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Need help getting beyond stage 1 sleep

I have been diagnosed with moderate sleep apnea and severely delayed REM sleep after undergoing a Sleep study.  I have been trialed on a CPAP machine, despite getting to a drowsy stage I am unable to get into a deeper sleep and I am conscious throughout entire night and this has been told to me that I enter stage 1 sleep during this time. I have used the CPAP machine for 3 months now with no improvement in sleep.  I am 30 years old with a low BMI and am certainly not typical sleep apnea sufferer

I barely function during the day and cant seem to get into quality sleep despite how exhausted I be. I wonder can anyone help?
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Avatar universal
You need to follow-up with sleep medicine to see if your settings need to be changed or if you need to upgrade you to a Bipap..
Helpful - 1
Avatar universal
Hi friend, if your just beginning cpap treatment hand in there.  Depending on apnea events prior to sleep study.  Process will take awhile for your brain to retrain and adjust.  My sleep doctor told me, that when patients begin cpap treatment, brains have to be retrained, because prior to cpap, our brains were trained to be alert, in case of stop breathing event, never going into a deep sleep state.  The longer a person uses cpap, the brain learns to calm down, allowing deep sleep.  The key is reducing apnea events, I went from 33 down to 1 to 2 per night, finding the right mask, stop leaks and adjust pressure.  I visit my sleep clinic every 2 months.  Took approx 6 months to a year.  Also, during the adjustment phase, I took daily naps, really helps.  Now, I sleep super deep 9-10 hrs per night, have super long dreams, feel alive upon waking.  So don't give up hope friend.  
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1 Comments
Thanks for encouragement AJWS6
Avatar universal
Hi, just to clarify, stage 1 sleep is drowsiness.  It is not normally considered true sleep.

Let me ask when you lie in bed "conscious" the whole night, are you mostly lying with eyes closed in a relaxed state?

If so, there's a very good chance, in fact highly likely, that you are in fact sleeping a significant amount and are not aware of it.  This is very common, and known as "sleep state misperception".

I realize you aren't experiencing good sleep, but getting a handle on your true sleep experience and the reality of human performance and sleep is one of the keys in my opinion to making this better.

Have you checked into CBT sleep training methods for adults?
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