Throwing in the towel?

[mapsedge]

I had high hopes for the CPAP  machine, but I'm sleeping worse with it than without it. The constant physical nagging of the mask, for want of a better metaphor, is waking me two and three times a night. That's right on a par with how I sleep without the thing, so there's not a whole lot of benefit there.

I tried the nasal "pillows", and found two problems. My mouth would drop open, waking me, and condensation would build up inside the silicon form and either run down my face or, worse, get snorted up into my sinuses causing burning and irritation. 

I tried the nose-to-chin mask. My face must be built oddly because the mask would cut in just below my cheekbones and cause soreness after a while. In the middle of the night the mask would begin to slip, and the leaking air would wake me.

I made a cotton/lycra chin strap to hold my mouth shut and went back to the nasal pillows. The strap worked, but I'd forgotten about the condensation: I got a snoot-full sometime around 3:00am, so off it came. For some reason, also, my nose feels like I've been punched, hard. Must've been the way the thing was sitting overnight, I don't know.

Here's what I do know: I'm grumpy as hell this morning because I slept badly.

There's going to be a CPAP machine for sale soon, if anybody wants one.