There is a sleep test in my future as soon as my insurance is verified. I’m quite certain that the result of the test will be a CPAP/APAP machine. I’d like to know what has worked for you and what hasn’t. Any information would be greatly appreciated.
There are a number of previous threads on CPAP out there with some good info in them. Personally, I’m on CPAP 5 years now and doing great with it. I use a full face mask. I tried the nasal pillows and the nose mask, but they didn’t work for me. That’s just a personal preference. I’ve found citrus mask cleaning wipes and machine filters on eBay. I use the wipes most days and do a real cleaning every week or so. Some people take everything apart to clean it, but I don’t. I just soak it in hot, soapy water, rinse it and let it dry. Never had a problem. I’m sure others will have more tips. Good luck!
For about 2 years my sweetie and I had separate beds, more or less, because there was just no way I could sleep with him. It wasn’t just the snoring, but the apnea was…godsawful. I knew he had it bad, and I knew it was affecting his health: he fell asleep during the day, was in bed barely five hours a night, was tired ALL the time. And miserable.
Unfortunately, he considered my sleeping separately a bad sign, like I didn’t love him enough or something. That wasn’t the case, as I’m also a light sleeper and it’s hard for me to get to sleep anywhere, much the less with noises and continually wondering whether he was going to start breathing again when he’d stop. He seriously would stop breathing at least 3 times a minute; it was pretty bad.
Fortunately, my insistence on sleeping elsewhere bugged him enough to finally go with the CPAP. I won’t lie, it was hard, and for the first few months I still slept elsewhere; I wanted him to have time to get used to it and keep up the regular schedule in case it didn’t work for him. There are still the occasional nights when he’ll wake up and take it off because it’s bugging him, but he’s stuck with it now for about 6 months and those occasions are rarer and rarer.
Short version: It didn’t save our relationship, because it was never in jeopardy, but we haven’t spent a night apart in two months, and I see no reason for that to change. Now we can BOTH sleep, together, and…best part? He’s a lot healthier, TONS more energy, doesn’t fall asleep during the day anymore, is losing weight…you name it, getting the sleep he hasn’t had for over ten years has just made everything so much better for him.
And me, since now he doesn’t think I’m avoiding him when all I wanted was my sleep. 
AND for him to not die in his.
He uses the full face mask, and I am so very proud of him for sticking with it, because I know it wasn’t easy at first. If you go that route, please stick with it; it’ll be worth it to your health in a very big way. Good luck and best wishes. 
I have one and use it. I was completely unenthusiastic when I first tried one in the sleep lab. I was very different than I expected. It takes effort to exhale which didn’t seem natural at first and I felt like I was suffocating even though I wasn’t. I also let my mouth open during sleep which just creates a wind tunnel through your nose and out of your mouth and makes it ineffective. I decided to have pretty radical quadruple surgery so that I wouldn’t need a CPAP at all. It only partially worked but I was still happy I did it despite the pain and long recovery time.
To make a long story short, I attacked the problem from multiple angles. I lost a lot of weight that I had put on in just a few years and started exercising more. I switched over to a new design of the nasal pillow mask. I can take it on or off in one motion in about two seconds. I don’t think I absolutely have to use mine anymore and sometimes go without it but I prefer sleeping with it on. It is no problem at all. I have moderate pressure going in my nose and I learned to sleep with my mouth completely closed. It is pretty relaxing being able to sleep without being snapped out of deep sleep because of breathing irregularities.
The moral to this story is that even if you need to use one, you can still make other adjustments to positively affect your health and make your CPAP experience much easier.
I’m a year into CPAP and use it every night all night. It took some getting used to - I think practically everybody finds that.
Biggest surprise is dreaming again.
Biggest tip is that, if you have cats, you should keep a roll of masking tape on your nightstand. I pat a piece all over my face to remove all the cat hairs right before I put the thing on, as it is impossibly ticklish if I miss one.
I dream pretty regularly and usually remember them, I think. I hope they don’t get crazier than they already are.
Thank you very much for the masking tape tip. We have 2 cats (I’m allergic, don’t ask) and I don’t think I would have thought of that.
