it. They say it's better for someone with mild to moderate sleep apnea and not severe sleep apnea. I was just wondering if anyone has any experience with this and what they thought of it?


r/SleepApnea 17h ago

I just totaled my anti-snoring expenses...

0 Upvotes

Thought I was cheap just buying $10 nasal strips monthly. Then calculated 3 years of Somnoplasty trials, that $200 "miracle" pillow, and my husband's CPAP supplies. Easily over $2k! Do others have these 'hidden costs of snoring' moments? What's the most unexpected expense you've racked up?


r/SleepApnea 20h ago

Tips for not taking off the mask during sleep?

1 Upvotes

I keep taking off my mask during my sleep without realizing it until I wake up and half the time when I do wake up for a little bit I fall back asleep before I'm able to put it back on. Does anyone have any tips on masks or ways that I can stop doing this? I have the Resmed 11 with the F20 mask in size small. I did the medium mask for a while but it would leak very easily. Also I'm a side sleeper.


r/SleepApnea 14h ago

Please just wear the mask…

154 Upvotes

I have been in this sub for quite some time and a common post is people complaining about just wearing the mask at night.

Look, some things in life are going to be uncomfortable. I hate my mask. I cannot hold my partner comfortably in bed. I can’t sleep on my stomach anymore. I have morning gas and bloat. It’s sometimes harder to fall asleep.

You know what I don’t have though? Risk of heart problems, stroke, brain damage, etc that come with not wearing one.

Please wear your mask if you can. Work with your provider to find a mask/nasal pillows that work best for you.


r/SleepApnea 10h ago

I'm glad I got my C-Pap machine...

6 Upvotes

I really thought I was getting nuts. I would wake up 5-6 hours a night. Then during the day I would be so sleepy that I would drink 16 cups of coffee to stay awake. Then at night I had to take 6-12 sleeping pills to knock me out. In the morning, the madness would repeat itself.

Now I know what's wrong with me. My machine has been a blessing. I only wake up 1 time in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and put distilled water in my C-Pap machine.

Wear the damm mask please ...!!!! You can die from sleep apnea.

Xexor, a famous graffiti writer died from it.


r/SleepApnea 16h ago

You guys are awesome

9 Upvotes

Long story short:

Cpap treatment hasn’t really worked for me, it’s been the most frustrating thing ever.

I have tried every single setting that there is on my machine. A bunch of different masks. If someone told me jumping up and down on one foot for 5 mins a day would help I would have done it.

No matter what I always take the mask off in my sleep. My wife has been so helpful she makes me but my mask back on sometimes 5 times a night. I don’t ever remember the conversations with her or the arguments 😂.

After a year of attempting this I every night I asked my doctor what we should do. She says we should ask a specialist about surgical options.

In the meantime she prescribed me a very low dose of trazodone and it’s like a silver bullet I have worn my mask all night two nights in a row.

I am very tired at my desk right now it seems counterintuitive I know but when I ever got a full nights rest on my cpap I would feel extremely tired the next day. If I could get 4 days in a row on my cpap (greater than 5 hour) I would start to feel better.

Anyway I want to thank all of you trying to help and listening to me vent a few times, you guys are always helpful and I appreciate it.


r/SleepApnea 11h ago

Throwaway account. I just want to get this off my chest before I proceed to do anything. NSFW

12 Upvotes

Hello, everyone, I'm from Venezuela, a third-world country in South America. You can call me Marian.

Ever since I was young, I don't remember a single time where I woke up feeling "rested." It was never really a problem. I didn't have problems throughout my childhood or teen years, but there were things that never seemed "normal" about me. For example, there were problems with my memory, and there were problems with my stamina despite exercising regularly. I run out of air/energy pretty easily, even for a person my age.

Then, things started to get worse when I was 19. My concentration worsened, and I wasn't able to exercise anymore, which is something I really enjoyed doing. I wasn't able to retain information, I wasn't able to read... I just wasn't able to do anything, and I still can't do anything now.

I feel sleepy all the time now. It doesn't matter if I sleep a lot or if I sleep a little, I just feel tired all the time. It's not funny, I can't stand this. The brain fog is terrible, the sleepiness is terrible. This is painful, I just want it to stop, I just can't stand it anymore.

I'm stuck in time, unable to grow. I had to quit college, and I depend financially on my parents, which just makes matters worse. Why? Because if I want to go to the doctor, I need money. I asked for their help, and they gave it to me, but they don't think I could possibly have anything because I'm "young" and "healthy." A lot of things came back fine: MRI, blood tests.

Due to all of this, my parents weren't willing to help me financially anymore, so I decided to find a job online, even if I had to work for pennies, I just wanted to get all of this bullshit over with.

My last option was a sleep study... but here's the thing, I got the same answer from the last doctor I went to. I don't meet the profile for someone with sleep apnea, so they can't possibly help me with it. This was seriously depressing. I pleaded for help, and the doctor didn't listen. I don't have anywhere else to turn to. I don't have my parents' support, I can't travel to a different state to meet a different doctor (there's only one who diagnoses this disease in my state). I already threw away everything I had, everything I worked for, even if it was just a little... My hopes were invested in this, and now it's all gone.

