Need Help BADLY

[sean4123]

I am new here guys and I have sleepyhead. My machine only shows the apneas, and doesn't sync with SleepyHead to show more than "unidentified apnea."

Either way, I'm hoping I can show you guys my data and you can let me know what you see.

I don't wake up feeling rested at all. Have headaches daily, and am starting to burp up undigested food which I am reading could be from swallowed air.

I had one sleep study and it showed basic obstructed sleep apnea. Took a machine home and it shot up to 9 AHI all centrals.

So my sleep doc made me buy an ASV, and I cannot fall asleep with that mode. I just use the CPAP mode, and usually have about a 2-3 AHI.

Anyhow, please help me with this. How do upload the SleepyHead data?

[TedVPAP]

I am new here guys and I have sleepyhead. My machine only shows the apneas, and doesn't sync with SleepyHead to show more than "unidentified apnea."

Either way, I'm hoping I can show you guys my data and you can let me know what you see.

I don't wake up feeling rested at all. Have headaches daily, and am starting to burp up undigested food which I am reading could be from swallowed air.

I had one sleep study and it showed basic obstructed sleep apnea. Took a machine home and it shot up to 9 AHI all centrals.

So my sleep doc made me buy an ASV, and I cannot fall asleep with that mode. I just use the CPAP mode, and usually have about a 2-3 AHI.

Anyhow, please help me with this. How do upload the SleepyHead data?

Welcome to the forum.
The three links below will help you share your data.

[sean4123]

As you can see, I have what looks like straight up centrals happening at regular intervals, which makes me think my pressure is too high or I am hyperventilating. I feel awful everyday. Please help.

Also keep in my mind I had zero centrals without the CPAP during regular sleep study.

[TedVPAP]

https://imgur.com/a/oSyYW

As you can see, I have what looks like straight up centrals happening at regular intervals, which makes me think my pressure is too high or I am hyperventilating. I feel awful everyday. Please help.

Also keep in my mind I had zero centrals without the CPAP during regular sleep study.

The data that is zoomed in shows a normal respiratory rate.
The machine is not saying that the apnea is central - it is undetermined.
The number of events is not excessive. Your issue maybe that you are sleeping poorly due to the treatment. This is common. It usually gets better with time. You do not have a lower exhalation pressure. Many find having a lower exhalation pressure more comfortable. You should try that.

[Julie]

I think it would help if you could lift the head end of your bed on 4-5" blocks for now til you get the aerophagia worked out - it helps many people.

I think your MD may have jumped the gun re 'centrals' and I'd wait on using the ASV for the immediate 'moment' til you get a better handle on what is going on rather than making pronouncements too quickly re any one feature (not your fault, but your MD should have taken more time, more info, before prescribing).

[Pugsy]

Your machine doesn't distinguish between central apneas and obstructive apneas. You would get he same unidentified apneas if you used ResScan.

Whatever your apnea events are...there's not a very large number of them and I don't know that there are enough of them to be responsible for your symptoms.

An occasional "real" central isn't necessarily cause for alarm anyway.

Let's back up just a little and get some back history.

You appear to be averaging 7 to 8 hours of use each night....are you asleep those 7 or 8 hours fairly solidly or are those hours fragmented with a lot of wake ups? If you are waking often during the night...any idea why?
Do you take any medications of any kind? If so, what?
Do you have any other physical or mental issues that could be impacting how you feel?

[sean4123]

Your machine doesn't distinguish between central apneas and obstructive apneas. You would get he same unidentified apneas if you used ResScan.

Whatever your apnea events are...there's not a very large number of them and I don't know that there are enough of them to be responsible for your symptoms.

An occasional "real" central isn't necessarily cause for alarm anyway.

Let's back up just a little and get some back history.

You appear to be averaging 7 to 8 hours of use each night....are you asleep those 7 or 8 hours fairly solidly or are those hours fragmented with a lot of wake ups? If you are waking often during the night...any idea why?
Do you take any medications of any kind? If so, what?
Do you have any other physical or mental issues that could be impacting how you feel?