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My sleep test was an ordeal but I acclimated quite quickly to the CPAP and now it’s just part of my routine.
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If you live in an area prone to power outages you may want to think about a battery backup system. Also, you can inform the power company ahead of time that you rely on medical equipment in your home and they will give a higher priority to restoring your power if it goes out.
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I have a CPAP which provides APAP therapy - it self-adjusts the pressure within a prescribed range according to the minimum pressure which provides adequate relief. The lower pressure is more comfortable, and it gives good feedback as to whether changes in weight or sleeping position may be having an effect on the severity of the apnea.
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I live in Maine where it’s often cold & dry and condensation inside the hose has been an ongoing problem. An insulated hose sleeve helped to a degree, but I finally had to wrap most of an entire fleece blanket around the hose to solve the problem.
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Cleaning the hose and mask have been far easier and more effective using a dilute solution of the antiseptic Control-III as a soaking rinse.
I’ve been using a CPAP for many. many years now…maybe…ten? Time flies when you sleep better! Adjusting to it took a while, but I was highly motivated and got used to the mask and the whole “don’t open your mouth” thing by wearing the mask for an hour or so when I WASN’T trying to sleep, just to get used to it. You quickly learn where to position the hose, and how to turn over, though many nights I sleep so soundly I don’t turn over. I use a full face mask as I can’t abide things in my nose, and even with three cats I don’t have any problems with cat hair on it. The old cat tries to knock it off my face once in a while, but usually when it’s time to get up and I’m resisting! And true confession time…I rarely clean it. Plus I rarely get colds anymore. And I only use the water reservoir about 30% of the time. And when my SO and I are together, the two CPAPs are not a problem! It’s good to have a partner who completely and utterly supports the use of the machine, because it IS funny-looking. But it’s life-changing.
I guess I’m in the minority. I’ve used mine for well over a year now and I can’t get used to the sumbitch. I’ve tried three different styles of masks before going back to the original. I hate that I can’t scratch my nose if it itches. I hate that I can’t roll over without first considering where the tube is. I hate that I can’t fall asleep while watching TV.
It stays on all night probably half the time; the other half, I take it off at some point, sometimes while awake and aware, sometimes not. Here’s the kicker: it doesn’t really do anything for me. I do not feel noticeably different the following day whether I wear it or not.
mmm
You definitely want the quietest machine possible if you have a sleeping partner (and even if you don’t).
A thread I started last year has some good info (and some good links to a VERY informative thread on another board): http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=556722&highlight=cpap
I asked for an APAP machine. When Typo Knig got his machine (through a different practice), they didn’t like the APAPs as much, but did give him a CPAP with exhalation relief. In my case, I didn’t trust the results of the sleep study (had an awful night with a very bad fitting mask) and wanted something that would correct for errors.
Do make sure they try you on a variety of masks. For mine, at the titration session the tech just handed me one and told me to get used to it - no joke. No option to try a different style. I hated it, and had a lot of trouble with it - every time I blinked it got dislodged and blew air all over. It was a nasal mask with the thing that propped on the forehead:
This one or something very similar.
When I got the actual CPAP machine, the tech didn’t have me try a variety - she had several, but strongly urged me to use this one. I liked that it was lightweight and easy to put on. The only thing I don’t like is that my nose seems to be between two pillow sizes - a Medium sometimes seems a teeeeeeensy bit too small, and a large is definitely too big.
When Typo Knig got his: the lab he went with (that I’ve since switched to) had him come for an appointment beforehand and tried several masks on him. He has a different brand, but the concept is pretty similar. I think thisis his model (though he does not have the hose go over his head, he wears it dangling in the front).
From everything I’ve heard, insist on a heated humidifier. I have never tried to go without mine.
I have the Phillips Respironics REMStar APAP. Typo Knig has the REMStar Pro with CFlex. We have to make sure we don’t get the machines mixed up when we travel :).
What does surprise me is that I had comparatively little trouble getting used to mine. I asked for a scrip for Ambien to help through the first couple of nights just to be on the safe side. By the third night, I didn’t bother with the Ambien.
You may find that your body gets conditioned to recognize that “mask on” = “go to sleep”. To some extent, this happens with me also.
