New Cpap user question

[Wreckmster]

I'm new to the CPAP machine and I've been doing well with it. I get 6-7 hours a night using the unit. However, I always seem to be awakened in the middle of the night with high pressures. Last night it had my mouth blown up like a balloon. My cheeks were bulging out and it woke me right up. I
have an Airsense 10 auto and it is constantly changing. why would the pressure increase so high? When I checked it it read 14.5.. I'm committed to using this machine, but I have to fix this first. My prescribing doctor doesnt have an appt available until January..

[Pugsy]

Cheeks bulging out we call "chipmunk cheeks".
It's been discussed often in the past on the forum so you might use the forum search function to find past discussions.
It happens because the tongue drops down and lets the air, going up the nose and down the airway, enter the mouth and when the lips are shut the cheeks inflate.
The trick is for the tongue to stay in place and not open that backdoor. Easy to do while awake but the tongue gets lazy when we go to sleep.
It can happen at any pressure...so not necessarily tied to your higher pressures. People have it happen with as little as 5 cm pressure.

As to why the higher pressure needs in the middle of the night...it's just the machine doing its job and for some reason or other you need higher pressures at that time.
The 2 most common causes for higher pressure needs during parts of the night and not others are supine sleeping or REM stage sleep ..or maybe a little of both.
Mine is REM sleep...during probable REM sleep I have seen pressures upwards of 18 to 19 and the rest of the night I am good around 10 cm. That goes along with my diagnostic sleep study where my OSA was 5 times as bad in REM sleep than it was in non REM sleep.

Hopefully your tongue will learn to keep that back door closed with time and practice.

[Sheriff Buford]

I have gotten into a habit of having my cheeks inflate...er.... chipmunk cheeks all night. It allows me to leave the mask a smidging looser and the cheeks will provide a seal. Do you use sleepyhead? How high does the pressure get? This is one of the issues with the autoset mode. The machine ramps up and down all night long, and can often waken light sleepers.

Sheriff

[OkyDoky]

I had chipmunk cheeks at first but it didn't take long for my tongue to learn to stay at the roof of my mouth. While using nasal/pillow masks this seals off the mouth and allows the air to stay where it belongs.

[ChicagoGranny]

I
have an Airsense 10 auto and it is constantly changing. why would the pressure increase so high?

What is your pressure range setting - minimum and maximum pressure?

My prescribing doctor doesnt have an appt available until January..

I have a very good sleep doctor, but I found the experts in this forum were of much more help than my doctor.

[Christine L]

Hopefully your tongue will learn to keep that back door closed with time and practice.

You have to say what you have to say. But that just sounds so vulgar. teehee

[Wreckmster]

I
have an Airsense 10 auto and it is constantly changing. why would the pressure increase so high?

What is your pressure range setting - minimum and maximum pressure?

My prescribing doctor doesnt have an appt available until January..

I have a very good sleep doctor, but I found the experts in this forum were of much more help than my doctor.

It's set from 5-20 right now.

I've downloaded the Sleepyhead software and I looked at a few of my nights but I'm not real clear on what everything means yet. I still have alot of research to do to educate myself with my issue and this software.. thanks for the response everyone......And I'll work on keeping that backdoor closed..lol

[ChicagoGranny]

Did you find the page on organizing and posting Sleepyhead charts- https://sleep.tnet.com/resources/sleepyhead ?

If you can post a typical night, you can get some good input.

It's set from 5-20 right now.

This is a so-called wide-open pressure range. With some help on analyzing your SH reports, you may be able to narrow this range down and greatly decrease -->

it is constantly changing

--> the pressure changes.

[Sheriff Buford]

Hopefully your tongue will learn to keep that back door closed with time and practice.

You have to say what you have to say. But that just sounds so vulgar. teehee

I don't get it...

Sheriff

[Wreckmster]

Did you find the page on organizing and posting Sleepyhead charts- https://sleep.tnet.com/resources/sleepyhead ?

If you can post a typical night, you can get some good input.

It's set from 5-20 right now.

This is a so-called wide-open pressure range. With some help on analyzing your SH reports, you may be able to narrow this range down and greatly decrease -->

it is constantly changing

--> the pressure changes.

Thanks ChicagoGranny, I'll have to check that link out and see what I come up with. It'll probably have to wait until sunday. I have a very busy weekend ahead of me.
thanks again

[Wreckmster]

OK, I went back and grabbed last weeks Stats from sleepyhead.

here it is.. It's only my second week on Cpap.

[OkyDoky]

Your image didn't work. Check out https://sleep.tnet.com/reference/tips/imgur

[Pugsy]

You hosted your image on Dropbox and Dropbox is a PITA for image viewing. It can be done but takes some tricks and you have to make it public and if you did anything that requires us downloading a file to view the report ....we probably won't download.

It's easier to just use imgur.com. For examples
viewtopic/t103468/Need-help-with-screen-shots.html

[Hang Fire]

Hopefully your tongue will learn to keep that back door closed with time and practice.

You have to say what you have to say. But that just sounds so vulgar. teehee

I don't get it...

Sheriff

[Wreckmster]

sorry, thought it was public. lets try this again