CPAP pressure and airflow timing

[Krelvin]

I have updated my signature with the information I could collect. Unfortunately I can't seem to find more detailed information.

Assuming you have the correct Ref number in your signature, the forum description for your machine is:

PR System One REMStar 60 Series Auto CPAP Machine

Ref:
https://sleep.tnet.com/cmd/unit?id=32

[Nardella]

Wow you guys are great! Thanks, sleep well!

[Nardella]

Okay did some expirementing. With aflex off it is almost perfect, the only problem is the pressure is too high when exhaling.

With aflex on the pressure when exhaling is low enough. When inhaling sometimes the pressure drops unexpectedly and when exhaling the pressure increases unexpectedly usually for a brief moment.

None of these settings allow me to let my breathing become automatic making sleep impossible.

[kaiasgram]

Okay did some expirementing. With aflex off it is almost perfect, the only problem is the pressure is too high when exhaling.

With aflex on the pressure when exhaling is low enough. When inhaling sometimes the pressure drops unexpectedly and when exhaling the pressure increases unexpectedly usually for a brief moment.

None of these settings allow me to let my breathing become automatic making sleep impossible.

While you were experimenting, were you watching the pressure on the machine's display screen?

[Nardella]

No I was not, should I?

[ChicagoGranny]

No I was not, should I?

No, you need to get your mind totally off breathing.

During the day, whether working or just sitting watching TV, you never think about breathing, yet you body (autonomic nervous system) breathes well. Now at bedtime you put on the mask and lie there thinking about breathing.

Are you waiting until you are sleepy to go to bed? Is your bedroom quiet, dark and conducive to relaxation and sleep? Do you take at least at hour of quiet "wind down" before going to bed? Get everything ready a full hour before bed - teeth brushed, face washed, jammies laid out.

With aflex off it is almost perfect, the only problem is the pressure is too high when exhaling.

If your minimum pressure is 4 or 6, it should not be hard to exhale against. Could it be that your tenseness is causing the problem?

I am a small, elderly lady and my pressure goes up to 16 at times while I am sleeping and my body just keeps on breathing and exhaling gently.

Some people, when starting out, have said it was helpful for them to wear the mask and let the machine run while they were sitting around during the day. It might help to take the machine to a comfortable sofa and sit using it for up to a half hour. This seems to have given some people the confidence after awhile that they could breathe easily against the pressure.

Good luck.

[kaiasgram]

No I was not, should I?

It's not that you should, it's only if you want to see what the pressure is doing while you're experimenting. What's interesting is that earlier you were bothered by the inhale/exhale transitions, yet apparently your min pressure was only 4 at the time. And this is what Pugsy said in another thread about A-flex:

6 cm is simply the lowest setting available if a person wanted to enable AFlex.
If a person was using 5.5 cm...AFlex wouldn't be available until they were using 6.0.

Perhaps the pressure goes up enough even while you're awake-breathing that the A-Flex has kicked in and you're feeling that. Otherwise, there's some question what you've actually been experiencing while you're awake and breathing with the machine. When you posted last night that you'd been experimenting, had you increased your minimum pressure or was it still at 4?

You asked in your first post here if your machine could be malfunctioning in some way -- I doubt it, but watching the pressure for a few minutes might reassure you that the machine is doing what it's supposed to be doing. And if it is, then you might just want to leave Flex off since you said it was almost perfect, and let yourself get desensitized to breathing out against the pressure. Practice during the day -- do some conscious relaxation, or do something distracting like watching TV, while using the machine. It works if you give it time.

[Nardella]

The dislay for pressure on the screen remains constant. Guess it is the airflow that is changing and not the pressure.

[ChicagoGranny]

Guess it is the airflow that is changing and not the pressure.

No, that is not the way CPAP works. Your breathing and the machine's pressure changes control the flow rate. The machine only changes the pressure. (This will change the flow rate through the exhaust ports but will not change the flow rate into your body.)

The dislay for pressure on the screen remains constant.

The machine will not increase pressure until it senses you are having trouble breathing (flow limitations in your breathing due to partial collapse of the airway).

If you are awake and looking at the screen, no change in the pressure is expect because you are not having trouble breathing.

Are you getting accustomed to breathing with the mask on? Can you review with us what your machine settings are now?

I was thinking about you as I woke up this morning. My pressure was running at 10 cm and I was breathing gently and easily. I tried to sense the pressure, but I have become so accustomed to it that I could not tell the machine was running. You can get to this point also, but I am concerned about your initial pressure setting being so low.

[Nardella]

Here is a diagram to explain what is happening.

[palerider]

Here is a diagram to explain what is happening.

only, your machine doesn't do that.
cflex:


cflex+


aflex:

[Nardella]

Then it sounds like my machine is crazy? If not then is there a machine that does what I need?

[palerider]

Then it sounds like my machine is crazy? If not then is there a machine that does what I need?

no, your machine is doing what it's designed to do... but you don't seem to like the WAY it does it.

when you have flex turned on, it drops the pressure as you start exhaling, and then raises it back up just before you're done, getting ready for the next inhale.

you're obsessing about it, and letting it bother you, instead of just pressing on and breathing normally, and forgetting what the machine is doing.

either that, or turn off the flex.

the other option would be to get a resmed machine, which does the pressure relief differently.

here's what the pressure changes on a resmed look like:

[ChicagoGranny]

you're obsessing about it, and letting it bother you, instead of just pressing on and breathing normally, and forgetting what the machine is doing.

Nardella,

I do think this is the problem.

How have you been doing with using the machine and sleeping the last few nights?

Do you think you are up to downloading Sleepyhead software and starting to look at some data? If you start seeing your actual breath waveforms on a chart (even while awake), you might start to gain some confidence that things are working properly.

[Nardella]

Yeah sure I will give sleepyhead a go.