I am seriously considering trying a chin-strap - I find that, as glamorous as that mask is, it still needs a little “something extra” to complete the look :D. Especially if I roll onto my back, my mouth hangs open and gets very dried out. I’ve mostly trained myself to keep the tongue against the palate so I don’t make that oh-so-charming SKHLKHLKHLKHLkhlkhhhhhh sound when the tongue droops and pressurized air escapes… but the dry mouth is unpleasant. Also it’s leading to more trouble with tartar buildup on my teeth - the hygienist noted that and was wondering if something had changed, and I went AHA.
If you catch a cold, be prepared to have trouble with the CPAP, what with the coughing etc.
Now, my tale doesn’t really have a happy ending. I’m sure it’s benefiting me somehow - but I don’t feel any better nor have I seen any benefits such as BP drop, weight loss, increased energy.
I actually went for a 24-hour sleep study (night-time to confirm the CPAP was working, and daytime sleep latency) and have been diagnosed with Excessive Daytime Sleepiness - basically I’m sleepy even when “well-rested”. In my case, it’s idiopathic, we don’t know of any cause (narcolepsy has been ruled out).
So I am trying Nuvigil and when I take it, I feel… well, about like you’re supposed to feel when you’ve had a decent night’s sleep, I think :). The first day THAT happened, it was actually a bit frightening (the stuff has a mild possibility of dependency and I could see myself REALLY liking the feeling). Unfortunately, there’s a fair chance it’s doing bad things to my blood pressure (sigh)…
I’ll post more tips on surviving a sleep study, in a separate posting. I don’t know that I’m the SDMB front-runner in number of tests, but I have had more than anyone I know anywhere else! (6 nights total, in 5 different labs… I’m such a slut).
I too noticed more awareness of dreaming… though there’s some dissent on whether that’s a good thing. If you’re remembering the dreams, either a) you are dreaming more, or b) you’re having more arousals during the dreaming sleep stage. A is good, B is not.
This was a problem for me too, but I finally found a mask with a great “quick release” that works flawlessly. I can unsnap it, scratch my nose, and hook it back up in a flash.
I use a CPAP with the nasal pillows and a chin strap.
The only drawback is that I can’t roll over and snuggle with SWMBO in the middle of the night any more. She’s claims it’s like being attacked by Darth Vader. She likes to have me blow in her ear, but not a steady, non-stop stream of air. 
Yes, is is my wife’s biggest issue. Not just the air stream, but the air stream of my morning breath…
And mine is easy to just nudge out of the way and push back in place.
Here’s a direct link to that other forum, with all the dandy info about what to look for in a CPAP:
http://www.apneasupport.org/viewtopic.php?t=10164&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0&sid=8ac20c16e4d651d5da94e72b9bf9ee58<br%20/>
I’ve got a Resmed S9 with a Quattro full face mask. My problem was a red triangle around my nose and mouth that took hours to go away. It wasn’t a pressure issue but more of a reaction to the mask itself.
The solution for me was a linen mask liner that goes between the mask and my face. I bought one from Pad-A-Cheek (google it) and I used it nightly. I much prefer the soft linen to the slick feel of the silicon, especially in the summer.
CPAP has been great for me. I feel better and never need a nap anymore. The wakeup call (heh) for me was almost falling asleep behind the wheel at 9am driving my son to daycare. I honestly think I blacked out for a second and that scared me into going to the Dr’s office for a referral to a sleep clinic.
As promised: some hints on how to deal with a sleep study (sorry, this is loooong - I’ve had 6, all awful in their own way, and as you can tell I HATE them). The headings first for quick reference, then my ramblings about each, below that.
- Schedule it when you can spend the next day trashed.
- Be sleep deprived for the study
- Bring your own pillows.
- Be prepared to trot out your inner bitch.
- Do a dry run if possible
- Bring entertainment that does not rely on room lighting or a TV.
- Don’t count on styling your hair that day
- Bring a snack and something to drink
- Remember, you are being watched
- People who run sleep clinics are a) in it for the money, and b) stoopid.
Details:
1) Schedule it when you can spend the next day trashed.
