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Two good nights of sleep in a row...
Feb. 20th, 2015 07:40 pm... and all I had to do was stop using the blasted CPAP! This is annoying as blazes.
But I have learned some things.
If I use the ramp-up feature - where it slowly builds up the air flow - it's significantly harder to breathe than without it on at all. This strikes me as incorrect. The whole point of the damn thing is to help me breathe during my sleep - what kind of crappy design would it be if I had to start having a *harder* time breathing unassisted?
But this doesn't seem to be my imagination. If I turn off the ramp-up, I feel I can breathe normally.
I definitely need to learn a different sleep position, looking up slightly, or at least straight ahead. "Looking up?" you ask. Yes, I have a tendency to curl up a bit for sleep - which means my head is positioned as if I'm looking down. But this tends to make it easier for air to flow into the mouth and esophagus - bloating from swallowed air is a common complaint. So I need to try to tilt my head as if I was looking up a bit. Those of you who learned first aid "old school" might remember this as part of rescue breathing - tilt the head back, lift the chin/jut the jaw.
I've had two, good nights of restful restorative sleep, mostly by guarding against congestion, and using tricks to stay off my back. (I was using a waist pouch stuffed with socks. Not the best option, because it's big enough that I usually wake up when I want to switch sides. Then again, when I do switch sides, I go right back to sleep.
But a few nights when I used the CPAP successfully, I noticed something.
My left shoulder stopped hurting - I was spending far too much time on that side, because it is the easiest for breathing. (My deviated septum is on the left - and the lower side of your nose tends to be more congested because of blood pooling due to gravity. So my 'good' nasal passage is most open.) And the hideous, horrible, dear-lord-can-dry-eyes-damage-your-sight? dry eyes have been healing.
So: the CPAP is doing something. Of course, the other thing it's been doing is making it take longer for me to fall asleep, and making me wake up 5-7 times during the night!
So I have to admit, I'm torn between continuing to experiment with it, or returning it and saying "let's try this again *after* I prove that other interventions are insufficient".
Because the way they normally do it is, you rent it for N months - with my insurance, it's 3 - and then it becomes a purchase. Well, I'm halfway through that, and I simply can't experiment with it on a work night - I've had too many crappy work days because of short sleep due to the CPAP already. And I find myself turning away from using it on weekends because, damn it, I deserve a good weekend!
So it might be best to find out if we can reset the clock, while I try avoiding sleeping on my back, or using the wedge pillow, or tilting my bed (or getting an adjustable one), etc..
That'll have to wait until Monday - it's been a very busy week, so I didn't write this up for my sleep doc this week.
But I have learned some things.
If I use the ramp-up feature - where it slowly builds up the air flow - it's significantly harder to breathe than without it on at all. This strikes me as incorrect. The whole point of the damn thing is to help me breathe during my sleep - what kind of crappy design would it be if I had to start having a *harder* time breathing unassisted?
But this doesn't seem to be my imagination. If I turn off the ramp-up, I feel I can breathe normally.
I definitely need to learn a different sleep position, looking up slightly, or at least straight ahead. "Looking up?" you ask. Yes, I have a tendency to curl up a bit for sleep - which means my head is positioned as if I'm looking down. But this tends to make it easier for air to flow into the mouth and esophagus - bloating from swallowed air is a common complaint. So I need to try to tilt my head as if I was looking up a bit. Those of you who learned first aid "old school" might remember this as part of rescue breathing - tilt the head back, lift the chin/jut the jaw.
I've had two, good nights of restful restorative sleep, mostly by guarding against congestion, and using tricks to stay off my back. (I was using a waist pouch stuffed with socks. Not the best option, because it's big enough that I usually wake up when I want to switch sides. Then again, when I do switch sides, I go right back to sleep.
But a few nights when I used the CPAP successfully, I noticed something.
My left shoulder stopped hurting - I was spending far too much time on that side, because it is the easiest for breathing. (My deviated septum is on the left - and the lower side of your nose tends to be more congested because of blood pooling due to gravity. So my 'good' nasal passage is most open.) And the hideous, horrible, dear-lord-can-dry-eyes-damage-your-sight? dry eyes have been healing.
So: the CPAP is doing something. Of course, the other thing it's been doing is making it take longer for me to fall asleep, and making me wake up 5-7 times during the night!
So I have to admit, I'm torn between continuing to experiment with it, or returning it and saying "let's try this again *after* I prove that other interventions are insufficient".
Because the way they normally do it is, you rent it for N months - with my insurance, it's 3 - and then it becomes a purchase. Well, I'm halfway through that, and I simply can't experiment with it on a work night - I've had too many crappy work days because of short sleep due to the CPAP already. And I find myself turning away from using it on weekends because, damn it, I deserve a good weekend!
So it might be best to find out if we can reset the clock, while I try avoiding sleeping on my back, or using the wedge pillow, or tilting my bed (or getting an adjustable one), etc..
That'll have to wait until Monday - it's been a very busy week, so I didn't write this up for my sleep doc this week.
