Oscar stat review and help.

[masterpkpk]

So aside from the weird hour long gap ion the data, my numbers look good, but i feel damned exhausted this morning. I remember waking up a few times having to take the mask off, then begrudgingly put it back on. around 4am i woke up again with a tummy ache and had to take the mask off to go back to sleep. Feeling good about leak rates. flow limits look okay? Is it possible i'm waking up just because APAP is new and weird? are the frequent wake ups causing my exhaustion?

[Pugsy]

Yes, it is possible that the frequent wake ups along with probably obviously sleeping without cpap mask on (which means untreated apnea sleep)...are big factors in feeling like crap today.

When we wake up often from whatever cause we just don't get the chance for the body to get the normal sleep stage cycling it needs so that we get the nice normal progression of each sleep stage along with the needed percentage in each sleep stage that we need for the restorative powers of sleep to work their magic. Usually what happens with frequent wake ups is we end up with less deep and/or REM sleep than the body really needs because that's when most of the restorative stuff happens.
Think about it. When you continually reset the starting point you don't end up in the later stages of a sleep cycle that you need.

Google "sleep stages" and look at normal hypnograms and review the pattern of the cycles. We are supposed to do that all through the night but when we remember waking often....we know we didn't get a chance to get into the normal pattern.
Now it is normal to wake up after REM but normally we don't remember it because it is so brief. When we remember a lot of wake ups it's a safe bet there were even more wake ups than we remember.

Is it possible that the wake ups are the brain just telling you "hey dude, there is an alien on your face"...yep...it's very possible. Let's face it...this whole apap thing with the mask on blowing air up our nose or in our mouth isn't normal for the brain. It takes a while for the brain to learn that this alien is its new best friend. It took me a full 3 months for my brain to quit poking me to alert me to the alien on my face. I woke up often just because the brain was worried about the alien on my face.

Your FLs...I wouldn't worry about them myself.

Now....something to think about....while there aren't a lot of big swings in your pressure line there are some and maybe if we smooth things out a bit you might sleep better. It all depends on what is causing the wake ups. Is it just the brain being on hyper sensitive alert or is it maybe the whatever changes the machine is doing in response to maybe the FLs....it's possible.
Maybe using a higher minimum pressure would result in less pressure changes which might result in a little better quality sleep.
It works that way for some people. So something to consider. Some people say they find they sleep better when the pressure doesn't move around so much. You run the risk of air in the belly issues though when you do that....so it's always a trade off it seems.

[masterpkpk]

So I noticed my average minimum pressure for the last couple of weeks is 11.8 does my minimum pressure need to be closer to something like 9 or 10? Currently at 7.6
I notice my aerophagia is only really bad on nights that my pressure jumps up to over 16 and stays there for a good portion of the night. So I dialed my max down to 15. Am I off base here?

[Pugsy]

Is your median average pressure 11.8 or is that the 95% pressure number? Where are you getting that number?
It's okay to limit the max to prevent the aerophagia. Sometimes that is something we just have to do.

[masterpkpk]

Its the average median I believe. I domt have the stat sheet in front of me. I think the 95% average was closer to 14. I saw those stats on the statistics page I think?

[Pugsy]

http://adventures-in-hosehead-land.blog ... de-to.html
See above for a lesson in stats from a math professor

I don't know that I would be increasing the minimum unless I just had to because that will increase the constant pressure on the LES Lower Esophageal Sphincter and potentially increase the chance of aerophagia issues.