They will try to tell you that you can shower and go to work afterward (most places even have showers right there).
They are lying. You will not sleep well. The beds are hard. There are wires everywhere on your head and face. There are bands across your chest. There are wires connected to your legs. They wire you up on their schedule, not yours. They put you to bed on their schedule, not yours. They wake you up on their schedule, not yours. For some unknown reason, this is at 5:30 AM regardless of whether you have had 4 hours of sleep, or 6… then they let you drive yourself home when you’ve had the worst night of sleep in years.
The sheets are scratchy and the pillows are covered with crinkly disposable covers that make noise every time you move. If you like to watch a little TV before bedtime, well, good luck with that! I’ve found the presence / absence of TVs in the rooms about a 50/50 proposition - and if they DO have a TV, there’s usually no fucking remote. So if you don’t want to watch the 700 Club or whatever was on when you get wired up, too damn bad.
They will be surprised when you express concern that you may not sleep well. This suggests to me that they explicitly refuse to hire technicians who have ever undergone a sleep study.
Bottom line: unless you are a product tester at a Serta factory, you will not be able to be productive at work the next day.
2) Be sleep deprived for the study
I know, by definition you’re sleep deprived or you wouldn’t be there. But the stress of a strange place, along with all the discomforts of an uncomfortable bed, make it quite hard to sleep at all soundly. Unless you are the sort who can fall asleep during a parade, featuring a brass band playing Sousa’s Greatest Hits (and you’re the lead trombonist)… there’s a fair chance you will have trouble sleeping. “They” claim you’ll do well enough… um, then why did it take me FOUR sleep studies to detect enough apnea to be worth treating?
I’ve learned to get no more than 4 hours of sleep the night before a test. For me, ideally I do them on a Saturday night… which lets me be brain-dead two days in a row.
**3) Bring your own pillows. **
Theirs will small, hard, and noisy (see above). When you’re checking in at the clinic, chances are there will be others in the waiting room. You can tell who’s done this before by who has a bag full of pillows.
4) Be prepared to trot out your inner bitch.
When the technician - who has been popping into the room every time you turn over (because they listen in, it’s part of their job) to make sure you don’t need anything (and thereby waking you out of whatever miserable semi-sleep you’ve drifted into) - ignores you when you really DO need something like a bathroom trip (you’re connected by a switchboard’s-worth of wires to this enormous plug thingy and you CANNOT get up without help)… well, sometimes screaming that you are GOING TO WET THE BED may be necessary. No, unfortunately, I am not making that up… and no, I wasn’t quite that desperate but I’da done it… out of sheer spite. Fortunately (or unfortunately, heh) she finally came in that time. I have no clue what she was doing. That was the same technician who, at 3 AM when I decided this was bullshit and told her to unwire me, argued. I finally told her “I am not asking. I am telling you. I am leaving”. I got an acetone-soaked rag shoved in my face for my trouble (she was using it to soften the Krazy Glue they’d attached all the leads to my scalp with).
A cousin got creeped out by the technician and left before the study even happened.
Another technician forgot to give me anything to attach the wire-bundle to - it’s rather hard to use the toilet and wash your hands when you have this heavy thing you can’t put down or drop for fear of yanking off the leads. That was more of an annoyance than a real problem… but when I asked the day technician (this was the 24-hour study), he was stunned that they hadn’t given me a strap to use to hold onto the heavy thing.
Yet another place - where the sole purpose of the study was to measure my breathing with a cannula vs. a thermocouple - tried to tell me they were out of the cannulas and would have to use a thermocouple. As this was, quite literally, the only reason I was repeating the study, I raised hell and threatened to leave. They found a cannula.
5) Do a dry run if possible
Most places wouldn’t even let me see what the room was like beforehand. One place (the place we both now go) actually recognizes that it’s hard to sleep in a strange place… and for a small fee (30ish) you can spend a night there sometime before your real study - not wired up, of course. So you know the location, you know how to get into the building, you know what the rooms are like…
**6) Bring entertainment that does not rely on room lighting or a TV. **
By this I mean: have an ebook or book with booklight. Have an iPod or at least a boom box to make background noise. The clinics are often noisy or at least there are weird background noises that you aren’t familiar with. Since you’re expected to fall asleep on THEIR schedule… which might differ from your own… something to occupy you if you have insomnia can turn that hellish “tick… tick… tick… how many hours have passed?” into a few minutes of reading / listening and then falling asleep.
