Back on a CPAP machine, Sleepyhead data. Tired during the day.

[JonSnow]

So I was on Cpap and lost my machine about 2 years ago when I lost my insurance. Got better insurance and was able to get another machine. I have had it for about 8 months now. Everything was going great but suddenly I have been feeling tired during the day again. I do want to say I have lost 30 LBS. I installed sleepyhead just wanted to post my stats for last night just to see if there can be any improvements to my therapy. I'm on the Resmed S10 with some pillows. The pillows are getting changed on the 28th to newer pillows. I also have a full face mask but can't really deal with the leaks and the way it feels. Anyways I remember back when I had the machine we were shooting for an AHI of 2.00 or less on sleepyhead. Any recommendations?

[Pugsy]

You need more minimum pressure to bring the AHI down. Probably at least 7 cm...maybe even a little more.

How many hours of sleep are you getting? Real sleep and not laying awake tossing and turning?
This report shows not quite 6 hours of use...how much of that time were you asleep.

Take any medications of any kind? If so, what?

[JonSnow]

Hey Pugsy. I was looking at my old post and it seems that on my old machine my minimum pressure was 7. I'm going to put it up from 6 to 7. Probably go 6.5 and then after a couple days go to 7. Up until about 3 weeks ago, I would take Ambien for sleep. Problem with me is that its hard for me to fall asleep and stay asleep. I thought maybe it could be the Ambien making me tired so I stopped. Now I just take melatonin and it helps I guess for me to get to sleep but I do wake up sometimes for about a minute or so and then I go back to sleep after checking my watch. Also, I'm trying to get from 6-7 hours a day. What is crazy to me is that when I was on the Ambien and only sleeping like 5 hours I was fine. Now I'm off Ambien and sleeping about 6-7 hours and I'm getting tired/sleepy. I'm going to play with the minimum pressure and see if I can get that AHI down a bit. Thanks

[Pugsy]

Melatonin is not without the morning hang over effect. It's not nearly as benign as people tend to think it is. Google the side effects...they are a bit ugly.

Have you ever tried the OTC sleep aids which are mainly Benadryl kind of stuff? They also have some morning hangover effects but might keep you asleep a little longer during the night and the hangover effect might go away faster.

Ambien is good for falling asleep....but not so much for staying asleep. Ambien CR is better for staying asleep longer.

Increase your pressure and see if that helps much with your unwanted symptoms. If it doesn't then you need to be prepared to do more detective work in an effort to figure out why your sleep quality is crappy. Not all our sleep quality problems is coming from sleep apnea stuff and the best cpap therapy in the world can't fix a problem if it's not related to sleep apnea itself.

[palerider]

Hey Pugsy. I was looking at my old post and it seems that on my old machine my minimum pressure was 7. I'm going to put it up from 6 to 7. Probably go 6.5 and then after a couple days go to 7.

Just go to 7. you can't set a resmed at 6.5 anyway. All that taking more time to get the minimum up with do is delay your feeling better.

I'd say 8, maybe 9 would be a better minimum pressure.