When can you reduce pressures????

I've only gotten one report to go on (sleepmapper software) so this may be a bit premature.

My AHI measured at 1.6 on Wednesday night with my bipap machine set to 10/16.......which is somewhat violent when it reaches 16. I do use the ramp mode.

I'm thinking that with an AHI of 1.6, maybe these pressures can be reduced with Dr's. involvement.

At what point is it reasonable to go ask the Dr. to adjust the pressures?

You don't need the doctor to adjust your pressures, we mostly all do our own and can help you with that, but of course if you want to get his input re doing it at all, go right ahead. There are people on this forum with extensive experience and knowledge of the technical and other aspects of things (Pugsy should be along shortly and uses your machine or something close to it) and can explain a lot of info in detail for you, especially if you can post pix of your graphs linked from e.g. Photobucket. But it is much better to get a few days' worth of data to be sure you haven't singled out an exception by accident.

JimP wrote:I've only gotten one report to go on (sleepmapper software) so this may be a bit premature.

My AHI measured at 1.6 on Wednesday night with my bipap machine set to 10/17.......which is somewhat violent when it reaches 17. I do use the ramp mode.

I'm thinking that with an AHI of 1.6, maybe these pressures can be reduced with Dr's. involvement.

At what point is it reasonable to go ask the Dr. to adjust the pressures?

better to get used to what works, instead of wanting to end up with worse results.

palerider wrote:

JimP wrote:I've only gotten one report to go on (sleepmapper software) so this may be a bit premature.

My AHI measured at 1.6 on Wednesday night with my bipap machine set to 10/17.......which is somewhat violent when it reaches 17. I do use the ramp mode.

I'm thinking that with an AHI of 1.6, maybe these pressures can be reduced with Dr's. involvement.

At what point is it reasonable to go ask the Dr. to adjust the pressures?

better to get used to what works, instead of wanting to end up with worse results.

What works for me is a less violent pressure (sounder sleep) that keeps me within the safe zone of AHI.

I can't help but think that once these pressures go over a certain point, that they defeat the whole purpose of using a cpap machine as they themself cause problems in sleeping. For those who can use a lower pressure, they'd sleep better. More compliance and better quality of life.

10 to 17 is wide range of pressures. The machine changing pressure can disturb your sleep. Get SleepyHead installed and you can see what your pressure needs are.
If you find you pressure is mostly on 15 then change your pressure to 15 to 17. The closer your numbers the less change for the machine.

My machine is capable adjusting when needed, but I keep my pressure set to 23 Ipap and 19 Epap. The auto adjusting is just to disturbing. Find what works for you.
Set the machine and leave it.


I wish you well....

It all depends on why it thinks it needs to reach these pressures. Post some graphs. Those low AHIs are meaningless if they each take a long time to resolve. On the other hand those high pressures could be due to massive leaks.

How many days have you been using this machine?--(I mean nights)
If you are under a week in, I would suggest you get a few more days of data,
and see how the pressures change through the night.
It is likely you will also begin to be more accustomed to the pressure,
and trends are more accurate than one or two nights.
Welcome to the party.

JimP wrote:I've only gotten one report to go on (sleepmapper software) so this may be a bit premature.

My AHI measured at 1.6 on Wednesday night with my bipap machine set to 10/17.......which is somewhat violent when it reaches 17. I do use the ramp mode.

I'm thinking that with an AHI of 1.6, maybe these pressures can be reduced with Dr's. involvement.

At what point is it reasonable to go ask the Dr. to adjust the pressures?

In a month or two you won't even be able to tell if that machine is on. As the others have said you need to post some graphs to see what is going on.

My AHI is consistently less than .2 AHI and I would NOT even consider trying to turn the pressure down cuz that just means the pressure is right.

Which model PR System One BiPap machine are you using? The 660 or 760? Model numbers are on the bottom of the blower unit...3 digits with maybe DS or REF in front or behind the 3 digits.
If using the 760 machine which mode...bilevel or auto bilevel?

Please add your equipment to your profile like I have mine when you get a chance. It helps us to know exactly what you are using.
That 7 cm difference between inhale and exhale is a bit steep if using fixed bilevel mode (which is the only bilevel mode available on the 660. EPAP is normally what we use to evaluate and control OAs. Your AHI is quite acceptable even if it was all OAs. You probably have some wiggle room to reduce that 17 IPAP and be more comfortable and not have it impact the AHI much if at all. If you were wanting to reduce the EPAP of 10 there might even be room to reduce it a little with your current AHI. We would need to see some daily detailed graphs to have a better idea.

But yes...given your low AHI (and more importantly what that AHI is made up of) it is definitely possible to maybe reduce IPAP at least in terms of AHI.

You don't happen to have lung issues like COPD or similar do you?

You can always adjust your own settings as mentioned above. The RT at my DME wanted me to bring my machine in so she could adjust the settings and I was like "I'm not letting you anywhere near my machine! i can adjust my own settings, thankyouvermuch"

You really need to download, install and learn to use Sleepyhead software. Sleepmapper really doesn't give you any more information than you can get off the screen on your machine.
Then you need to get a weeks worth of information before you can effectively evaluate it.

Just to see what would happen, I changed my machine to Auto Bipap for last night's sleep.
Have to say that it wasn't nearly as violent as my previous setting. Reading from the LCD screen, AHI was 1.9. The pressure reading when I awakened, were 8.8 and 12.9 which when compared to the previous manual bipap setting of 10 and 16 was somewhat reduced.

Have to say that it was less violent and I think I had a better night sleep. I've been on the machine now for 11 nights....enough to read a pattern.

I would like to take a look at sleepytime software and am a little confused about which version I should use. I'd like the latest stable version suitable for Windows 7 64 bit and don't think this would be a good time to use any versions (betas) that might be buggy. Which should I use?

Many thanks to all those who have responded on this thread.

I have the latest 0.9.8-1 version. It works well on my Windows 7 Home premium 64 bit computer.
A few minor bugs but they aren't in the main data points..they are in little function things.

SleepyHead download page http://sleepfiles.com/SH/

Thanks Pugsy

JimP wrote:Thanks Pugsy

I think she meant the link in her sig, actually, (and mine)