What is your CPAP pressure?

General Discussion on any topic relating to CPAP and/or Sleep Apnea.

What is your CPAP Pressure (if APAP 95th %)

4 - 5 cm
16
2%
6 - 7 cm
80
12%
8 - 9 cm
121
18%
10 - 11 cm
170
25%
12 - 13 cm
114
17%
14 - 15 cm
84
12%
16 - 17 cm
45
7%
18 - 19 cm
29
4%
20 cm
28
4%
 
Total votes: 687

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Goofproof
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Re: What is your CPAP pressure?

Post by Goofproof » Sun Jul 27, 2014 2:17 pm

ShelaghDB wrote:Not sure I really understand as I thought we had fixed CPAP pressure numbers?
Mine is 13 for example..

Not 12-13 or 13-14....

Anyhow, mine is 13
The reason for the comment, you didn't like is the orgional post way back in the ages was irrelevant, in the real world, then and now. The pressure you need is relevant only to your airway, and even that changes with time and sleeping position.

10 cm, is about the normal avg treatment pressure, many times it's a area to start to being aware of centrals, and the higher the pressure the harder to deal with mouthbreathing and mask leaks.

It's a good idea to put your pressure in your comments on your equipment profile. Jim
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chunkyfrog
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Re: What is your CPAP pressure?

Post by chunkyfrog » Sun Jul 27, 2014 2:50 pm

I wish I could change my vote, which was for a much higher pressure than I now use--
and I also now use an apap, meaning a range of pressures, instead of just one.
I managed fine on a single pressure Elite; but the Autoset is many times more comfortable--for me.
Labs tend to report higher pressures than the patient needs-just to cover their Heinekens.

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Hawthorne
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Re: What is your CPAP pressure?

Post by Hawthorne » Sun Jul 27, 2014 6:04 pm

ShelaghDB - you were saying that you don't understand why your pressure is 13 cm and others in the poll are talking about 12-14 for example.

13 cm is probably your titrated pressure - the pressure that your sleep study determined to be the best pressure for you ( to give you an AHI below 5).

Your profile shows that you have an Autoset. It sounds to me like your autoset is set in cpap mode. Auto machines can be set in cpap or apap mode. In cpap mode it is a single pressure. Some set their autos ( or have them set for them) in apap mode which is a range of pressure so that you only get a higher pressure when you need it. An auto range allows the machine to adjust anywhere between the pressures as required by your breathing. People who set their machines (or have them set for them) in auto mode like to need that range of pressure. I was titrated at 11 cm in my last sleep study but had my auto set at a range of 11 cm to 13 cm. Usually my 90% was at 12 cm but sometimes one lower and sometimes one higher. Because of the narrow settings it could only range between those 2. Some set the range broader. It works well for me but some find the changing pressure causes them some sleep disturbance.

Hope that explains that.

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Re: What is your CPAP pressure?

Post by SleepyToo2 » Sun Jul 27, 2014 6:13 pm

chunkyfrog wrote:Labs tend to report higher pressures than the patient needs-just to cover their Heinekens.
Interesting comment, chunkyfrog. My reported pressure from the sleep study was actually too low when I got home (I snored and woke myself and my wife), and I had it raised a couple of cm H20. Now I am thinking that the pressure is too high - some of the time. Some days I get a few "centrals" other days I get a few hypopneas, and on still other days I get a few apneas. Could be that the pressure for at least some of us changes from day to day, so we possibly all need APAPs to determine the optimal range at home - recognizing that for some people the upper and lower ends of the pressure range may be exactly the same, in which case they can used a fixed PAP.

That indicates that the original poll was pointless, but at least some value may come out of the comments?

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Re: What is your CPAP pressure?

Post by Pugsy » Sun Jul 27, 2014 6:32 pm

SleepyToo2 wrote: My reported pressure from the sleep study was actually too low when I got home
As was mine. Worked great when not in REM stage sleep though. Sometimes in REM stage sleep (which I only got 6 minutes of during the titration sleep study from hell) I have higher pressure needs...much higher and that's why I used the auto adjusting pressure mode machines. Titration study said 8 cm but in REM I was seeing pressures up around 18 cm...sure as heck didn't want to use that all the time so compromised with APAP mode set minimum to 10 and max to 20 and therapy was optimized. At minimum of 8 cm I was having some nasty clusters in REM sleep.

In general...
The poll is for cpap pressure and not APAP pressure ranges despite what it might initially appear to be asking.
Polls are limited to 10 choices I think so not enough room to do a choice for 4 or 5 or 6 and so on all by themselves...so the tiny range of choices were offered. Like most polls though...not extremely remarkable with what the breakdown ended up showing and not always relevant to a large particular population.

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ShelaghDB
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Re: What is your CPAP pressure?

