What do I expect with EPR "on"?

[zonker]

This was last night. Not a totally fair comparison, I took some antihistamine before bed for allergies and cough, so I probably slept more heavily than average.

this certainly looks better than the chart you posted above. but remember, we are looking for trends, not just one night vs another. get a couple of nights worth of graphs and post them here. PLEASE don't start another thread.

also, do as dog slobber suggests and increase your min pressure so that the machine can get at those events and vanquish them.

but mostly and apart from any charts, are you feeling good with your sleep? are feeling better upon waking up?

[JJR]

but mostly and apart from any charts, are you feeling good with your sleep? are feeling better upon waking up?

No. Never have. 13 months on CPAP and I just don’t wake up feeling rested or refreshed. Before CPAP, only now and then did I wake up refreshed.

I sleep 6-8 hours consistently and have no trouble falling asleep, and there’s plenty of REM sleep, I just don’t wake up feeling rested & refreshed.

[zonker]

but mostly and apart from any charts, are you feeling good with your sleep? are feeling better upon waking up?

No. Never have. 13 months on CPAP and I just don’t wake up feeling rested or refreshed. Before CPAP, only now and then did I wake up refreshed.

I sleep 6-8 hours consistently and have no trouble falling asleep, and there’s plenty of REM sleep, I just don’t wake up feeling rested & refreshed.

we'll get there. raise that minimum pressure and see how you do.

[Pugsy]

I sleep 6-8 hours consistently and have no trouble falling asleep, and there’s plenty of REM sleep, I just don’t wake up feeling rested & refreshed.

Not all sleep quality problems or how we feel during the day problems are caused by something related to sleep apnea.
Maybe need to look elsewhere for possible reasons of not feeling rested or refreshed. I always look at medication side effects first because it is very common for medication side effects to be the cause of feeling like crap or sleeping like crap.
Then look at other potential health issues.

CPAP machine tweaks can't/won't fix problems that aren't related to sleep disordered breathing.

[JJR]

I'm going to raise the minimum pressure by 1 tonight and give it a couple nights.

My only medications are daily loratadine for allergies, and antibiotic eyedrops for post-cataract surgery. The cataract surgery was in December, so nothing's changed sleep-wise since before then.

I've considered it could be the bed, it's a fairly new bed but not as firm as I'd like. It's not bad, but not perfect either. The "doctors" (nurse practitioners and physicians assistants) all say exercise is the magic elixir.

[zonker]

I'm going to raise the minimum pressure by 1 tonight and give it a couple nights.

My only medications are daily loratadine for allergies, and antibiotic eyedrops for post-cataract surgery. The cataract surgery was in December, so nothing's changed sleep-wise since before then.

I've considered it could be the bed, it's a fairly new bed but not as firm as I'd like. It's not bad, but not perfect either. The "doctors" (nurse practitioners and physicians assistants) all say exercise is the magic elixir.

google "sleep hygiene". it's an extensive list. i don't follow everything on it. two things that i concentrate on are no coffee after 12 pm. no wine two hours before bedtime. these two things alone have helped me on the road to sleeping through the night.

also, while you mention exercise, i feel more strongly about movement. at my peak, last summer, i was doing an hour walk a day, riding my spin bike 45 minutes a day and (mostly) everyday walking the dog. i was also doing water aerobics and chair yoga.

not of these were intense workouts. but they all helped considerably.

i find myself in a different place now. i moved in october from arizona to washington state. i've been using this as an excuse to cut WAY back on my movement.

and i can tell the difference. multiple wake ups in the night.

but i'm working my way back....

[JJR]

I agree, movement is they key, more than workouts. I don’t do caffeine past about noon, and alcohol very rarely. At 55, I can’t eat big heavy meals any more, a light dinner is all I need.

Physical activity with a goal outside of my self, I’ll do that all day if I can (but I don’t!) Just small tasks around the house, honey-dos, repairs. But exercise like running or weight lifting bores me to tears because I feel like it’s so self-centered and there are more important things to do. But I digress...

[JJR]

Now that my allergy misery is mostly past, I have had two nights in a row where I woke up feeling pretty rested. I'm going to try for a third night, then look at the graphs on OSCAR. Last night was an adventure, I had intense dreams that went on and on, and woke up with a raw throat and an empty water chamber., and still woke up feeling pretty decent. Note to self: put more water in it tonight!

[Miss Emerita]

If you go here:

https://medlineplus.gov/druginfo/meds/a ... de-effects

you will see that one possible side effect of loratadine is "difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep."

Several other web sites, including this one:

https://www.cardiosmart.org/Healthwise/d030/50/d03050

state that a possible side effect is "feeling tired or drowsy."

[JJR]

Night # 1 here was a good night's sleep:

[JJR]

Another good night's sleep:

screenshot-20200115-102751.png (115.18 KiB) Viewed 1520 times

And last night, which wasn't as good:

screenshot-20200115-102758.png (116.23 KiB) Viewed 1520 times

[Pugsy]

So why wasn't last night very good?
What is your criteria for good or bad?

[JJR]

So why wasn't last night very good?
What is your criteria for good or bad?

Valid question. I felt like my sleep was interrupted, slightly irritable, not rested.

The allergy medicine could certainly play a role, I’d love to purge myself of that for a while and see.

[Pugsy]

So why wasn't last night very good?
What is your criteria for good or bad?

Valid question. I felt like my sleep was interrupted, slightly irritable, not rested.

The allergy medicine could certainly play a role, I’d love to purge myself of that for a while and see.

I can totally relate to that. On paper everything looks good but on paper doesn't always translate into how we feel in real life.
I always look really good on paper but I don't always feel those good on paper reports for various reasons that sometimes I know why and sometimes I don't know why.

When we don't sleep so great it doesn't always mean it's related to sleep apnea. Lots of stuff can and will mess with our sleep quality that the machine really can't be expected to do much about no matter how much we might want to put all our woes in the sleep apnea basket and have the machine fix them.

Medication side effects often plays a much bigger part in sleep quality than people think it will.
Sometimes we have to choice though...we have to take a certain medication for some reason or other. Sometimes it's just not possible to stop taking something or even change to something else.

[JJR]

Lung Doc said it could be exercise, thyroid, or testosterone. And she suggested changing allergy meds.

She looked at my data and seemed puzzled that my pressure limits were 7 and 15 (they were originally 5 & 15). I kept quiet, but she said she’d bump the high to 18.