**7) Don’t count on styling your hair that day **
They no longer use glue that requires acetone to remove the leads from your scalp. Instead, they use this sticky contact goo that looks like a jarful of translucent snot. You will find blobs of this in your hair the next day.
Yes, even if you’ve washed your hair. Twice.
8) Bring a snack and something to drink
Pretty self-explanatory - you might get the munchies while waiting around, or your stomach might get to growling, which is a discomfort you might ignore at home… but at the sleep lab you want to be able to minimize distractions / discomfort. Don’t drink too much though (see above for bathroom logistics).
9) Remember, you are being watched
If one of your solutions to insomnia is, um… “stress relief”… remember you’re on an IR camera the whole time so you might or might not want to indulge. While I suspect they’ve seen just about everything, I personally would feel a bit inhibited!
**10) People who run sleep clinics are a) in it for the money, and/or b) stoopid. **
Since sleep apnea etc. have become such big news and big business, clinics have cropped up all over the damn place. Used to be you had to go to a semi-major hospital to find one, now they’re all over in private doctors’ offices. Not that comfort was ever a high priority, but you’re subject to an even bigger “luck of the draw” regarding the skill of the staff and the quality of the facilities.
There may be a bathroom connected to your room, or you may have to walk down a BRIGHTLY LIT hallway for that midnight potty trip. The best of the places I’ve been had that particular failing! Egad.
There may be a bedside lamp that you can control, or they may UNPLUG THE DAMN LAMP so you can’t even read yourself to sleep.
You may get a double bed or you may get a single bed. Either way, it will be hard and uncomfortable. And usually it will jiggle and the springs will creak when you move.
There may or may not be shower facilities. So far, all but one has had something (I think… I always wait until I get home to shower) but one that proudly touted that they did… the stall was in use as a storage room.
Another place: the doctor who ordered the test sorta wanted to do some sort of esophageal probe - to measure what, I’m not entirely sure. He was sure I’d be able to sleep with a tube up my nose and down my throat. I suggested this MIGHT be possible if they sedated me. He said that would mess up the data. I said that without the sedation, there would BE no data and respectfully declined that step.
Thanks Mama Zappa for the most informative post! I really appreciate it! I’ll respond to your points one by one.
- Schedule it when you can spend the next day trashed.
Fortunately, my company has a very generous “Sick Leave” policy and I’ll be able to take off the next day if I need to. It sounds like I should plan on it.
- Be sleep deprived for the study
I do fall asleep very easily but I’ll be sure to get as little sleep as possible the night before.
- Bring your own pillows.
Check and double check. I’m a pillow hog/snob. I have to have my body pillow to hold onto and to rest between my legs or I don’t sleep.
- Be prepared to trot out your inner bitch.
This one is going to be tough for me. I’m a pretty laid back/easy going kind of guy and complaining is very difficult for me to do. I’ll just have to put on my big boy panties if need be.
- Do a dry run if possible
Good idea. I’ll check into it.
- Bring entertainment that does not rely on room lighting or a TV.
I’ll have my iPhone with Netflix and a Kindle app. Now I just need to remember to bring the charger.
- Don’t count on styling your hair that day
Not a problem.
- Bring a snack and something to drink
Snack sounds good but the drink sounds dangerous. From what you’ve said, it sounds like I want to avoid having to pee at all costs.
- Remember, you are being watched
Got it. No happy endings.
- People who run sleep clinics are a) in it for the money, and b) stoopid.
Ain’t that always the way? BTW, I’m with you on the esauphageal tube. You want me to sleep with a tube down my throat without a sedative??? Uh-uh. Ain’t gonna happen.
Thanks again for the advice. This sort of thing is why I love the Dope so much.
My insurance has been verified and found to be sucky, but I already knew that. I have a study scheduled for July 1. I’ll let you know how it goes.