Help!

[tish280]

I have severe sleep apnea-66 episodes/hour. I just started apap machine 5 nights ago. At first it corrected me to 9 episodes/hour. After 3 nights, my pressure was increased, and that night I had 24 episodes/hour. The next day the pressure was changed back to where I started, and I haven't gone back to 9, but to 15 episodes/hour. My machine shows that leaking is not a problem. Has anyone experienced this? My doctor told me that cured is considered 6 episodes/hour or less. Is it possible to get down to 0? How long does it take to reduce the # of episodes? And exactly what needs to be changed? Thanks!!!

[yippeekia]

In my experience the number of events can be related to many things. Eating too late. Sleeping on my back. Quality of my sleep. How much REM sleep I get etc. The best way I have found is to improve my sleep hygiene. I try to eat earlier for example. I try to go to bed at the same time every night. I try to sleep on my sides instead of my back. Etc. Etc. There are many things, including many small things to improve sleep hygiene. Many can be found on this board.

With that being said you should also optimize your CPAP therapy. I also did this with the help of the great folks on this board. I will defer to the experts on these issues.

In my experience it was more of a lot of small changes that improved my sleep. It took a little bit of time. Within a couple of weeks I was sleeping through the night soundly. Within a couple of months, I was in a routine and it seemed "normal".

I regularly have 0.0 AHI nights, I also regularly have 2.0 AHI nights. The point for me is not striving for perfection, but consciously working towards better health through improving my sleep.

Good Luck!

[PoolQ]

Can you take CPAP farther, yes
You will need to use sleepyhead free software (see the sticky above)
You need to know what kind of events you are having
It would also help if you filled out your profile so we know what equipment you are using

[ChicagoGranny]

After 3 nights, my pressure was increased ...

The next day the pressure was changed back to where I started

Who/what is making these pressure changes and why?

How long does it take to reduce the # of episodes?

If the settings are right and the mask doesn't leak, the first night could show an acceptable level. But usually the settings need tweaking and it may take some experience and adjusting of the mask to get a good leak level.

Is it possible to get down to 0?

Yes, but this is not necessary to feel alert and energetic. The medical standard is under 5 events per hour (AHI < 5.0).

Please go to User Control Panel and fill out the equipment profile.

What is the history of your pressure settings? What pressure settings are you using now?

[tish280]

I have severe sleep apnea-66 AHI. At my 2nd sleep study, cpap brought it down to under 6. But at home, it has never gotten that low. My doctor has increased my pressure to the maximum pressure the machine does, but it hasn't helped. My average AHI for the past month is 14, but it bounces around independently of whether I take Simply Sleep, Melatonin, or have 6 ounces of wine. Sometimes it is as high as 25, and 3 times it was 7. The day it was 7 I felt great, but it doesn't last. Last week I went to the doctor, and he just said "Am I helping you at all? Because I can turn your pressures down, so you will be more comfortable." I wanted another titration sleep study, but he said no. I feel like he gave up on me, that my apnea is hopeless. It is obstructive sleep apnea, not central.

[Pugsy]

See my reply to your other post duplicating this one.

[Julie]

Why are you posting again as a newbie in the same thread you started in Sept. that has been responded to by others? You haven't responded to them and you've posted a similar 'starter' thread somewhere else here as well? Are you a real patient looking for help or a troll?

[tish280]

To: Julie-I'm a real person. I also guess I'm an idiot, but I need help. I am very frustrated, because with all the discomfort of cpap, I still have moderate sleep apnea. I just read my responses, and the only change I can make is to not eat close to bedtime. I have 0 leaks, pressure is maximized, doctor says everything is perfect but the AHI. I may have eaten too close to bedtime some days...so let's hope that works. Please forgive this newbie ignoramus!

[Wulfman...]

To repeat what you were told before.........get the Sleepyhead software and then you can SEE what's going on during the night.

And, in the first post you mentioned using an APAP, but in your profile you have a "AirCurve™ 10 VAuto BiLevel Machine" listed.
Which is correct? And, what are all of your settings?


Den

.

[Pugsy]

I have 0 leaks, pressure is maximized, doctor says everything is perfect but the AHI.

Well let's use the software and see what the pressure is really doing.
You have a bilevel pressure machine and I haven't met anyone who uses maximum pressure for obstructive sleep apnea and not have the maximum pressure on a bilevel machine be able to deal with OSA.

How about using the software so that we can see something besides an AHI number?

You can use Sleepyhead or ResScan...your choice but to be able to have any idea how we can help you we need to see what the software reports are showing.


Exactly what pressure settings?

Let's see what any software reports might be showing. See these links for information on software and how to post images of those reports so we can have an idea what is going on.
https://sleep.tnet.com/equipment

and for examples see this thread
viewtopic/t103468/Need-help-with-screen-shots.html

[tish280]

Please ignore my first post. I do have the ResMed AirCurve. It has software on it, that downloads to my doctor, and to a Resmed site that I look at every morning. How do I download the info to here?

[tish280]

I tried to follow the directions to download Sleepyhead, but I'm not technically savvy enough. I thought getting my vpap machine and using it faithfully every single minute I slept would fix my sleep apnea. I'm really frustrated.

[PoolQ]

Okay, first off relax just a little. First some understanding and then step by step.
Sleeping is complicated and these machines do not have self driving car software running them, they still need human help to get it right. People here are VERY willing to help. If you don't understand what they are asking or how to do it, please just tell us that so we can give better guidance otherwise we might get the impression that you are unwilling to try or listen. Not say that you are doing this but we have had some that just will not do anything.

There are two issues when using these machines: 1. getting the pressure right so the sleep apnea stops and 2. getting the machine set right so you will tolerate using the machine and get better sleep while doing so.

what kind of computer do you have: windows or Apple? Is it a laptop or desk top computer? Do you know if you have a SD card reader?

It would really help to have you edit your profile and put the equipment you have in, this way we don't have to scroll all over the thread and read every post to remind us what machine you have.

CPAP does indeed work and you will feel better, but most of the time it does take some work and honestly your doctor just does not have the time or really the ability do "just set it up". The good news is that we do have the time. There ae many adjustments on the machine that are comfort settings that ONLY you can figure out. Just how often do you fall asleep when you are uncomfortable anyway?

[tish280]

Thank u for ur kind response! I was really feeling bad! I have Windows, I downloaded Sleepyhead and extracted it but when I tried to pull up "broken" file there was an error message. I believe I do have an SD reader. The Sleepyhead software looks so helpful, I wish I could access it! Whatever, thank u for helping me!

[PoolQ]

Let's try this
http://www.sleepfiles.com/SH2/

look at the windows 32-bit version and click on the ".exe" and not the ".zip"

when windows pops up asking what you want to do with it select "run"
I think windows will then ask if you want to let it make changes and answer yes

I don't remember if it will put an icon on your desktop or not, if you can't find the program just report back and we will look for it
for me it ends up:
C:\Users\Phil\Downloads\Apnea\SleepyHead-Testing-0.9.8-1-T3-Windows-32bit\SleepyHead-OpenGL.exe
but I think that is the extracted place

When you get it running, put your SD card into the reader that is connected to the computer. IMPORTANT!!!!! slide the little white plastic tab on the side of the SD card to the locked position BEFORE putting it into the reader. Slide it back to unlocked after removing the SD card from the reader and before putting it back into your machine

click on the CPAP import button, 1st of the 3 buttons on sleepyhead and it will find the SD card and import your data

then click on view statistics

then on the daily tab at the top