Hi everyone,
For several years i had frequent headaches that would occur randomly all day long. I constantly felt foggy and i noticed over the years it felt like i was slowly watching my wit and personality drift away. I also had spotty moments of bad sleep where i would either wake up several times to pee or just wake up at 3am and struggle to fall back asleep hours later. However i was able to manage most of these symptoms because i was self employed and could always wake up later in the day. I never realized how big of a problem this was getting till i started working a more analytical/cerebral 8-5pm job. Then i started noticing the fogginess and headaches were really affecting my work, friendships and overall health. I could sleep all night from 11pm - 6:30am no problem, i just always woke up not feeling refreshed.

Sadly my insurance deductible is over $6000 and so using that to seek treatment wasn't an option. Luckily a doctor in the family (who's had sleep apnea for 15yrs) suggested i go for a CAT scan and a $270 in-home sleep study. I did both, CAT scan was clean, in home sleep study at a local sleep center came back with a report saying i had mild sleep apnea. My AHI was 12.5. However the dr at the sleep center said the last thing i wanted was a cpap and that all they carry are his proprietary $1500 mouth pieces. I opted out and reverted back to my family member who suggested i get an auto cpap.

The past 2 weeks, I spent countless hours, literally ignoring my family (when i'm home) researching cpap machines on this site and a host of other similar forums. I've binged on almost all of the lankylefty's youtube videos in the past week alone eager to figure all this out.

On Nov 18th, I picked up a Philip Respironics Dream station auto cpap with 2 masks - Philip dreamwear and F&P Simplus. All were sold to me by someone off craigslist brand new for $300. My in-home sleep study report had no pressure recommendations since they were bent on selling me an overpriced mouthpiece. So my family dr recommended i start anywhere from 4-10cm2 and see how it goes. I woke up after my first night after using the FFM feeling the BEST i ever had in ages. And thats where my journey starts going downhill.

It feels like i've been chasing that 1st high ever since. The next night was horrible, leaks all over. I'm a light sleeper and once any of this happens...I'm wide awake at 3:30am wondering how i'll be able to focus at work. I sleep on my belly and so the dreamwear was a nightmare for me also because somehow it would end up off my face or spraying air into my face. Plus i would wake up gassy and bloated with it. I tried using the ramp, then not using the ramp as per lankyleftys advice. I bought a heated tube, bought a nasal mask (swift fx nano)...all hoping would solve my dilemma of not sleeping through the night without waking up halfway through.

But nothings worked. After 2 weeks of ignoring my FFM, i picked it up again 2 days ago. I remember watching lankylefty mention that you should lay on your pillow THEN adjust your mask to fix leaks. I did that....and once again had sleep almost as good as the 1st day. Still felt drowsy but slept the whole night for the 1st time in almost 2 weeks. Sadly last night, even though i fixed all my leaks, i still woke up at 3am frustrated by some air blowing in my face. Today was my worst day of work thus far. I'm running on fumes. Couldn't even make it in to work today. Need some help before i give up on this whole thing. I think i've only sleep through the night twice since the 16th and i'm starting to break down.

My current machine settings (for the past week) are a min pressure of 7.5, max of 20. My 90% pressure varies from 8.5-10. My humidification is set to 1. Since i started cpap therapy, the highest my AHI has been was 5.5. Lowest 1.1. Yet i'm not sure why my sleep keeps getting interrupted. I know, these numbers are from dreammapper. I have installed sleepyhead, but i'm having screen resolution issues with it and cant read anything on the display (text come out way too tiny and graph sizes are a mess). I don't think the software is made to work with high res displays and graphic cards. If you guys need more info from sleepyhead to help out, i'm willing to find a system to install it on and try to get some reading for you. I just need to sleep through the night so i don't have to quit my job and i can go back to being the regular me around my family. The good news is that since i started therapy today was the only day i've had headaches. Probably because i'm going off 3 hrs of sleep.

FYI i'm 37, 6"2, 215lbs.
Thanks in advance.

So...some questions to start with to help get an idea what might be going on and rule out some stuff.

How many times do you think you wake up during the night and go back to sleep before the final wake up at 3 AM when you can't get back to sleep?
Any idea why the wake ups?
How many hours of using the machine and approx sleep are you averaging?
Do you take any medications of any kind and if so what?

Thanks for the reply.
I only wake up once and that's it (between 3 - 4:30am), cant go back to sleep till atleast 6am. Typically the only way i go back to sleep is if i listen to an audiobook or wear myself out reading a book or articles on my phone. Eventually i'll pass out sleeping on my back.

I go to sleep typically between 11:30pm and 12am. And so i am averaging 3-4 hrs of machine use before the 1st wakeup. Then another 1hr or so later on before 6am if I'm lucky. I get more sleep on the weekends.

With the nasal mask, i would wake up because i noticed the mask fell off or was blowing air in my face. With the FFM, i woke up last night because i believe i had a nose itch or needed to cough and somehow my sleep go interrupted.
Only meds i was on prior to starting therapy was Vitamin D and Fish oils. I stopped since i started the therapy. I couldn't cope with the lack of sleep and since Sunday, i've been taking a slow release Melatonin pill (10mg) 25mins before i sleep.
I've added my sleepyhead charts below. Hope that helps.

I hope i figured out how to use sleepyhead. Here are my last 4 reports:

Until you can get more than 3 or 4 hours of sleep you don't stand much chance of feeling very good during the day. The body simply needs more hours of sleep.

Sleep maintenance insomnia is a nasty little monster. Believe me I know him all too well myself but I know why he makes an appearance at my house.

Do you have any issues with pain...other health issue that might impact sleep....bed comfort???
Sounds like mask and leak issues are a factor and unfortunately those are things that we have to sort through and why finding the right mask is such an important part of all this process.

No meds, so we can't blame the feeling crappy or poor sleep being on meds.

Is this sleep pattern something you had prior to cpap therapy...the wake up and the 3 to 4 hours or is this new to cpap therapy?

Google "sleep maintenance insomnia" and its causes and look to see if there is anything in the very long list that might be a factor in your situation.

Your reports look pretty good. Some nights with not much pressure variation and some nights with some variation. I suspect either related to being on your back or during REM sleep when its common for our OSA to be worse or need more pressure.
Also google "sleep hygiene" and look at good vs bad and see if there is anything you are guilty of in the bad category that might also be a factor.