I was diagnosed with OSA in 2003. Since then I’ve used a CPAP for every single night, no matter what. Perhaps 2-3 nights when the power was out, otherwise 100% compliance.
Got a follow-up sleep study about 4 years ago. No more OSA, just snoring that wasn’t considered severe. And yet I cannot fall asleep without the CPAP. I think i’m completely trained to need the positive air flow.
Anyone have a good idea of how to wean off so I can sleep without having Darth strapped to my head?
CPAPs do seem to be addictive. I’d slowly lower the pressure over a period of months. I’ve been doing that with mine, and so far so good. I don’t know the endgame yet. Although most commercial CPAPS come with pressure preset by the provider, there are online boards that will instruct you in how to enter ‘provider mode’ for many different models. That will let you adjust cm water of pressure. Take it slow. Despite the good sleep study, you may still have time periods where you actually need positive pressure. I seem to hit those every month or so; a few nights of bad breathing. Those are NOT to be taken lightly.
No kidding. Those nights of no power? Brutal.
I’ve used a 12 volt marine battery with a hefty power inverter to get my unit through power failures, but you only get a day or two. CPAP fans pull 40-60 watt continuous. Probably need 3 to 4 batteries for regular use, and deep cycle batteries are heavy as heck, and not cheap.
Marine battery plus inverter helps with power outage, but expensive, heavy, and CPAPs are 40 to 60 watt energy hogs. The newer DC powered models might take better to deep cycle batteries.
As far as weaning yourself off the CPAP I’d be inclined to go cold turkey on a weekend. Eventually you’ll be so sleepy you’ll go to sleep regardless. Regarding battery backup, I use a ResMed Airsense 10 with a power brick that supplies 24 Volts. I found a DC to DC converter (12 to 24 Volt) on Amazon designed to be powered by a marine battery and connect directly to the CPAP. This is more efficient than using a 110 Volt inverter with the power brick. A battery tender keeps the battery charged until needed. The heated humidifier has to be turned off to get 3 or 4 nights usage.
There is a large CPAP forum. Lots of knowledgeable folk.
I’ve tried nights without just to see what happens. I used a snoring monitor app to see if the snoring came back.
It did. With a vengeance.
Good luck and congratulations. Not needing it anymore is an achievement. Giving it up is an even better one.
I don’t think I’ve been on mine for a year yet, but the sleep I’m getting is remarkably better than before - that’s even when I only sleep 4-6 hours a night (I typically require 7.5+).
Why would you want to ween off?
Been using mine for ~9 months. While I sleep better with it, it’s admittedly inconvenient; if I could get a good night’s sleep without it, I would. There’s the cleaning every morning, packing/unpacking it for trips, the extra steps to take it off/put it on quietly (so as to not wake my wife) in the middle of the night for bathroom visits, the careful placement of my head when sleeping on my side (so as to avoid shifting the nose-only mask and causing noisy air leaks), and so on.
Hm, I get that - I haven’t been on any trips yet, otherwise yeah, it’s inconvenient. I guess, ideally, I wouldn’t need one, but since I do I’ve kind of accepted it as part of my life now.