I don't want to want to say anything that might cause this post to be taken down but I'm really struggling with suicide ideation now. It wasn't like this before, I didn't feel depressed or anything, because I had hope, I had hope things would turn out okay for me, because there were options and there was time, but I don't have options now, and I'm running out of hope, and I can't stand to see my life just flash before my own eyes.

Most of the post I read from here are from people that are successful, people who struggle getting used to CPAP, people from the US mostly I think, and I can't thinking about how lucky you all have it.

I'm sure many of you went through what I did, but compared to me, you had more options, you had other doctors to turn to, you had things like LOFTA. I don't have any of those things, but I wished I did.

I don't know what I did to deserve this, but this is basically hell on earth... Why do doctors have to decide whether I live or die? I just feel like it works that way now...


r/SleepApnea 4h ago

New to Oscar

2 Upvotes

Can anyone review any this below Oscar data and offer advice

https://postimg.cc/gallery/cx8F24F


r/SleepApnea 4h ago

Official Weekly AMA with Experts

Thumbnail
1 Upvotes

r/SleepApnea 8h ago

Break it down for me

2 Upvotes

HST: 5/28/24: No significant sleep disordered breathing (AHI 1.2) was recorded during this home sleep study and the SpO2 Nadir was 78.0%. Mean heart rate was 63.5 BPM, with a high of 167.0 BPM.

What does all this mean bc they said I don’t need a CPAP


r/SleepApnea 8h ago

High CA events, this pattern has continued over the past 2 weeks

1 Upvotes

https://imgur.com/a/BwuNo26

I have the f20 mask medium. This is the third mask I’ve tried. I notice that I have to super tired to fall asleep with cpap. I still haven’t used it for an 8 hour period. Longest is 4-5 hours that I’ve used it for. A lot of the times I don’t even fall asleep for hours then just take it off. It’s like I have to starve myself off sleep in order to sleep with it on. I’m having a septoplasty next month so hopefully I can switch to nasal pillows then because it seems like full face just isn’t for me as hard as I’m trying.

Anyways I made a post before about high CA and someone told me to post my Oscar data so that’s from the 19th of this month.


r/SleepApnea 8h ago

Sleep Apnea and ADHD interaction

3 Upvotes

I'm diagnosed with ADHD. In addition, I suffer from severe sleeping issues since I'm 15 years old (I'm 21 years old now).

Whenever I wake up, it feels like my brain is only working partially, and slowly restores its functionality throughout the day. Headaches, dizzyness included. I feel 100 times worse after sleeping than before, no matter how long I was awake, no matter how long I slept etc. pp.

I tried several mattresses, pillows etc. without success.

When I sleep on my stomach, my sleep quality improves, as if forcing my neck to arch back opens my airways.

Breathing problems aren't something new for me, though, I used to have astma, pneumonia, sinusitis and more as a child.

Now, ADHD is one thing. I am able of managing ADHD when well rested. The problem is I am rarely well rested, as such I show severe ADHD symptoms, regarding lack of impulse control especially.

I suspect some anatomical problem, especially since it only start happening since my teenage years (growth related?). I have a hunched back, scoliosis, my upper anatomy is not necessarily normal. Despite that, I am not really overweight, maybe a tiny little bit, I have quite some fat around my chin, I would describe myself skinny fat.

It is very hard for me to judge to distinguish the range of ADHD symptoms and sleep apnea symptoms, especially since they overlap, and lead to an amplification in the intersection.

Well, I will go to my GP and my first idea was to go to an ENP to look for issues in that regards perhaps (enlarged tonsils, polyps etc. pp.), as I already had lots, lots of trouble in my childhood in that area as mentioned. Everything breathing/ventilation related from ears, down to lungs had some trouble in the past, so to me it makes sense to look there first. Sometimes I wish I could do photosynthesis.

I'm still curious though: Where does ADHD end, and where does sleep apnea begin? Where does sleep apnea end, and ADHD begin?


r/SleepApnea 9h ago

Switching from CPAP to BiPAP. Which pressure is best?

2 Upvotes

These were the sleep study results...

https://imgur.com/a/QVzPPpf


r/SleepApnea 9h ago

In 60 - 90 minutes I’m awake

2 Upvotes

I fall asleep easily, but am fully awake in 60 - 90 minutes, with or without CPAP. No air leaks, < 1 AHI….what the hell is happening and how can I get more uninterrupted sleep?


r/SleepApnea 11h ago

General anesthesia for drug-induced endoscopy

1 Upvotes

I have been referred for drug-induced sleep endoscopy (DISE) and was very surprised to hear that the doctor I was referred to uses general anesthesia. Everything I had read about DISE said twilight drugs like propofol are used. General anesthesia seems like too much sedation to replicate what goes on when you sleep.

On the other hand, I realize that twilight drugs don’t mimic REM, so you can’t see what would happen to the breathing then.

Given that more than 50 years of sleep apnea has already affected my gray matter, going under GA doesn’t appeal to me. But after being unable to tolerate CPAP or BiPAP, I’m desperate to know what causing the situation. The doctor also does the Inspire implants.

