I have been on nasal c-pap for many years due to severe sleep apnea. I have 2 questions: 1) Any idea how many lbs. one has to lose before it's necessary to have the setting lowered? 2) If the setting is too high for your current weight, can it cause air to be forced into the esophagus? Toots surgery 1-16-06 down 41 lbs

Hi. The machines just take time to get use to them. Good luck with the surgery. Carol

That is the test for Narcolepsy. But Narcolepsy is not just when you fall down asleep. I have it but have Severe Excessive Daytime Sleepiness. I also have the gene. I fell asleep within 2 minutes when they started the test. I think if you fall asleep before 5 minutes you have a problem.

I had also been scheduled for a split night sleep study when I went for the first time. I don't know how they expect you to sleep at all with all of those wires and stuff hanging off of you. Also, they make you sleep on your back because apparently that's where most people sleep "worst" which I can definitely attest is true. After the study was over at 5am, I got up and almost did a celebratory dance because the tech never put the CPAP on me, and I thought that it meant that either did not have sleep apnea or did not have it enough for the CPAP. When I asked him why I had not been put on the machine, he told me it was because I had shown "signs" of sleep apnea, but that he did not think it was bad enough for the CPAP. Wrong. A week later, as I was pestering the lab and my Dr.'s office for the results, I found out that I would have to return to the hospital for ANOTHER sleep study, this time with the CPAP. I was hoping that it would be the same technician, but it wasn't. I really wanted to give that guy a piece of my mind. Well, the first hour of the test, their fire alarm kept going off. This would have been bad if it were a NOISY fire alarm, but no, it was not so noisy as it was a STROBE light that went off for what seemed like FOREVER. I finally gave up on trying to sleep and grabbed a book to read off the nightstand. The tech came in and asked what was wrong, duh, how dumb do you have to be, can't you see the BRIGHT FLASHING LIGHT?? When that was finally over, I still had trouble sleeping due to the fact that I am not a back sleeper, I prefer my side or my stomach. Also, I did not like the CPAP, the pressure of air going in my nose was forcing my mouth open -- I could not help it. So the technician came in and gave me a chin strap. Fun. When I got up the next morning, I was NOT more refreshed than usual, I don't see how they could expect that to happen. I also found out that my machine was set on a 12 out of a possible 16 in pressure, which means the first tech was a complete moron. Now I am in the process of pestering the sleep lab again about my results, because I am having surgery in two weeks and my surgeon said he required that I be on the CPAP for those two weeks, but when I asked the nurse and explained there was no way for me to get the machine in time for me to be on it for two weeks, she said the ABSOLUTE minimum is 7 nights. I expect to have to do some major yelling over Monday and Tuesday.