Thank you for your response. Yes I am coming off of an opiate based medication and have significantly reduced the dosage. I am, however, stuck at my current dose and having trouble making the full jump off. It is mostly due to me being exhausted all the time and feeling depressed from the fatigue 24/7. Some may say its an excuse to fully jump off, but I don't know if I could handle feeling any worse right now.

I know opiates can cause sleep apnea related issues, especially centrals, so maybe that is the cause of my centrals dropping, which is good.

I am, however, very unhappy with the machine and its ability to help me feel better. All it has seemed to do is make me reliant on it. I cannot fall asleep without it if I tried, which is very concerning to me. If I do try to fall asleep without my machine, my heart starts to beat hard and fast. I have not ruled out some sort of other medical issue that is relating to all of this stuff.

MY AHI during the sleep study was an 8-9. I realize that is high enough to seek treatment, but it shouldn't be significant enough that I can't fall asleep without a mask and machine.

Luckily, I do seem to stay asleep for most of the night. I'd say its pretty normal to wake up at about the 5 hour mark and use the bathroom, but I typically fall asleep again after.

The problem is, every time I wake up, I feel awful. I have a headache and I feel very unrested. I know this isn't due to the medication withdrawal, as I feel this way whether I take it or not.

Any advice would be appreciated. I did order a MAD mouth piece because I am at my wits-end with this CPAP stuff. I'm barely 30 and in good health. If I can get away without using this thing everywhere I go, i'll be ecstatic. And yes, I know many on here will tell me i'm "dreaming" for thinking I can avoid using a CPAP.

I'm not against sticking with it if I can get some relief.

[Pugsy]

I am, however, very unhappy with the machine and its ability to help me feel better. All it has seemed to do is make me reliant on it. I cannot fall asleep without it if I tried, which is very concerning to me. If I do try to fall asleep without my machine, my heart starts to beat hard and fast. I have not ruled out some sort of other medical issue that is relating to all of this stuff.

MY AHI during the sleep study was an 8-9. I realize that is high enough to seek treatment, but it shouldn't be significant enough that I can't fall asleep without a mask and machine.

It's a mind thing. Your brain knows that your body gets into trouble breathing without the machine and it doesn't want you to do it.
Your brain is trying to tell you that you don't breathe so good on your own when you are asleep and tries to keep you awake where you breathe normally.

As to the not feeling better part. These machines can only fix problems related to breathing issues and not all our unwanted symptoms are caused by breathing issues going on when we sleep. It's tough when that happens because we were so hoping that the machine would fix all our problems but the cold hard fact of life is that if we have something else going on that isn't related to our breathing issues using the machine isn't going to help no matter how much we want to put all our unwanted symptom eggs in the sleep apnea basket.
Figuring out what the other problem might be is a lot harder than just using the machine.

It does sound like you have reduced the opioid dosage to the point that centrals aren't much of an issue. Which of course is a good thing and the remaining obstructive stuff seems to be minimal. It would be nice if we could tell from your machine if those unidentified events were central or obstructive in nature but we can't. No matter what they are....they do seem to be minimal in number and spread out over the night so it's unlikely that they are causing much of drop in oxygen levels.

I think you need to be getting with your doctor about your persistent unwanted symptoms.

The headache...there can be any number of causes for headaches. Do yours go away fairly quickly in the morning or stick with you all day?
Do you by chance have any issues with your neck? If you were older I would first suspect good old arthritis in the neck (because I have first hand experience and I am an old woman) but at age 30 it isn't so likely that you have arthritis going on but there must have been something going on for you to get to using opiods for pain control. It wouldn't be impossible for a 30 yr old to have a bad neck that might be a culprit in the headache issue.

When you say you wake feeling awful and unrested...is what you are feeling simply fatigue and a strong need to nap?
It is really helpful when people try to be more definitive about exactly what is going on that they don't like. "Feeling awful" leaves the door open for a lot of different symptoms. I feel awful if I don't get enough hours of good solid sleep but my "feeling awful" is further described as lack of any energy and I want to sleep all day.
Some people it's just a strong need to nap...excessive sleepiness and they might call it fatigue but it's just sleepiness that they have.
Or maybe it is both.
Sleepiness is not the same thing as fatigue.