Hi, I am new to all this and just started on my auto cpap (resmed vantage) last week. I am have several problems. First is that I am falling asleep okay while the machine is in setting? mode but wake up about 45 minutes to a hour later gasping and feeling like I can not catch my breath. I then have a very difficult time going back to sleep. I end up using the machine for about four hours or so, and then taking it off to sleep the rest of the night. I also feel tired during the day now, something I did not have before. My husband is not very supportive with this, he thinks its all just a waste and it is more important to get a full night's sleep and says to just stop using the machine. But I do not want to give up. Second: I am on a weight loss program, and have been somewhat successful with it. I have lost 20 plus pounds so far, and some of this weight loss has been since the sleep study. Could this be a factor is things? Also, I did not sleep much during the studies, I am on a different schedule than what the center did for the study, and I found it impossible to fall asleep 5 hours sooner than my normal time. Any suggestion/ideas are very much appreciated!

Keep at it. It will get better. Four hours of oxygenated sleep is better than nothing. I went through something similar, actually feeling worse once I started CPAP than without the machine. But it does get better. Try blowing all your air out and then putting on the mask so that when that first blast of air hits you are ready to just take it in. It was an act of will, a deliberate forcing myself to just breathe, but it worked. Give it 4-6 mos and you'll see a big improvement. The first few weeks my mask was thrown in the closet far more than it was on my face. I tried 4 different masks until I finally persuaded them to give me nasal pillows. So much better! I hope you'll just keep trying.

Please keep trying and don't let anyone (even the husband) talk you into stopping. If you have sleep apnea, you don't really get a "full night's sleep." I was complaining so much about trying to find a mask that works that my husband asked if it was that much trouble, why not just forget it. Nope, not gonna do that!

Even if you've lost weight, the only way to know if you don't have OSA anymore is to do another sleep study. Losing weight helps, but it doesn't always eliminate it. Do you know the results of your sleep study, how bad your apnea is?

Hang in there--it gets better!

Jean

I am one of the lucky ones for whom the CPAP was love at first sight (second only to my lovely wife). The three of us have been sleeping wonderfully together for something over 9000 hours (four years).

A couple things occur to me in response to what you say.

This makes me suspect that the pressure is not set correctly for your needs. Can you increase pressure on your machine? If not you might want to have it adjusted.

You probably don't want to get a new husband just yet, right? Ask him if he is anxious to get a new wife -- because the effects of sleep apnea can be SEVERE. Before mine was properly controlled it produced hypertension and atrial fibrillation. Those are now controlled also (with medication) but it sure would have been better to have prevented the conditions.

When the machine is properly adjusted you should be able to be comfortable sleeping with it all night (and naps too).

Hi to everyone, and thank you for your help. I appreciate all the advice and I am still trying to work out using the machine. I seem to go one good night, one bad night now so that is a start. I also had my husband (of 29 years by the way :-)) try the machine so he feels what I am going through a bit. I think he is just looking at this from a bit of a different prospective since he and I have been through a lot in the past ten years ( I'm a cancer survivor among other things) I was told I had moderate apnea. I am wondering if the top pressure for my machine ( a resmed vantage adjustable cpap) is a bit too high since the gasping episodes only happen every couple of nights? It may be when I have a complete apnea event? I read on the resmed site that sometimes people wake up from an episode even with the machine. I am also having a bit of sesional allergeries right now, maybe this is adding the all the struggle? Well, I will keep trying and hoping. I am also using a cd player and sleep/music cd to fall asleep and relax with the machine and it helps a lot. Thanks again!