Post by ShelaghDB » Sun Jul 27, 2014 9:58 pm

You necro'ed a 3 year old poll thread to tell off someone for something s/he said at least a year and a half ago? And you think that other people are miserable?
I wasn't even aware it was an old thread as someone before me in April I see now answered it. As I do not go looking for threads, and just go up and down the page to read whats there, it must have been one at the bottom of the page. Thats the only way I would have come across it.
But my point remains about some people being miserable and if you feel the need to question that you will note that another person has created a thread about the very same problem. The dates are rather irrelevant. You shouldn't try to insult me by suggesting I went digging for an old thread. Thats what creates a lot of insults around here, people that make assumptions that are wrong instead of sticking to the facts. You assumed I looked for an old thread as you studied it enough to notice that it was old, when I and perhaps others didn't. If you could have figured that much out, one would think you could have then wondered WHY someone would pick out a thread that the last answer before mine was only 3 months earlier. And so on.........but instead you chose to jump to a negative conclusion.
10 cm, is about the normal avg treatment pressure, many times it's a area to start to being aware of centrals, and the higher the pressure the harder to deal with mouthbreathing and mask leaks.

It's a good idea to put your pressure in your comments on your equipment profile. Jim
it appears this is directed at me since you quote my comment but my pressure is in my comments, so not sure if that is directed at me or someone else.
In my case I am a mouth breather at any number but was not aware it became more common at 10cm. I just though you were or you weren't regardless of anything else other than perhaps stuffiness in the nose??!!
The centrals I am aware of as I have to watch it on mine...
13 cm is probably your titrated pressure - the pressure that your sleep study determined to be the best pressure for you ( to give you an AHI below 5).

Your profile shows that you have an Autoset. It sounds to me like your autoset is set in cpap mode. Auto machines can be set in cpap or apap mode. In cpap mode it is a single pressure. Some set their autos ( or have them set for them) in apap mode which is a range of pressure so that you only get a higher pressure when you need it. An auto range allows the machine to adjust anywhere between the pressures as required by your breathing. People who set their machines (or have them set for them) in auto mode like to need that range of pressure. I was titrated at 11 cm in my last sleep study but had my auto set at a range of 11 cm to 13 cm. Usually my 90% was at 12 cm but sometimes one lower and sometimes one higher. Because of the narrow settings it could only range between those 2. Some set the range broader. It works well for me but some find the changing pressure causes them some sleep disturbance.

Hope that explains that.
Ah yes, NOW i understand the reason for that.
Yes you are right, mine is presently in CPAP mode.
I was advised to leave it there when I transferred from a brief usage of the S9 Escape to the S9 AutoSET until i got my sleep under control as I was overwhelmed by taking my mask off every night at the 90 minute mark until I figured out why, and was using the wrong mask as someone had advised me incorrectly but with RobySues help on this board since then, she advised me to switch my mask back to my original FF to stop leakage and immediately she was right and for the past 13 days I have slept perfectly as soon as i hit the pillow, all night.

So yes, I am aware that I could try the AUTO SET mode but a part of me would rather at least wait another week until i finish catching up with all my needed sleep and even then IF what i am doing now is working 100% I am not sure I went to make any changes. I don't seem to feel the need, at least at this point, for a lesser pressure upon exhaling. IF anything I might try it at 14.

In hindsight, I likely would have been fine with the S9 Elite

Thank yo for your help

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Goofproof
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Re: What is your CPAP pressure?

Post by Goofproof » Sun Jul 27, 2014 10:22 pm

While CPAP works fine, as a mouthbreather like me, a APAP set to 1 over and 2 under your cpap pressure can help with mouth breathing and leaks in general, using a wider pressure range sometimes doesn't allow the machine to keep up with the changes in your needs. My comments were more aimed at the orgional poster and the people that persist in reruns. By reading old posts the information you need has probably already been posted in the thread, a "me too" post usually isn't required. Jim
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Re: What is your CPAP pressure?

Post by Pugsy » Mon Jul 28, 2014 9:08 am

ShelaghDB wrote: I wasn't even aware it was an old thread as someone before me in April I see now answered it. As I do not go looking for threads, and just go up and down the page to read whats there, it must have been one at the bottom of the page. Thats the only way I would have come across it.
Here's how it works with any old poll.
If someone just votes in the poll then the entire thread gets moved to the top of the main forum page. They don't have to actually post a reply to get the movement to the main page of the forum.
Of course a reply within the thread moves it again to the top of the main forum page just like my reply here will do.

So you probably saw it after someone voted recently because an April post would have long ago gone off the main page. We have some forum member(s) who like to go vote in polls which resurrects the poll. We have some forum members who find that resurrecting old polls is more of a nuisance than it is a help....especially when they go resurrecting enough polls to cover almost the entire main page (which pretty much has been done in the past). When that happens it's pretty obvious that the intent was to irritate and not educate. As you already have seen....this forum has some rather grouchy people and also some people who just like to poke at people just to get a reaction...call them trolls or assholes or whatever...the intent is the same and they like bad publicity as well as good publicity so they keep on poking.
When forum members bitch about old polls being resurrected then that bad publicity makes the poll resurrector (sp?) a happy little guy/gal because they got attention.

