Followed Board Advice - Please Compare 2 Days

[MurrayNevada]

I followed the boards advice and increased the APAP settings from original 6cm - 12cm to 8cm to 14cm. This was done to reduce snore among other things. Below are the results of the first night and the second night (with increased settings). Can you experienced folks take a look at the two days and tell me what might I might do to improve my results? Top graph is from last night. the bottom one is the night before (first night with machine). Forgot to mention: VA offered me another sleep test as the last one was over 10 years ago. Would there be anything to gain from this? Things seem to e improving with your help and I did not enjoy the last sleep test at all. They want to do the overnight test where they split the night for testing and titration.
Thank you,
Mike

[Julie]

Hi best to stay with orig. thread so we can follow your story... I don't know what mask you use, but it does seem a bit leaky, but if you use a nasal mask vs full face,, that may also account for the leaks. Have you ever tried a full face mask?

[Pugsy]

Do you spend any/much time on your back?

Try minimum of 9 tonight.

Always try to include a bit of information about how you slept or feel along with the data.
From the looks of so many stops and starts I would say your sleep quality was in the toilet with a lot of wake ups? How many wake ups?
I see at least 3 where you turned the machine off and back on again. Anything in particular wake you up?

Do try to keep with this thread now that it is the most recent and includes the 2 nights. Makes our jobs a lot easier when we don't have to try to go find old threads to combine information in our heads.

[Pugsy]

Hide the calendar and turn off the pie chart (Preferences/Appearance tab...remove the check mark for show pie chart).
This lets us see potentially more useful information in the statistics column on the left side.
No need to redo these images though. Just mentioning it for the next time.

Your leaks were better managed last night. I would take last night's leaks as acceptable and not worry about them unless they woke me up.
Any leak (no matter how small) that wakes us up is unwanted because anything that disturbs sleep is unwanted.

[MurrayNevada]

Thank you for the kindness of your advice. I no longer feel alone in this. To answer some questions:
I wear a full face mask.
Dry mouth is the reason I am waking (So dry that my tongue sticks to my teeth and gums).
I don't wake due to leaks, only dry mouth.

I am ordering the heated humidifier for my APAP. I will post in this same thread as advised and in the manner requested.
Thanks again,
Mike

[Pugsy]

Gottcha.

You are the one that isn't using a humidifier at all.
Hopefully adding moisture to the air you are breathing in from the full face mask will help with the dry mouth.
Until you can get it do the best you can with keeping the mouth hydrated. Maybe pick up one of those OTC products designed to help with dry mouth.

[MurrayNevada]

Thanks Pugsy.
"You are the one that isn't using a humidifier at all."
Yes I am and I live in the Mojave Desert. Guess that makes me not too bright.

[Pugsy]

Well I know people who live in the high desert and don't need or want a humidifier but my nose puckers up and cringes every time I think about it.
I lived in Las Vegas for 6 years...pre cpap usage and my nose never could get over being so dried out. I can't imagine living in minimal humidity area and using cpap...heck, I need maximum humidity even now and I live in an area with 40 to 50 % average humidity.
Everybody's nose is different though.

I don't know how much the humidified air will help your dry mouth issues because a lot depends on why and how much mouth breathing you are doing to dry out the mouth.
Also a factor is that sometimes some people just get dry mouth much more easily than others. Maybe meds related or just unlucky.

At any rate the humidifier will give you the best chance of reducing the dry mouth wake ups. Gotta give it a try.

[MurrayNevada]

Hi Pugsy,
I raised the minimum pressure to 9 as you suggested and also used the Biotene dry mouth oral rinse you mentioned (no dry mouth last night). I may not need the humidifier I ordered yesterday after all. I feel like I had a good night's sleep. I awoke about midnight for a bathroom break and again about 3am. Below is SleepyHead data from last night and from the night before for comparison. Really appreciate your help.
Mike

[Pugsy]

I can live with last nights results.
Give those settings a few nights and then try 9.5 and see what happens.

You know the dry mouth might have been from increased mouth breathing because of the apnea events themselves causing you to sort of gasp for more air. I thought I was a mouth breather but really didn't want to go down the full face road for various reasons so I chose a nasal mask and was prepared to do something else to keep the mouth shut but I found that once my apnea events weren't causing me to gasp or snore so much that I really didn't seem to be opening my mouth and breathing through my mouth that much.
Might be what happened with you...might also be the Biotene helped. You changed 2 variables in your experiment last night so we can't tell for sure what reduced the dry mouth.

[MurrayNevada]

Thanks Pugsy. I think I'll set up the humidifier but run it without heat. I like cool air blowing against my face. It should still pick up some moisture even without heat. Do you agree? I also own another FFM. It's an AirTouch F20 FFM. Should I experiment with this other mask or continue with the Simplus FFM I have been using? One way or another I will continue posting daily results if that is ok with you. I believe with your help I will get to where I need to be.
Mike

[Pugsy]

You can for sure set up the humidifier with water in it but turn the heat off and get a little bit of moisture.
We call it pass over humidity and several forum members prefer that just little bit of moisture.
Plus the humidifier also acts like a muffler and helps reduce some of the motor noise that people hear.

When doing experiments remember Science 101...keep your variables to a minimum and well planned so that you can best evaluate the results. This includes masks.
We don't sleep the same way each night and things can and will vary a lot during the night without changing anything and we can't do anything about that.
So we have to watch the other variables that we can do something about. You can try anything you want to try...just don't go bouncing around nightly without giving things more than one night (unless the results are just so horrible you don't want to risk it) to establish trends and patterns with something.

[MurrayNevada]

Good morning Pugsy,
Slept well last night. Got up at about 11PM and again about 4:30AM for bathroom breaks. Used the humidifier (unheated) for the first time. It seems to have made things more quiet but with my hearing loss sound is never much of a problem. Seemed like the pressure was less, could that be because the addition of the humidifier? Below is the info from last night and the night before for comparison. May I have your observations and possible adjustments you think wise.
Thank you,
Mike

[Pugsy]

The pressure may have seemed less but they really weren't less.

Last night your mask was leaky and that sort of clouds the evaluation of the data a bit because some of the flagged events happened near or during times in large leak.

The bathroom breaks...is this normal for you? Like are you a male and of the age that the prostate can be a factor?

I think if it were my report I would be tempted to try 9.5 minimum. Your AHI isn't bad but there is just a little more clutter than I like to see plus with a little bit higher starting point and fitting for leak maybe the mask wouldn't want to be so leaky when the pressure goes up a bit.

[MurrayNevada]

Yes I am old and so is my prostate. I will raise the minimum to 9.5 as you suggest and try to fit the mask better. The VA has offered to give me a split night sleep test. They last gave me one about a dozen years ago. They are not treating me for my OSA as I did better without them last time (not knocking the VA.. They have been good to me) but my APAP, along with your help, works much better. I hated the last sleep test and wonder if there is anything to be offered by going through that again?
Thank you,
Mike