Do You Get Used to It?

Those of you who use CPAP machines—do you ever get to where it does­n’t feel strange? Can you talk, at least a few sen­tences, despite the thing?

I think not being able to talk is get­ting to me the most. When Sam and I go to bed, we using slip into sleep still talk­ing to each oth­er. I can’t get words out past the air­flow of this thing, though.

Edit: I don’t have an over-the-nose mask. I have a Tiara Snapp Mask.

The tech called today and walked me through adjust­ing the air­flow down. I’d asked for it, and the doc­tor approved. Even with this C‑Flex thing, that’s sup­posed to back off slight­ly so I can exhale more eas­i­ly, I felt like I was being smoth­ered. Maybe I’ll be able to wear it longer tonight. I’ll cer­tain­ly keep trying!

Accord­ing to the two stud­ies, I don’t get any REM or delta-stage sleep. (Okay, I got about 5 min­utes of REM sleep the sec­ond time I was there.) Those stages are real­ly important. 

The body repairs dam­age (injuries or nor­mal wear-and-tear) dur­ing the delta stage. It’s entire­ly pos­si­ble that get­ting enough GOOD sleep every night will make most of my pain go away! 

Lack of REM sleep leads to depres­sion, for­get­ful­ness, and irri­tabil­i­ty, among oth­er things. If more dreams mean less fibro fog, I’m there!