Do I need to see my sleep doc again??

[palerider]

By the way, I was using a sleep app on my phone to record my snoring and see how bad it was. My snoring has bene described as "able to raise the roof" lol. I had an emotional moment when the morning after using the S9 I opened the snore app, and the graph looked like a flat line, lol. No snoring at all.

that's the way it should be... snoring is caused by restrictions in your airway.

[Pugsy]

Do you normally breathe through your nose just fine? If so, then a nasal pillow mask might be something worth trying. There's a lot less "stuff" to have to deal with. There's less real estate needing to be kept sealed and not nearly as much "stuff" on your face and head.

Now if you have chronic nasal congestion that pretty much forces you to mouth breathe day and night then you would be better off trying to make the full face mask work if you can't get the nose cleared up enough to move enough air without mouth breathing.

[Julie]

Many people don't mouth breathe while awake, but as soon as they lie down, become somewhat congested (long before starting up the humidifier, etc) and/or just back sleep and block their airways, etc. You can't decide you're not a nighttime mouth breather by what you do when up and awake.

[Pugsy]

Unless you have some chronic nasal issues there is no reason to not try a nasal pillow mask if it interests you. If you end up mouth breathing with it and it's a problem the software will alert you to leaks big enough to be a problem and then you can cross that bridge IF you come to it. You may not even come to that bridge.

I have always felt that people should at least try something different if they want to and the mask interests them. Wanting to try is a good enough reason in my book. Now sometimes it might not work out to be such a good idea but you never know for sure until you try.

Do you have a family doc or someone who could get you a RX for masks? If you could get a RX then you could order from cpap.com and utilize the return insurance available for masks and it not be so expensive to have failed experiments.

[tps7c]

Unless you have some chronic nasal issues there is no reason to not try a nasal pillow mask if it interests you. If you end up mouth breathing with it and it's a problem the software will alert you to leaks big enough to be a problem and then you can cross that bridge IF you come to it. You may not even come to that bridge.

I have always felt that people should at least try something different if they want to and the mask interests them. Wanting to try is a good enough reason in my book. Now sometimes it might not work out to be such a good idea but you never know for sure until you try.

Do you have a family doc or someone who could get you a RX for masks? If you could get a RX then you could order from cpap.com and utilize the return insurance available for masks and it not be so expensive to have failed experiments.

I like the way you think, Pugsy! My family doc is th eone who first referred me to a sleep doc years ago, so I'm sure he could write me a prescription for a mask. Thanks for the advice; I would have just probably taken a risk and ordered one from a seller on Amazon.

Little update - once again I can;t get through a full night yet with this thing. BUT, I feel asleep last night with no issues. The previous nights I REALLY had to try and fall asleep (know what I mean?), but last night I just fell out, lol. Small steps!

[tps7c]

Finally made it through 7 hours of sleep with the mask! BUT - I forgot to put the SD card back in the machine so it didn't record the data! Ugghhh.

Anyway, how many nights of data should I have before I post some screenshots?

Thanks to all of you!

[palerider]

how many nights of data should I have before I post some screenshots?!

start with one.

[tps7c]

Sounds good! I'll post data from tonight!

I've noticed one thing already - I've been dreaming vividly each night, remembering the dreams in detail. I can;t even remember the last time I could recall a dream in the morning. That has to be a good sign, right??

[palerider]

Sounds good! I'll post data from tonight!

I've noticed one thing already - I've been dreaming vividly each night, remembering the dreams in detail. I can;t even remember the last time I could recall a dream in the morning. That has to be a good sign, right??

not really. it probably means you're not sleeping well yet.

fact is, the brain doesn't create memories while asleep, so to remember a dream, you have to get waked up during or right after the dream ends.

[tps7c]

Ok, I finally have data! It wasn't a good night, with only 4 hours on the machine and a lot of "events". I'll post the screenshot below. Any advice would be appreciated!

[palerider]

if it were me, I'd raise the min pressure by 2 and lower the ps to 3.

[Pugsy]

How about 7 or 8 EPAP...keep PS at 4 (though you could try 3 as PR suggests) and max IPAP16.

[tps7c]

Thanks for the advice, I'll try it tonight and see if it improves. May I ask why you guys made those specific recommendations? Thanks!

[Pugsy]

I asked my magic 8 ball.

Just joking of course. The original was just an idea to get you in the ball park and it did it's job. If you look at the pressure graph once it starts to go up it pretty much stays up around 9 EPAP.
PR is more aggressive with his ideas than I am..that's just the way he is. I tend to be more cautious and take things a little slower...that's just the way I am. Big jumps can be hard on people...hard to get used to so I tend to lean towards going with smaller jumps so that hopefully the adjustment process is easier and sometimes we get lucky and don't need as much as I might really think a person is going to end up needing.

We need you to sleep first and deal with the events second. If a person has trouble with the settings and they don't sleep well then it really doesn't matter how "accurate" they are.
A 3 cm increase in EPAP may not feel so great to you and if you don't feel so great that usually means not sleeping so great. Or...you might love it but I know from my own past experience and how I felt...it didn't feel so good initially and I had better luck working up to what ended up being needed.

[palerider]

I asked my magic 8 ball.

Just joking of course. The original was just an idea to get you in the ball park and it did it's job. If you look at the pressure graph once it starts to go up it pretty much stays up around 9 EPAP.
PR is more aggressive with his ideas than I am..that's just the way he is. I tend to be more cautious and take things a little slower...that's just the way I am. Big jumps can be hard on people...hard to get used to so I tend to lean towards going with smaller jumps so that hopefully the adjustment process is easier and sometimes we get lucky and don't need as much as I might really think a person is going to end up needing.

hah! I only suggested bumping epap by 2 now who's being cautious