Still Can’t Sleep

[PhyllisK]

I am a 72 year old female, widowed, and have been on CPAP for several years. I stopped sleeping well about 20 years ago when my doctor took me off hormones. Had several sleep studies and finally took it all seriously when  my sleep doctor at the time told me I have probably lost brain cells because my oxygen would go down to as low as 63 on some occasions. I expected my sleep to improve with the CPAP but it has not.  I had heard several people say that they have never slept so well when they started on treatment. Unfortunately, that was not the case with me. Some nights I would only get two hours. I changed sleep doctors and I am now on temazepam and they have helped but not all that well. I had several consultations with a sleep interventionist. She had very good intentions and wanted me to sleep better but I felt so pressured that it was not helpful at all. 

 I’m wondering if others in this forum have experienced this. Like I told my doctor, the CPAP is not helping me sleep, but it’s keeping me alive. The hoses and paraphernalia are not to blame. They do not bother me. 

I am considering the Inspire. I want to start traveling and don’t want to have to drag the CPAP around. Even though the hose is not an issue, if all I’m looking for is to stay healthy and I can get by with limited sleep, I might as well make life easier. My insurance does cover all but $350 and I am willing to risk that.  Thoughts, please. Thank you.

[OpalRose]

Hi PhyllisK,
Welcome to Apnea Board!

Can you tell us which AirSense you use?  
There are a few:  AirSense 10 Elite, AirSense 10 AutoSet and AirSense 10 Cpap.

Sorry to hear your sleep quality isn't so great... it could be almost anything causing this.
What we would like to see is some data from your machine.  I assume you have an SD card in it.

Download the free OSCAR software, then use the links below in my signature line to guide you in organizing a Screenshot from the daily page in OSCAR.  

Once you've done that, use the Attachment Feature at the bottom of your post and post a Screenshot of the graph as shown in the directions.

There may be something we'll spot and advise on to help you be more comfortable.

[Gideon]

Phyllis, welcome to the apnea board.
Here we are very data-driven so please download OSCAR (https://www.sleepfiles.com/OSCAR/) and use F12 to take a screenshot. You will need an SD card, any brand, any size not bigger than 32GB, and post the screenshot.
Let us see what is going on and help you.

[Big Guy]

I am a 72 year old female, widowed, and have been on CPAP for several years. I stopped sleeping well about 20 years ago when my doctor took me off hormones. Had several sleep studies and finally took it all seriously when  my sleep doctor at the time told me I have probably lost brain cells because my oxygen would go down to as low as 63 on some occasions. I expected my sleep to improve with the CPAP but it has not.  I had heard several people say that they have never slept so well when they started on treatment. Unfortunately, that was not the case with me. Some nights I would only get two hours. I changed sleep doctors and I am now on temazepam and they have helped but not all that well. I had several consultations with a sleep interventionist. She had very good intentions and wanted me to sleep better but I felt so pressured that it was not helpful at all. 

 I’m wondering if others in this forum have experienced this. Like I told my doctor, the CPAP is not helping me sleep, but it’s keeping me alive. The hoses and paraphernalia are not to blame. They do not bother me. 

I am considering the Inspire. I want to start traveling and don’t want to have to drag the CPAP around. Even though the hose is not an issue, if all I’m looking for is to stay healthy and I can get by with limited sleep, I might as well make life easier. My insurance does cover all but $350 and I am willing to risk that.  Thoughts, please. Thank you.

I'm more-or-less in the same boat, so to speak. I've been on CPAP now for almost three years. From the very 1st night of use, I have done fine, sleep wise and getting my hours in. 

My compliance is slowly but surely slipping away. I'm now down to about 4-6 hours per night. My AHI #s are very good, always well below 5, if not 3. 

But......I'm just not feeling it. My sleep doc knows this, but tells me to keep at it. Yeah okay, but for how long? Another two years or so? 

I turn 67 in late October. I do take a late morning nap (30-45 min.) and that helps immensely. It gets me thru the rest of the day. My sleep doc is aware of this as well, and has given me the thumbs up. 

I'm not ready to give up on CPAP as of yet, but if things don't begin to get better, no way I'll continue it for many more years. As I've stated in prior posts, I don't see myself doing this for the rest of my life. I sleep as well w/o CPAP as I do with it. It makes no difference at the end of the day.