I'm beginning to despair

[roadrunnerNM]

The two things I did was up min pressure to 17 and turn off Flex. So pressure is 17-20. Lucky for me, that did it. I also notice I seem to be breathing through my mouth more; I often wake up with a dry mouth because of it. Don't know if makes a difference to AHI, but it might. I opted for the full face mask because I have allergies so my nose is often congested, and allergy season about 10 months out of the year here. The 90% pressure reading is usually about 18.5-19 now, and I do definitely hit 20 during the night; so I might still need to talk to my doctor about getting a bilevel machine, I guess. But I feel *so* much better - I had forgotten what feeling rested was like! Hurrah!

Thanks for the yoga suggestion, Jimmycrackhorn. Yoga and meditation are good for you in any case. I hope you get your machine settings worked out so you can enjoy feeling rested, too. It's great! It's hard to believe it took nearly a *year* to get mine right. Again, thanks to everyone here, especially Pugsy and Palerider.

[Pugsy]

Your full face mask may or may not affect the AHI. Some people find that using a full face mask causes them to need a little more pressure to keep the airway open. As long as you can handle the pressure there is no reason to not use a full face mask if that is what is needed and people with chronic nasal issues often need a full face mask. That's fine. Nothing wrong with it.

If you find you are spending much time maxed out at 20 then for sure the machine would go higher if it needed to and could but of course it can't. A bilevel machine would enable you to go over 20 if needed.
Also a bilevel machine would offer additional exhale comfort but if the exhale relief (the Flex that you turned off) causes centrals then maybe you would need to limit the exhale relief.
We don't know for sure that the centrals were related to the Flex relief..those centrals could also be related to the OAs causing arousals which in turn increased the chances of you having a post arousal central.

Should you end up with a bilevel machine you can explore the exhale relief feature (pressure support which lets you use 2 different pressures one for inhale and one for exhale) causing centrals or not.

Good job on finally getting some improvement that you can feel.

[DavidCarolina]

ARE YOU SURE YOU DONT NEED A BIPAP?

ARE YOU SURE YOU DONT NEED AN AUTOMATIC?

ARE YOU SURE YOU DONT HAVE CENTRAL APNEA?

Dont forget, sleep tests are not the "final say". You can have problems that you dont exhibit that night.

Personally, I dont understand why anyone is on a cpap at all.

The second pressure makes the therapy complete for people with SIGNIFICANT apnea.

[palerider]

ARE YOU SURE YOU DONT NEED A BIPAP?

ARE YOU SURE YOU DONT NEED AN AUTOMATIC?

ARE YOU SURE YOU DONT HAVE CENTRAL APNEA?

Dont forget, sleep tests are not the "final say". You can have problems that you dont exhibit that night.

Personally, I dont understand why anyone is on a cpap at all.

The second pressure makes the therapy complete for people with SIGNIFICANT apnea.

it would be better if you would refrain from posting until you actually understood something.