Still very tired after CPAP

[ineedsomegoodsleep]

Hello. I'm new around here. I just got diagnosed with moderate sleep apnea about a month ago. They put me on a phillips dream station APAP machine. I switched from the nose blower thingy to the full face mask a couple of weeks ago for the better. However, I'm still very tired during the day and am about ready to pass out come 1 PM in the afternoon. I sleep about 10 or so hours each night. Was wondering if you all can help me figure out what's going on.

Here are my SleepyHead statistics for last night:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

I'm not sure what's going on. Is my air pressure too low? I was at like 5 or 6 and then they bumped me up to 8 but still not sleeping well. Any advice is appreciated.

[Wulfman...]

Hello. I'm new around here. I just got diagnosed with moderate sleep apnea about a month ago. They put me on a phillips dream station APAP machine. I switched from the nose blower thingy to the full face mask a couple of weeks ago for the better. However, I'm still very tired during the day and am about ready to pass out come 1 PM in the afternoon. I sleep about 10 or so hours each night. Was wondering if you all can help me figure out what's going on.

Here are my SleepyHead statistics for last night:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

I'm not sure what's going on. Is my air pressure too low? I was at like 5 or 6 and then they bumped me up to 8 but still not sleeping well. Any advice is appreciated.

First of all, you're just starting your therapy. It can take months to get used to this new way of sleeping and your body is wanting to repay your "sleep debt". So, it's normal to want/need to sleep longer. On the other hand, some people are actually getting better, oxygenated sleep and can do OK with shorter hours of sleep. It's pretty individualistic.

Your minimum pressure is likely too low. And, if it were me, I'd restrict the upper limit, too.......maybe to about 12 cm.

Some people are also sensitive to pressure changes during the night and the changes MAY bump the user out of their needed (deeper) sleep stages and into lighter ones. Not everyone is, but some are.

Give it some time and keep monitoring your reports. And, keep in mind that Flow Limitations and Snores are the primary triggers for pressure increases (it will for Hypopneas and Apneas, too depending on the machine and the algorithm).


Den

.

[ineedsomegoodsleep]

Hello. I'm new around here. I just got diagnosed with moderate sleep apnea about a month ago. They put me on a phillips dream station APAP machine. I switched from the nose blower thingy to the full face mask a couple of weeks ago for the better. However, I'm still very tired during the day and am about ready to pass out come 1 PM in the afternoon. I sleep about 10 or so hours each night. Was wondering if you all can help me figure out what's going on.

Here are my SleepyHead statistics for last night:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

I'm not sure what's going on. Is my air pressure too low? I was at like 5 or 6 and then they bumped me up to 8 but still not sleeping well. Any advice is appreciated.

First of all, you're just starting your therapy. It can take months to get used to this new way of sleeping and your body is wanting to repay your "sleep debt". So, it's normal to want/need to sleep longer. On the other hand, some people are actually getting better, oxygenated sleep and can do OK with shorter hours of sleep. It's pretty individualistic.

Your minimum pressure is likely too low. And, if it were me, I'd restrict the upper limit, too.......maybe to about 12 cm.

Some people are also sensitive to pressure changes during the night and the changes MAY bump the user out of their needed (deeper) sleep stages and into lighter ones. Not everyone is, but some are.

Give it some time and keep monitoring your reports. And, keep in mind that Flow Limitations and Snores are the primary triggers for pressure increases (it will for Hypopneas and Apneas, too depending on the machine and the algorithm).


Den

.

Hi Den,

Thanks for responding. I feel like I'm used to sleeping with the mask on but during the day it feels like I've been hit by a train. Seems like this should be working better - almost as if something isn't quite right. I guess you did says that my minimum pressure is likely too low. I just noticed that I haven't changed the air filter in about a month and it's looking pretty dirty. So I guess the first step is to get a new filter.

May I ask what do you mean by restrict the upper limit? As far as I know it starts off at 8 and stays there all night long. I've turned off the ramp feature.

[Wulfman...]

Hi Den,

Thanks for responding. I feel like I'm used to sleeping with the mask on but during the day it feels like I've been hit by a train. Seems like this should be working better - almost as if something isn't quite right. I guess you did says that my minimum pressure is likely too low. I just noticed that I haven't changed the air filter in about a month and it's looking pretty dirty. So I guess the first step is to get a new filter.

May I ask what do you mean by restrict the upper limit? As far as I know it starts off at 8 and stays there all night long. I've turned off the ramp feature.

Your snoring is causing your pressures to rise and sometimes to the maximum pressure allowable.
In my opinion, allowing the machine to chase snores is somewhat unwarranted, especially if they're sporadic.
What I meant was to set the maximum to a little lower pressure so as to lessen the pressure fluctuations.
In other words, if you raise your minimum and lower your maximum, you'll have a narrower pressure range which may be less sleep disruptive.
Personally, I like straight pressure. I found that using a range of pressures wrecked my sleep and left me feeling unrested.
You may want to try that at some point down the road.


Den

.

[OkyDoky]

May I ask what do you mean by restrict the upper limit? As far as I know it starts off at 8 and stays there all night long. I've turned off the ramp feature.

If you look at your Sleepyhead report under the AHI number it shows your settings to be APAP (auto mode) Min 8 Max 20. Meaning your machine starts at 8 and will increase when the machine sees a need. It can increase to 20cm but on this report it only increased to 15 once and that was at the beginning of the night and that increase might have been prevented by a little higher minimum setting. On Sleepyhead look at the Pressure graph and you can see how the pressure adjusted while you slept.
I would initally increase the minimum to 9cm and monitor a few days. It will probably take about 10cm but give 9cm a try first and see. I would monitor the maximum pressure but just change one setting at a time so you will know what helps.

[I've Been Tired]

Your leaks are pretty high. A leak strap can bring those down.

[Wulfman...]

Your leaks are pretty high. A leak strap can bring those down.

Not really. Looks pretty good to me.
The OP is using a Philips/Respironics machine and they report leakage differently than ResMed machines.


Den

.

[OkyDoky]

Your leaks are pretty high. A leak strap can bring those down.

Not really. Looks pretty good to me.
The OP is using a Philips/Respironics machine and they report leakage differently than ResMed machines.


Den

.

+1
Respironics includes the mask venting in their leak reporting while ResMed only reports unintentional leak.

[SmokeChaser426]

Hang in there, took over 4 months for me to come out of the fog. First months I was sleeping 8 and 9 hours
a night, I never slept that long and was so tired all the time. Before CPAP I never slept more than
7 hours and was never tired during the day but my 02 would drop below 70% at night and I was drinking
3 bottles of water a night. Things seemed all backwards but I kept a solid routine of going
to bed at the same time and with a few adjustments to my pressure and turning off the ramp
things came together. 02 is 92% throughout the night and I am not drinking all that water to wet
my parched throat. It is amazing how the body works so hard to keep things going right. Then when
things get adjusted with the CPAP the body has to totally reset itself to how it should have been working.
Just looking at the Sleepyhead data and 02 graphs proves that....

[ineedsomegoodsleep]

Thanks everyone:)

[D.H.]

The report say that you slept 13¾ hours! Some patients feel relief the first week, but most take a bit longer, sometimes several months.

I don't know of you slept this long in the B.C. (before CPAP) era. If not, perhaps your body sees that it can get the sleep it needs and is trying to "grab it while the grabbing is good."