pressure question for APAP

[DebMA]

Hi, tonight's night five for me; things are going OK, but I am having an issue when falling asleep...I find myself taking huge inhalations on every breath - which isn't my typical falling asleep breathing pattern...the sound of my machine (which I assume is from the exhalation relief?) is very audible. i i don't exactly feel like i'm choking, but i do feel like i must do this deep breathing in order to get enough air as i'm falling asleep. it's also taking me some amount of time (i don't know for sure because i can't see my clock with my glasses off!) to fall alseep, whereas i typically fall asleep in a few minutes. my pressure range is 6-12 and my 90% has been 11 for the past four nights. i'm not using the ramp feature. i don't have my sleep study in hand (yet), so i don't know what my titration #'s looked like there...

is what i'm experiencing (deep breathing pattern, extra time to fall asleep) just part of getting used to the therapy, or does it indicate that my lower pressure # is too low and the range needs to be tightened up?

also, is it typical for my humidifyer, set on 4, to show no appreciable water usage in four nights? i've had the forced hot air heat on for two of the nights, so i'd assume it's at least a little dry in the house...

thanks for your help.
btw, for anyone who replied to my first post, i am going to try a timer set to turn my machine off on saturday morning, but leave it running from friday evening until then (with the auto off and auto on settings both turned off).

[Mammal]

DebMA, i had the same problem. My pressure range was 4-20, and after 3 months I convinced my specialist to lift the minimum to 6.0. This has helped, but I still think it is too low. The whoosing noise is so annoying for me, I sleep with cotton balls in my ears.

[Julie]

Your low pressure is very low, so you're breathing more heavily to get more air. I suggest raising the low end by 1-2 numbers.

[sronsen]

You are starving for air at a setting of 6. If your 95th percentile pressure is 11, then 9 - 13 is a more reasonable range and will likely resolve the gasping for breath issue. You might also try turning off the EPR to see if you really need it. You're better off without it if you don't experience any exhalation difficulties, and most users don't. Of course, keep monitoring your results to make sure the pressure changes are not hurting your therapy.

[kempo]

I can see why you are having a hard time falling to sleep with a low end setting of 6. Good grief your suffocating yourself. I would try a low end setting of 9 for a few nights and see if it helps.

[Hawthorne]

Yes, if your 90% pressure is 11cm, you need a higher minimum pressure than 6 cm and probably a higher maximum pressure than 12 cm.

Maybe you want to move the minimum up gradually but you could set it at 10 cm and the maximum at 13 or 14 cm. If you find that going to 10 cm minimum is too much of a jump at one time, then go to 8 cm and then to 10 cm.

You are probably not getting enough air at a minimum pressure of 6 cm and that's why you are taking those huge inhalations and taking so long to get to sleep. You are certainly not getting any effective therapy for you, if you have a 90% of 11 cm and you are going up from 6 cm. It is taking too long to get you to an effective therapy level which, in your case, sounds like a minimum of about 10 cm.

[Doubtful Tom]

...the sound of my machine (which I assume is from the exhalation relief?) is very audible. is what i'm experiencing (deep breathing pattern, extra time to fall asleep) just part of getting used to the therapy, or does it indicate that my lower pressure # is too low and the range needs to be tightened up?.

Aha, so noise level of machine is determined by pressure setting, or more specifically, the low end setting? I find my apap, with low end of 4, rather noisy, as well.

[Julie]

No - it's the EPR feature that's noisy, not the machine otherwise.

[dtsm]

DebMA, i had the same problem. My pressure range was 4-20, and after 3 months I convinced my specialist to lift the minimum to 6.0. This has helped, but I still think it is too low. The whoosing noise is so annoying for me, I sleep with cotton balls in my ears.

Both you and DebMa have much too wide a range. You've got a great unit, with full data capability. What does the data show you? For instance, if you're in 95th percentile or even average cpap is say 10, you can drill down the range to say 9-13. You'll solve a whole bunch of problems and get better therapy.

POV

[Doubtful Tom]

No - it's the EPR feature that's noisy, not the machine otherwise.

hmm, ok, that's interesting, because near as I can tell, my EPR is not turned on ... need to double-check ...

[dtsm]

No - it's the EPR feature that's noisy, not the machine otherwise.

hmm, ok, that's interesting, because near as I can tell, my EPR is not turned on ... need to double-check ...

This won't address the noise question but does a much better job at explaining my earlier post regarding setting the right band of pressure with apap:
viewtopic/t57544/S9-autosetEPR-or-not-t ... stion.html. Rested gal is one of the resident experts here...