[spidersenses]

Not the parent, but in my case it was the attempt to optimize the process of falling asleep, in any way possible, after years of sleeping problems. There are a lot of articles, books or YT videos compiling tips and tricks. 4-7-8 breathing is another common advice.

After I had been diagnosed with sleep apnea, I received a prescription for an APAP machine (auto-adjusting pressure, in contrast to constant-pressure CPAP). Unfortunately, I still wake up every night after ~3 hours of sleep with a feeling of suffocating and panicking which makes me take off the breathing mask. Therefore I have yet to experience any positive effects from using the APAP machine to treat the apnea.

Any advice from somebody who has gone through the same thing?

[threecheese]

I’m sure it has occurred to you to try CPAP; was it ruled out by your pulmonologist? If the pressure is incorrect enough to wake you up gasping, “it ain’t workin’”. As a CPAP user, being able to access the hidden control menu for my device was key: it allowed me to change the pressure, the ramp, and other runtime configuration that really improved my experience - which improved my compliance and thus my energy level (and that small thing of not being at risk of sleep-death!). You have to press a certain combo of buttons to access, maybe your APAP has something similar?