Fluttering/Flapping of airway

Often when I am falling asleep I will experience a fluttering of the airway going from open to closed, at the rate of like 10 times a second for a couple seconds before I wake up completely. It seems to happen in light sleep when I am semi conscious, though it may happen in deeper sleep and I am just not aware of it. What is the cause of this? Is my pressure too low? At the times I have been aware of it, I think my pressure was still ramping up. I use APAP 6-8 pressure.

tiredman wrote:Often when I am falling asleep I will experience a fluttering of the airway going from open to closed, at the rate of like 10 times a second for a couple seconds before I wake up completely. It seems to happen in light sleep when I am semi conscious, though it may happen in deeper sleep and I am just not aware of it. What is the cause of this? Is my pressure too low? At the times I have been aware of it, I think my pressure was still ramping up. I use APAP 6-8 pressure.

With pressure this low you probably don't need to use the ramp. It may be you start to obstruct at this time. Just start at your minimum pressure of 6.
Best way to figure this out is to get free Sleepyhead and see what is happening. Then you can post here and get help with what it shows. Here is a link to how to download Sleepyhead. https://sleep.tnet.com/resources/sleepyhead

Turn off the ramp - it's doing nothing at that pressure except to delay any small Cpap benefit you might get therapeutically at that low number.

I've felt that same feeling, I believe, because it's hard to describe. It's like a flutter in my throat as I'm falling asleep. I don't use ramp, just figured it was another new thing to deal with since starting cpap.

OkyDoky wrote:

tiredman wrote:Often when I am falling asleep I will experience a fluttering of the airway going from open to closed, at the rate of like 10 times a second for a couple seconds before I wake up completely. It seems to happen in light sleep when I am semi conscious, though it may happen in deeper sleep and I am just not aware of it. What is the cause of this? Is my pressure too low? At the times I have been aware of it, I think my pressure was still ramping up. I use APAP 6-8 pressure.

With pressure this low you probably don't need to use the ramp. It may be you start to obstruct at this time. Just start at your minimum pressure of 6.
Best way to figure this out is to get free Sleepyhead and see what is happening. Then you can post here and get help with what it shows. Here is a link to how to download Sleepyhead. https://sleep.tnet.com/resources/sleepyhead

Thanks I will try without the ramp and see what happens. I wrote a mistake, my pressure is actually 7-8 but it's still very low.

Michelle-OH wrote:I've felt that same feeling, I believe, because it's hard to describe. It's like a flutter in my throat as I'm falling asleep. I don't use ramp, just figured it was another new thing to deal with since starting cpap.

Interesting. What's your pressure?

Maybe fluttering is not the best way for me to describe it. It just feels like my airway is opening and closing really y quickly, maybe more like "flapping" open and closed. I think it's my soft palate thats doing this.

Silent snore?

tiredman wrote:

Michelle-OH wrote:I've felt that same feeling, I believe, because it's hard to describe. It's like a flutter in my throat as I'm falling asleep. I don't use ramp, just figured it was another new thing to deal with since starting cpap.

Interesting. What's your pressure?

Maybe fluttering is not the best way for me to describe it. It just feels like my airway is opening and closing really y quickly, maybe more like "flapping" open and closed. I think it's my soft palate thats doing this.

8-12 pressure. Sounds like the same thing. Maybe it it a silent snore Julie. I don't think it's anything to worry about, hope not anyway, just an odd feeling.

Odd things do happen around going to sleep and awakening... clear airways ('centrals') register, sleep paralysis, other things on graphs called 'sleep wake junk' and most of the time it's best to not focus on them or worry unless they get meaningfully worse. Sleep paralysis of course can be frightening, but unless it lasts a long time does not actually hurt you in any way.