Can't seem to get rid of Open Airway Events

Luminosity · Post by **Luminosity** » Wed May 16, 2018 4:43 pm

So while I'm waiting for official diagnosis, I've been using a self-bought APAP and messing around with the pressure settings for the last month. Initially I started off with pressures 4 to 6, 6 to 8, then 8 to 10 and finally setting on the 10 to 13 range. My AHI is pretty much always 2 to 3. I've noticed that with the lower pressures, there are more OSA events (ranging from 2 to 12) so I assumed I needed a higher pressure setting where I'd only get maybe 1 or 2 per night. The majority is always CA events.

Overall, I'm kind of confused whether I should be using less or more pressure. Last night, I tried using 11 minimum to 13 max and basically woke up after 3 hours, sweating a little and exhaling very shallowly.

Pugsy · Post by **Pugsy** » Wed May 16, 2018 5:15 pm

When you have time please review this thread for the format to show your reports.
viewtopic/t158560/How-to-post-images-for-review.html
When you try to include so many graphs in one image you end up with tiny graphs that none of them are very useful.

Quit worrying about the clear airway/central apnea events. There's not enough of them to be a problem and probably some aren't real anyway but even if they were all real there's not enough of them to warrant concern.
A few centrals here and there during the night that are real is normal to see.
You can't fix centrals with pressure changes on your machine and you aren't having enough of them to need fixing anyway.

It's also possible that some of the flagged events are awake breathing irregularities getting flagged by mistake and thus not real.
There is a way to zoom in and try to figure out awake vs asleep if you want to learn.
See the bottom video at this page for how to zoom in and what to look for.

http://freecpapadvice.com/sleepyhead-free-software

derek_305 · Post by **derek_305** » Wed May 16, 2018 7:00 pm

As always Pugsy is on point, to add my $0.02 it seems my clear airway events are where I go inside the mask and scratch my nose or move it out of the way to cough. Just this morning sleepyhead showed 3 clear airway events in the 5 min before I took the mask off, I was trying to keep sleeping for about 10min so that confirmed my suspicion, I did have a sleep study with no centrals.

My advice is shop around for a full sleep study, I got it for a lot less than I thought; I did have to call around a lot to get it.

LSAT · Post by **LSAT** » Wed May 16, 2018 8:12 pm

Quit playing with your pressures...Set them at 10 min 20 max and let it ride for a couple weeks. The main thing is "how are you sleeping?' Is the mask comfortable? are leaks waking you up?

Luminosity · Post by **Luminosity** » Thu May 17, 2018 12:42 am

Pugsy wrote: ↑
Wed May 16, 2018 5:15 pm
When you have time please review this thread for the format to show your reports.
viewtopic/t158560/How-to-post-images-for-review.html
When you try to include so many graphs in one image you end up with tiny graphs that none of them are very useful.

Quit worrying about the clear airway/central apnea events. There's not enough of them to be a problem and probably some aren't real anyway but even if they were all real there's not enough of them to warrant concern.
A few centrals here and there during the night that are real is normal to see.
You can't fix centrals with pressure changes on your machine and you aren't having enough of them to need fixing anyway.

It's also possible that some of the flagged events are awake breathing irregularities getting flagged by mistake and thus not real.
There is a way to zoom in and try to figure out awake vs asleep if you want to learn.
See the bottom video at this page for how to zoom in and what to look for.

http://freecpapadvice.com/sleepyhead-free-software

Thanks, I've cleared up some of the images. Some of them seem to be false CA events from jaw movements while asleep. There are a couple that are above though which I assume is a real event.

So it's normal to have a couple open airway events per night.

Luminosity · Post by **Luminosity** » Thu May 17, 2018 12:50 am

LSAT wrote: ↑
Wed May 16, 2018 8:12 pm
Quit playing with your pressures...Set them at 10 min 20 max and let it ride for a couple weeks. The main thing is "how are you sleeping?' Is the mask comfortable? are leaks waking you up?

My original AHI was around 9 to 10. The mask is fine and I don't really experience leaks any more. For the most part, I actually feel worst having used the APAP for the last month. Without APAP, I can actually sleep a solid 7:30-8:00 hours uninterrupted. Where as now, I seem to be woken up every 4th sleep cycle (6-6:30 hour range~) or less if it's bad (3rd cycle). But this is probably an adjustment period thing so I'll keep at it.

Arlene1963 · Post by **Arlene1963** » Thu May 17, 2018 5:33 am

When I was new to this I spent an awful lot of time concerned about clear airway/central apnea events.

Please be assured as several others here have said that having them in the numbers you are having is perfectly normal and ok.

Almost all of my events are identified as being central. My AHI is usually less than 2, last night I slept for just shy of 8 hours, and my AHI was 1.7, of which 1.4 were under the Central Apnea index as per my machine's data display.

I've been on CPAP now for over 2 years and this is what most nights are like for me. Please don't worry about these events at this low number.

Can't seem to get rid of Open Airway Events

Can't seem to get rid of Open Airway Events

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