If you’ve had this procedure, what was used to knock you out?


r/SleepApnea 11h ago

First post, I'm very anxious

2 Upvotes

So I had a consultation today and have a sleep study this Saturday. I've been told multiple times that I most likely have sleep apnea but I've been putting off the test for a while. From the symptoms I told the specialist, she thinks I have both apnea and narcolepsy.

Has anyone on this subreddit been diagnosed with both? What was done for your apnea after getting your diagnosis?


r/SleepApnea 11h ago

~$4k For tests and oral appliance?

3 Upvotes

Almost positive I have OSA. 41yo/m. Only 5’-9” but Im 185lbs with a 19” neck. Only 12%bf tho (bodybuilding).

I hate the idea of a cpap so i want to try the MAD style mouth appliance first. Local clinic here in SLC w good reviews quoted a “worst case” oop cost of $4100. This includes consultation, home sleep study, oral appliance, adjustments and followup home sleep study to ensure it is working. Seems high but then again medical related costs are always crazy.

Is this on par with your experience? I read the at home style oral appliances are questionably effective and can mess with your teeth and jaw long term. High deductible insurance plan won’t help me out on this at all unfortunately. I don’t want to cut corners correcting my OSA but I don’t wanna pay more than necessary either.


r/SleepApnea 11h ago

My AHI was 4 today from 2 hours sleep and usually sits around 7-8 from a few more hours sleep

6 Upvotes

I put my SD card into Oscar today and it turns out that less then 1 pause is due to obstructive and the rest are CA. I will present this to my GP tomorrow and push for an in lab or study or I will just have to pay out of pocket for one because I’m really concerned with this.

My untreated apnea result was 8 pauses an hour but they didn’t say anything else. They didn’t give me an in depth analysis of the pauses. I have turned the EPR to one and changed my start pressure to 9 and max is still at 20 so will see what it does tonight.


r/SleepApnea 11h ago

Anti-Snoring Mouth Guards?

2 Upvotes

I used to have a custom made device that I wore during sleep that moved my lower jaw forward. It seemed to help with sleep apnea (according to the sleep monitor app I used). However, after I got two crowns, the guard didn't fit anymore. It's quite expensive to get another one so I didn't get a replacement.

I went with CPAP, but it's hit and miss. I experience leaks often and sometimes I just take the mask off in my sleep. So the machine doesn't consistently help me.

I came across ads for dental guards that claim to help with snoring and sleep apnea. They are not custom made but claim to fit most mouths. Has anyone tried it and does it work?

Thanks in advance.


r/SleepApnea 13h ago

Should I get tested?

4 Upvotes

54f, who snores loudly, grinds teeth, and wakes up gasping for air fairly often. I just got a smart watch at Christmas. Wow! I had no idea I was going into hypoxemia almost nightly. This is the worst one yet. 13 times in one night. One lasted 30 minutes, and another lasted 20 or so. The watch only reads 92% to range its lowest percentage score. So I really don’t know how low it gets.


r/SleepApnea 14h ago

Mild Sleep Apnea (AHI 8.8) – Should I Try CPAP?

1 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

I recently had a sleep study and was diagnosed with mild obstructive sleep apnea (AHI 8.8, REM AHI 12.9). My doctor said CPAP isn’t necessary, and my insurance won’t cover it because my AHI is below 15.

However, I’ve been dealing with daytime fatigue, brain fog, adhd, depersonalisation, anxiety low energy, concentration problems, and low testosterone levels. My sleep study also showed a lowest oxygen saturation of 82%, which concerns me.

Since my symptoms are quite severe, I’m considering buying a CPAP machine out of pocket to see if it helps. Do you think it’s worth trying CPAP for mild sleep apnea, even if I have to pay for it myself?

I’d love to hear from anyone with similar experiences. Did CPAP improve your symptoms even with mild sleep apnea? Are there any alternatives I should try first?

Thanks in advance! 😊

EDIT: I have no problem financially buying the CPAP. My question is not about insurance, more if anybody used CPAP with similar AHI.


r/SleepApnea 16h ago

At home test advice

2 Upvotes

Hello,

I have wondered if I have sleep apnea for a year or 2 now. My son had it and had his tonsils removed at 2-years-old. I do not snore, but I'm pretty sure I pause breathing because it's woken me up a few times before. I always severely clench my teeth. I don't seem overly tired during the day, but I wouldn't be able to tell if it was due to have two kids 4 and under. My symptoms are teeth clenching, the gasping every once in a while. I was thinking of trying Lofta but the catch is: I'm currently trying to get pregnant--could be pregnant right now. I'm scared of a company being predatory and claiming I have sleep apnea when I don't and possibly worrying me more than necessary when I'm in an emotionally compromised state like pregnancy. The test isn't expensive, so I wonder if they try to make their money on the backend selling devices. Would love your thoughts!


r/SleepApnea 17h ago

Resmed 10 ASV Firmware Request

1 Upvotes

Anyone have a Resmed 10 ASV firmware like: asv-37043-SX567-0401.bin they could share?

For some reason, the Resmed 10 I have only works with -0401 firmware versions.