Is it normal to get pulsing headaches and sleepiness during the day while using a cpap?
March 15th, 2013
I’m 14 and my dad is forcing me to use this cpap machine for people who have sleep apnea, which according to my doctor I don’t have, and he thinks it’ll give me more the full amount of oxygen that apparently I’m not getting according to him. About a year ago I did a sleep study in the eighth grade to find out if I had trouble breathing at night or if I was able to fall into deep sleep. The test results showed that my oxygen levels were fine and that I could sleep properly for most of the night, but that I only deeply slept for like 5 or 6 hours. Then of course my dad automatically assumed there was something terribly wrong or they didn’t test my oxygen correctly or something so he took the small evidence of not being able to sleep deeply the whole night and used it as his reasoning to force the cpap onto me. However, I know why I didn’t sleep deeply the whole night and I told my mom this because she’s a bit more logical than my dad and thank God she is, but she really can’t reason with my dad anymore than I can most of the time. What happened was that as I climbed into the bed I made the terrible mistake of accepting some apple juice because my mom told them I was a bit thirsty and then not using the bathroom afterwards, but that’s probably not the worst decision between this one and my next horrible one. After that I thought I would be good to go so I regretfully declined their offer of an extra blanket to keep me warm because at the time I didn’t know how dreadfully cold it would soon become during the night. I ended up not falling asleep until what I think was two hours I had to wait through and I had to use the bathroom so badly before I pissed my pants, but I knew it was too late to get out of that icy cold bed and so I tried so hard for such a long time to hold it in long enough for my body to fall asleep and I honestly don’t remember sleeping like at all that night because I think I woke up quite a few times with the strongest urge to prevent a urinary tract infection and just let it out. When I woke up and got unhooked from everything I ran out of that bed and dived for the nearest toilet ’cause I was about to explode. Ok I know it’s pretty disgusting, but I’m almost done so just bear with me. As I did my thing it was both a feeling of relief and extreme pain because I could feel my bowels slowly retract from their swollen state of torture. So yeah I’m done with my embarrassing story of how I almost pissed myself because I was too confident it wouldn’t get much colder. After all that I told my mom and then told my dad when I got home, but he didn’t really seem to listen to me that much as usual and just did what he usually does by trying to find a way in defending his idea that I have a bunch of health problems by just going with the data that showed I didn’t sleep as much as I should have even though it was because it was like a freezer there and I needed to take a piss the whole night… So then like a year later after all that my dad still found a way to make me use a cpap even though the doctor didn’t think it was necessary to prescribe one to me ’cause I also told her my story kind of and she said that I probably would have slept better and that I should’ve taken the extra blanket. Anyways my dad got me an un-prescribed cpap that’s now giving me headaches and made made me really sleepy at school today. I actually have a bit of a headache coming on now so I’ll try and wrap it up. Is this normal for the first few days of using a cpap? Oh and btw I find it extremely hard to breath out when I’m using it, but apparently there’s no way to adjust the flow and I feel like I’m not fully breathing out the co2 at all 🙁 Please help me if you can and thanks for taking the time to actually read and/or answer my question. I really appreciate it ’cause these headaches give me hell and my dad doesn’t listen..
Today’s CPAP machine is adjustable only by your doctor or machine suppliers. it is a programmable chip. the pressure level is prescribed by your doctor.
CPAP machine tries to keep the breathing passage free of blockage during sleep since most of the sleep apnea patients’ fatty tongues fall back into their throat and block the breathing passage.
according to your description, it appears you do not have sleep apnea, then you do not need a CPAP machine. your headache likely was caused by the use of the machine. the machine made you hard to breathe and you did not sleep well that night. i think you should be fine if you stop using the machine.
it is hard to believe a 14 year old boy has obstructive sleep apnea. however if you were diagnosed with central sleep apnea. then you will need the machine. if you do not feel comfortable with the CPAP machine, try a biPAP machine. but it shall be prescribed by a doctor. it is expensive and insurance shall cover the cost.
March 15th, 2013 at 11:50 am
The situation is complicated and there are many possibilities.
New users of CPAP sometimes report headaches but they also observe that the headaches may be caused by the sleeping position or keeping headgear too tight.
There is some possible buildup of CO2 but current devices generally have venting holes to help with exhaust.
I am surprised by your statement that the CPAP is not adjustable for pressure. They generally are, but many can be adjusted by a medical practitioner (I found out how to adjust my friend’s by going on the clinician area of the manufacturers site).
A CPAP by itself does not provide oxygen; it helps maintain blood oxygen by correcting interrupted breathing that sleep apnea produces. And it had little to do with the number of hours that someone sleeps, but rather the effectiveness of that sleep re breathing.
You can find much helpful information on the internet.
Hope this helps and good luck!
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