CPAP- wearing Dopers, come on down !

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Saw a story about couples who are moving into separate bedrooms the other day. Many were connected to one ( or both, I suppose ) partner having sleep apnea or at least sleep issues.

I have used a CPAP machine since about 2003. I sleep well with it, and cuddle best as we can with the mask in place.

Anyone making the big move to another bedroom because of use of a CPAP machine? How’s that going, if you’ve already been living that life?

There are auto-titrating CPAP machines now. Anyone using them? I’m eager to get one, it would eliminate the pressure ( heh ) from my ENT to do periodic sleep studies to allow for adjustments of the CPAP pressure / volume via the Smart Card.

Oh- and does your machine have a nickname? Mine is called Darth. :smiley:

2

There may be regional preferences, or even preferences influenced by insurance companies, but the trend seems to be moving toward setting up someone with an auto set machine and letting the machine manage things.

Mine was set for a range of 4-12, and a typical night for me averaged out to around 8.

3

We slept in the same bed for about 8 years; then his snoring got so loud that, even wearing ear plugs, I couldn’t sleep through it. We had been sleeping in separate beds since then (18 years). Finally he got a CPAP machine a few months ago and now we can sleep in the same bed.

And yeah, it did take me 18 years to convince him to get a sleep study. He’s a stubborn old coot, but I knew that when I married him .:stuck_out_tongue:

4

CPAP wearer here, no partner, nothing to see here, move along.

5

We started sleeping in separate rooms when I was still snoring my head off. Getting a CPAP did not change that. I am a very restless sleeper anyway, so I guess I am difficult to share a bed with.

6

Still sleeping in the same bed. My wife’s problem with the CPAP was that she was so used to me snoring that she couldn’t sleep without it! After a brief period of adjustment though, we do fine, cuddle as much as possible, and I don’t put on The Mask until I am certain there isn’t likely to be any Good Times had.

7

This is as good a place as any to rant about two glaringly bad design flaws in my CPAP.

First is that when I hit the power button to turn it off or on, a screen lights up - very brightly - and stays on for ten or twenty seconds. Another light in the water chamber also comes on. This cannot be disabled. For a product designed to be used WHILE SLEEPING, this seems incredibly idiotic. I often don’t start it up until after my wife has fallen asleep. I’ve taken to leaving my phone on top of the screen, which only helps somewhat.

Secondly, there’s an air vent thing in the mask itself, which constantly blows a stream of air out. STRAIGHT out. Again, it’s like they never even considered the possibility of someone using this with another person in bed with them. It means I can’t sleep on my left side, facing my wife, or she gets a blast of wind in her face or back. I’m not clear on why the air vent is needed at all, but assuming it is, it could easily have been designed to angle down towards my feet, which would have helped immensely.

8

I wished mine had a hose that blows straight out, instead it blows in my face. So every time it kicks up from 4 to 11 I get blasted in the face and eyes with air and wake back up.
I don’t sleep at the same time as my husband so it’s made no difference there.

9

I’ve been using a CPAP since the '90s. But I don’t understand what the topic is here.

10

I drape a small towel over it to block the light.

11

First of all, my CPAP machine has no display screen but the lighting behind the buttons is created using blue l.e.d.'s. As it turns out they are exactly the wrong device to use for people with sleep disorders. Manufacturers don’t care about this. There is a thick black material commonly used in theater and film and television called Duvateen. My wife also works in the business and suggested taping a small panel of it over the three buttons that are on the surface of my CPAP machine. It cuts the intense blue light down to a low level but still discernable glow.

The backflow air venting is pretty vexing but kind of essential. The “Positive Air Pressure” part of CPAP is provided by the blower but since our lungs are a closed system, that extra pressure must vent back out into our mask ( I don’t use the nasal pillow, can’t, so I’ve no clue how the backpressure is vented on them. I’d guess it’s identical in nature ).

I tend to fall asleep facing away from my Dearly Beloved™. Having said that, due to a broken back I cannot sleep on my back so when I turn I do a 180º turn to face her. I tend to take the air hose and pivot it up above my head so as it departs the mask, the hosing tucks up and around my head pillow. This does two things. It eliminates the chance that as I turn, the hose will pull the mask away as it gets entangled in my torso, and it directs the backflow up above and past her face. I can cuddle in pretty close without having her be blown away ( by anything more than my mere presence. :smiley: )

12

I started using my CPAP nine years ago. I was married then. I’m divorced now. I don’t think it’s related… Tangential question: I have been using the same machine for the entire nine years. It seems to work fine. Have there been technological advances that might make it worth while to look at a new unit? I have not seen my ENT who diagnosed my sleep apnea since a six-month follow up after I originally got the machine.