Now I don't know who brought this poll/thread back to life and it doesn't really matter. Some people will find the information useful or satisfies some curiosity they might have. Some people may find some comments in some polls (not necessarily this one) to be useful information. There's a lot of good information in some of these old threads (doesn't have to be a poll) because when we really get down to it the problems people face now with cpap therapy are pretty much the same problems people faced 5 or 10 years ago. I have been here 5 years now and it is very rare that I see a totally new question or problem that I haven't seen 100s of times before and usually have answered 100s of time before.

Since we have no control over voting in the polls or resurrecting an old thread I try to look at it with these glasses...
If one person gleans one bit of useful information from it....then it was worth it.
And if the reason for resurrection was just to yank the chains of those who find it annoying...well if no response to the chain yanking is happening...then chain yanking isn't so much fun anymore. Don't feed the trolls/assholes/whatevers...and they will go find somewhere else to play and eat.

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Therapist
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Re: What is your CPAP pressure?

Post by Therapist » Mon Aug 04, 2014 6:01 pm

ShelaghDB wrote:Not sure I really understand as I thought we had fixed CPAP pressure numbers?
You've claimed your brilliance in 199 posts and you don't know better than that about one of the fundamentals?

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Re: What is your CPAP pressure?

Post by palerider » Mon Aug 04, 2014 6:25 pm

Therapist wrote:
ShelaghDefectiveBrain wrote:Not sure I really understand as I thought we had fixed CPAP pressure numbers?
You've claimed your brilliance in 199 posts and you don't know better than that about one of the fundamentals?
you know, there's a lot of words I think might be applicable to "ShelaghDefectiveBrain" posts, but brilliance isn't even in the ballpark... probably not even on the same continent. perhaps not on the same planet. we might have to go interstellar.

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Last edited by palerider on Sun Feb 15, 2015 4:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Hawthorne
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Re: What is your CPAP pressure?

Post by Hawthorne » Mon Aug 04, 2014 8:56 pm

I really hate to prolong this thread but those last 2 posts were totally uncalled for. You both should be ashamed that you prolonged an old post with such comments - comments that don't belong on this forum - but hey - we have had hundreds, at least, of uncalled for and unnecessary, irrelevant comments since I joined a lot of years ago.

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Re: What is your CPAP pressure?

Post by LSAT » Mon Aug 04, 2014 9:13 pm

Hawthorne wrote:I really hate to prolong this thread but those last 2 posts were totally uncalled for. You both should be ashamed that you prolonged an old post with such comments - comments that don't belong on this forum - but hey - we have had hundreds, at least, of uncalled for and unnecessary, irrelevant comments since I joined a lot of years ago.
I know you mean well, but she has made many posts where you just have to scratch your head and wonder if she knows what she is talking about.
I think I have to go along with the comments by therapist and palerider.

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Re: What is your CPAP pressure?

Post by CowFish » Tue Aug 05, 2014 6:58 am

LSAT wrote:
Hawthorne wrote:I really hate to prolong this thread but those last 2 posts were totally uncalled for. You both should be ashamed that you prolonged an old post with such comments - comments that don't belong on this forum - but hey - we have had hundreds, at least, of uncalled for and unnecessary, irrelevant comments since I joined a lot of years ago.
I know you mean well, but she has made many posts where you just have to scratch your head and wonder if she knows what she is talking about.
I think I have to go along with the comments by therapist and palerider.
I think what a disaster when newbies or guests try to read her posts. So confusing and misinformed. May be scaring some people off. So glad Pugsy is usually there to give newbies a quick answer before SDB confuses and scares them. Pugsy, you are a treasure.

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Re: What is your CPAP pressure?

Post by Hawthorne » Tue Aug 05, 2014 7:37 am

There are dozens of people on this forum who leave confusing messages with misinformation all the time!

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Re: What is your CPAP pressure?

Post by palerider » Tue Aug 05, 2014 5:14 pm

CowFish wrote:
LSAT wrote:
Hawthorne wrote:I really hate to prolong this thread but those last 2 posts were totally uncalled for. You both should be ashamed that you prolonged an old post with such comments - comments that don't belong on this forum - but hey - we have had hundreds, at least, of uncalled for and unnecessary, irrelevant comments since I joined a lot of years ago.
I know you mean well, but she has made many posts where you just have to scratch your head and wonder if she knows what she is talking about.
I think I have to go along with the comments by therapist and palerider.
I think what a disaster when newbies or guests try to read her posts. So confusing and misinformed. May be scaring some people off. So glad Pugsy is usually there to give newbies a quick answer before SDB confuses and scares them. Pugsy, you are a treasure.
what do you get when you combine the calm, patient, helpful and knowledgable attributes of pugsy, robysue, johnbfisher, and then turn that 180 opposite? she who must not be named lest you call forth the evil.

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