CPAP Data Help

[Velderes]

Hello all,

I would love some guidance and eyes on my sleep data, as I still suffer from tiredness and fatigue.
I had a sleep study done and my AHI was 23 so I started my APAP journey 3 weeks ago.
The first 3 weeks of APAP were awful, because I was always feeling like I needed more air when I'm breathing with the machine and I was also waking up in the middle of the night gasping for air. I would say my sleep was maybe 2/10. I reached out to my CPAP technician 2 days ago because of my poor sleep, and they turned the EPR off (from 2).
It has been 2 days since the change, and I don't have any more of those feelings of breathlessness or episodes of gasping for air in the middle of the night, but my sleep still remains overall poor.
I have included 4 nights of SleepHQ link here along with my written sleep quality summary. Please have a look and let me know what you think I should do to improve my sleep quality.


Machine configuration
Pressure: 5-15
Ramp: Off
Mask: N20


Recording 1: EPR on 2. Pretty poor sleep. Felt tired all day. Low energy. Overall sleep quality: 3/10
https://sleephq.com/public/3927732c-3e5 ... 1b16c80715


Recording 2: EPR on 2. Awful sleep. Felt extremely tired and down all day. Overall sleep quality: 2/10
https://sleephq.com/public/d1860780-cad ... 28e96f6fdf


Recording 3: First night with EPR off. Slept pretty well. Felt decently energised during work. Overall sleep quality: 7/10
https://sleephq.com/public/b8e279c7-45c ... 5e3e01a2e1


Recording 4: Second night with EPR off. Feel tired like I used to before CPAP where I am just sleepy during the afternoon. Overall sleep quality: 5/10
https://sleephq.com/public/dac7e869-747 ... 093391c1ba


One thing I cannot figure out is: My OA has always been quite low, but my CA has always made the majority of my AHI. Now with EPR off, I had 2 nights without an OA, but just CA’s that disturb my sleep. What is causing my CA?


Thank you all in advance!

[Pugsy]

What is causing my CA?

Your centrals/CAs are a symptom of your poor sleep quality and not necessarily the cause of your poor sleep.

Are you waking often during the night? Any idea why?

Do you take any medications of any kind? If so, what?
Do you have any other issues (physical or mental) that could impact your sleep quality.

Your poor sleep (waking or arousals you may or may not remember) is causing the centrals.

[Julie]

Listen to Pugsy - people often assume everything is about sleep, but it may not be and other things may need to be looked at.

[Pugsy]

viewtopic/t188423/quotCAquot-Clear-Airway-Events.html

read the above thread please

[Velderes]

What is causing my CA?

Your centrals/CAs are a symptom of your poor sleep quality and not necessarily the cause of your poor sleep.

Are you waking often during the night? Any idea why?

Do you take any medications of any kind? If so, what?
Do you have any other issues (physical or mental) that could impact your sleep quality.

Your poor sleep (waking or arousals you may or may not remember) is causing the centrals.

Im not sure why I wake up sometimes during the night, but I would once or twice a couple of times.

No medications, no physical or mental issues that I am aware of.

So you are saying that it is nothing that a APAP or a BiPap machine can solve, but an external reasoning that is causing my CA's and poor sleep?

[Pugsy]

So you are saying that it is nothing that a APAP or a BiPap machine can solve, but an external reasoning that is causing my CA's and poor sleep?

CPAP/APAP machines can't fix or deal with central apneas. Instead they are designed to prevent obstructive apneas or hyponeas..
You would need a totally different machine if you needed to fix central apneas.
Now some bilevel machines can deal with centrals but most are just cpap/apap on steroids and can't treat centrals.
You need a very special bilevel machine to treat centrals....not cheap or easy to get even when needed.

Even if your centrals were real asleep centrals....cpap/apap can't do a damn thing about them.

I didn't look through all your SleepHQ reports (I don't feel so great myself right now) but I did look through Recording 4....and every CA/central I saw flagged was preceded by arousal/awake breathing so that means you weren't sound asleep.

Now why you weren't sound asleep...dunno...I can't tell that.

You have to be asleep for the centrals to be worrisome and you need a lot more of those asleep centrals than you are having to earn that other machine.

Why are people so freaked out over having a few centrals show up? They are normal and to be expected in small numbers
yet people freak out.

Awake/arousal flagged anything (can be OA, Hyponea or central) don't mean much because if we aren't asleep....they simply don't count. Most of the time they are nothing more than a symptom of the poor sleep quality problem and not the cause of the poor sleep.