POLL: How do you feel using your xPAP?

[Captain_Midnight]

I usually skip polls, but this one is pretty good, and is useful for anyone looking into xpap.

I would love to see such a poll correlated with 1. AHI before and after therapy starts; and, 2. length of time since therapy starts, 3. body weight, and 4. type of machine (cpap, apap, etc.) and if apap, whether the pressure range is optimized for best result or if it's just wide open. I strongly suspect that those xpap patients with the lowest AHIs will have the best results, and those APAP patients who have optimized their ranges will have the best results of all.

[Papit]

I use my apap every night for the past three months and still am sleep during the day. When I awake in the morning, if I sit down in my living room chair there is an 80% chance of me going back to sleep (I'm retired). This is even after up to seven hours sleep. My numbers are good, even having a few zero ahi nights. So do I give this more time or should I go back to my doctor for his input?

I was diagnosed with mild sleep apnea with 10.5 hypopneas per hour. I was given a s9 autoset set with a range of 4-15. I've since raised the lower number to six based on my observations using the resmed software.

Anyway, what are some suggestions to do at this point?

I think Julie has the right idea, Blaifarm. I would reset (increase) my EPAP Min by 1 and take data for a few days, then by 2, then by 3 or more and record how AHI goes and how you feel. (You could also reset the machine operating Mode to CPAP, start with EPAP 6 and move it up from there, take data and record how you feel.) If no improvement, go see your doc and take the data with you. He can help you decide whether further adjustment is needed or if a lab retest is needed. Let us know how it goes. Good luck.

[Yub Yub]

I didn't think I had sleep apnea but going into the sleep study found I had an AHI of 90 on my back. I was never in REM sleep either during the study so the docs think my AHI could be worse.

Started treatment 1 month ago. The first week was hell. I didn't even fall asleep with the mask on until about day 5 or 6. The next week I would fall asleep with the mask then wake up and take it off- I was probably averaging 3-4 hours of sleep a night with the cpap. I didn't get my first real good quality sleep until about week 3. I'm averaging 1-3 AHI every night now.

Before treatment I had started to get irregular heart beats (I think called palpitations). A sensation of dropping in my chest. This would occur a few times a day and had been going on for several months. These have all but disappeared. On days where I don't use the cpap they seem to come back.

I also had severe muscle stiffness/pain/cramps/twitching for the last 2 years in addition to the fatigue and feeling of melancholy. My energy levels have yet to rise significantly, I still feel groggy and tired in the morning, but I've seen a reduction in the muscle pain/twitching/cramps. This by itself is worth continuing treatment. I'm hoping in the next few months I continue to improve. My only issue with the cpap so far is that it seems to make me more prone to congestion at night, and when I wake up in the morning I have a huge red ring from the mask on my face that seems to perpetually stay there (this is why I got some of those cotton liners).