13

Yeah- the new auto-titrating CPAP machines.

That’s new and a game-changer.

14

Fascinating. I’m not ready for a new machine yet but when I am I’ll check those out.

My machine has a heated tube that nearly eliminates condensation forming. I like that feature. My first machine didn’t have that and the water collecting in the tube was very annoying.

15

Mine has a small ‘diffuser’ over the vent–a little plastic clip that holds down a patch of filter wool-type stuff over it. Still allows airflow out, stops that jet-stream feeling.

16

Do not want the auto PAP.

I hate ramp up.

I want my setting of 15 right now.

I use a double length hose.

Was 100% every night user from day/night one. Did not bother me in the least.

I have a full untrimmed beard, so with the nose only set up which I like I have some leakage so the 15 setting.

With no leakage, 13 will do, I am big guy with larger than normal, for my size, lungs. Most XRAY machines can’t get them all in one shot.

Never any condensation problems, run a 4 heat setting in the winter with a very cool bedroom and 1-3 in the summer to provide moisture depending on A/C & stuff & such…

Cool & dry CPAP = massive and all most continuous sneezing all day. OUCH!!! Have to keep sticking what brains I have left back inside about 100 times a day. Gimme wet air to breathe at night.

If I feel even the slightest pulling or sucking in my breathing, I need more pressure.

I would sleep like a baby if I could fix my bladder… ::: grump :::: :smiley:

Breathing is where it is at… :cool:

17

SWMBO says she feels like she sleeps with Darth Vader these days. :smiley:

But both of us are sleeping much better because of the CPAP machine.

18

The wife and I were never really cuddlers in bed. Maybe when we first started dating but usually only for 10-15 minutes and then we’d roll over and go to sleep.

I’ve been using CPAP for about 5 years now. Until recently I used a nasal pillow mask that vented the air straight out. My wife hated this as anytime she turned towards me, she got a blast of cold air in her face. I recently changed masks and through whatever gee-whiz technology magic this mask completely diffuses the exhaust air from the nasal pillow and I no longer blast her in the face when we end up turned towards each other in bed.

We still don’t cuddle though.

MeanJoe

19

Mine’s Darth as well (hubby Typo Knig’s is Ella of course; I got Darth before he got Ella). Or, we call 'em Babar and Celeste.

In our case, his getting a CPAP prevented the need for separate bedrooms :D. I had enough other issues with being able to get restful sleep (not his fault), adding the snoring to the mixture was just the last straw. A bit of nagging was required.

He actually later lost a bunch of weight, was re-tested, but he felt the results weren’t accurate - so he did a home sleep study. That also said he didn’t need it any more - but he felt better with it so is still using it!!

I have an APAP (auto-titrating CPAP) because the titration study was so flawed I didn’t trust the numbers, and I insisted on the auto-CPAP. When my husband got his a few months later, they said they didn’t love auto CPAPs for many uses so he got a regular one with expiratory relief or something. As it turns out, I’m averaging pretty close to what they found in the titration study.

GusnSpot: auto-CPAP doesn’t mean you don’t get your 15, it just means that they set up a range of, say, 13-17 and the machine decides what setting you need based on readings of apneas. Yes, you’d just get the 13 initially, then if that wasn’t keeping your airways open it would increase it until it detected that you were OK.

I’ve been using the Swift FX for most of 5 years with brief attempts to try others: , which was neat except it wraps over the end of the nose and that wound up annoying me. Plus, the single-strap headgear option was a bit too snug. I also tried the [URL=“http://www.cpap.com/productpage/fisher-paykel-opus-360-HC482A-CPAP-Mask.html”]Opus which my husband has used for years; I had to constantly tug the hose down to make the pillows the right angle - I guess my nostrils must be unusually horizontal! Most recently the AeroFit which is incredibly lightweight, but the pillow “prongs” are hard to get seated correctly and are a tad irritating.

Mask vents are an annoyance. One of the reasons I tried switching away from the Swift is that if I’m lying on my side, the thing blows right at my arm and is quite annoying. The AeroFit solves that problem (the other two I tried didn’t seem to have the same problem) by diffusing the air better or something. I think I’ll contact the manufacturer and suggest they redesign the Swift to use the same light hose and diffuser design as the AeroFit.

Smeghead, what machine and model do you have? Mine (Respironics REMStar) has a setting where I can turn off the humidifier light; there’s no light in the humidifier chamber. Maybe taping paper over the annoying bits would be helpful? One annoyance with mine is that somehow the humidifier setting keeps lowering itself to zero. The single-button control must do that when I’m smacking it to turn the machine on or off - I guess it rotates just a bit and that’s a “helpful” default setting. Or something.

20

MeanJoe can you share a link for your gee-whiz mask?