CPAP Diary

[alexxkay]

Day 39: 9 hours, all masked.

---

Day 40: 10.5 hours sleep, all masked, alarm-terminated. I guess the less-than-average amounts I was getting last week were just accumulating sleep debt, not indicative of any significant reduction in need.

As I get more used to the mask, I am able to toss and turn more without fully waking up. But that just makes the darn thing leak more.

---

Day 41: Very tossturny night. Gave up on the mask after 3.5 hours. Total sleep 10 hours, alarm-terminated.

---

Day 42: Stayed up later than I should, so only 9 hours sleep, alarm-terminated. 8 with mask.

---

Day 43: Another very tossturny night. Any time I shift with this new mask, leaks open up. Gave up with it after 4 hours. Total sleep was about 9.5, alarm-terminated.

---

Day 44: 10 hours sleep, alarm-terminated, all but the last half hour masked.

Adjusted mask early on, which reduced leaks on the upper side. But my teeth hurt again this morning. Possibly freerangesnark's theoryabout the sinus connection is bearing out.

---

Day 45: Another tossturn night, so only 4.5 hours masked. 10 total, *not* alarm-terminated for once, yay!

Comments

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Was this the first week with the replacement mask, or have I lost track?

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

The new mask started on day 35.

Leakage

[metageek.livejournal.com]

As I understand it, CPAPs are designed to leak. They're blowing air in your face at Constant Pressure; since you're not inhaling constantly, that air has to leak out while you're exhaling. There are more complex BiPAP systems that lower the pressure while you exhale, but I imagine they're more expensive (especially if most people can use CPAP, meaning the market is smaller for BiPAP).

Me, I finally had to give up on preventing leakage altogether, and just learned to live with it.

Re: Leakage

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

Well, it has an outlet that the air is clearly supposed to escape through. I'm pretty sure that that's the only *intended* outlet. On the other hand, the only way I can see that ever working is if I actually lay still on my back all night, and *that's* never gonna happen.

I could live with the leakage, but it makes me worry that the leaks make the Pressure *not* Constant. That is, when there is heavy leakage, the effective pressure on my lungs goes down, and the machine is no longer doing me any good. I think I shall have to talk to a doctor-type about this sometime soon...

Re: Leakage

[metageek.livejournal.com]

Well, it has an outlet that the air is clearly supposed to escape through.

Ah, right. Mine does have one of those—but, yeah, not much air escapes that way.