High Clear Airways during sleep

robysue wrote:

jimnlacy wrote: I had swelling in my nasal passage and change out my pillows for the full face mask during the night.

You did the mask swap around 0:00 or 0:10 during one of the breaks in the Flow Rate curve. My guess is that you were awake for a short while before you decided to make the swap and since you say:

Not a great sleep. First feeling like I was suffocating and then like I was rebreathing my own breathe. Not a big fan of the full mask but what else can you do.

my guess is that you didn't get back to sleep until around 0:40. So my guess is that most (maybe all) of the events scored between 23:50 and 0:35 are sleep-wake-junk or transitional.

As for what you can do: I'd suggest tackling the swelling in your nasal passage so that you can use the pillows mask if at all possible. If the swelling is plain old congestion caused by allergies or an upper respiratory illness, using a neti pot and the appropriate antihistamines or decongestants should help clear the nose enough to be able to use the pillows mask. If the swelling occurred after masking up, that might indicate that you still need to work on finding the sweet spot for the humidifier setting. If the humidifier is already on its max setting, you might try turning it down a notch or two.

Hi Robysue,

My humidifier is set to 4. I will turn it to 6 tonight and see what happens. The swelling occurred after mask up and falling asleep.

I will try the nasal lavage prior to masking up. I have a squeeze bottle neti pot.

Jim

Jim

jimnlacy wrote:

robysue wrote: If the humidifier is already on its max setting, you might try turning it down a notch or two.

Hi Robysue,

My humidifier is set to 4. I will turn it to 6 tonight and see what happens. The swelling occurred after mask up and falling asleep.

We are all looking for the sweetspot, not too dry , not too moist. We all differ but I think Robysue is saying turn it down, not up.
I know I'm happiest a little on the low side (humidity 1.5 - 2) and temp at the lowest setting. Seems to keep things open and dry.
YMMV.

...Sirc

Sircadian wrote:

jimnlacy wrote:

robysue wrote: If the humidifier is already on its max setting, you might try turning it down a notch or two.

Hi Robysue,

My humidifier is set to 4. I will turn it to 6 tonight and see what happens. The swelling occurred after mask up and falling asleep.

We are all looking for the sweetspot, not too dry , not too moist. We all differ but I think Robysue is saying turn it down, not up.
I know I'm happiest a little on the low side (humidity 1.5 - 2) and temp at the lowest setting. Seems to keep things open and dry.
YMMV.

...Sirc

Sirc,

Got it. But I feel like my swelling was caused by dryness. The way my sinuses feel when I go visit relatives in New Mexico.

Jim

jimnlacy wrote:I feel like my swelling was caused by dryness. The way my sinuses feel when I go visit relatives in New Mexico.

I understand how you feel. I used to live in Las Vegas.

You may be like me and need more humidity to help with congestion.
Humidity needs vary widely among cpap users and there is no right or wrong ...there's only what works for the individual.
Some people find that they need as much moisture as the machine will crank out to keep their nasal mucosa happy (I fall into that group) and some people find that they have less congestion issues with minimal or even no extra humidity.
This is something that you have to try out for yourself through trial and error. Your nasal mucosa are individual to you and they are the ultimate decider as to what makes them happy.
Google "cpap rhinits" and do some reading and you will see what I mean.

You are going to find here on the forum that people tend to recommend what works for them and not just in humidity preferences...pretty much in all aspects of therapy and that's really to be expected.
That's okay...just understand that you may not be like someone else and some things you just have to decide which works best for you through trial and error.

Heck there are people bragging about their mask as being the best thing since sliced bread and I wouldn't give a nickel for the same mask.

Good morning,

I turned up my humidifier to 6 and that seemed like a good setting for me. Time will tell. Pretty good nights sleep, except I had ripped off the mask for an hour before I woke up and realized it.



A detail of the OA and CA events:



Let me know what your thoughts and observations are. Thanks.

Jim

Hi Jim, I just wanted to let you know that your case has reached the limit of my expertise. My recommendations, which are essentially the same as Pugsy's and Robysue's, remain basically the same. Obviously, your CA's are of the most concern. I think they are most likely caused by disturbances, resulting in arousals and sleep wake junk, but short of a PSG, I know of no way to properly evaluate them. Hopefully, the CA's will diminish with time, but if not, a review by a sleep doctor will be in order.
Keep posting your results, I will review them but probably leave comments and suggestions to the more knowlegeable Pugsy and Robysue.
Good sleep to you,
J

I also don't have much to add or really anything different.
We've pretty much maxed out our idea department and with the data available we can't be certain that the centrals are a problem or not.
This is where the sleep doctor needs to be involved. I would continue things just like they are and keep that appointment for follow up and maybe sometime between now and then those pesky CAs will reduce on their own from whatever cause they are from.
I also think post arousal though.... but the numbers are high enough that I would at least want the doc to know about them.

Pugsy wrote:I also don't have much to add or really anything different.
We've pretty much maxed out our idea department and with the data available we can't be certain that the centrals are a problem or not.
This is where the sleep doctor needs to be involved. I would continue things just like they are and keep that appointment for follow up and maybe sometime between now and then those pesky CAs will reduce on their own from whatever cause they are from.
I also think post arousal though.... but the numbers are high enough that I would at least want the doc to know about them.

Pugsy,

Thanks. I will continue forward. Definitely plan to have a good conversation with a sleep specialist.

Cheers,

Jim