Trying cpap mode on apap, what pressure?

[NotLazyJustTired]

Oh the joys of statistics! Great point, Pugsy. Just saying 95% is not enough, you must consider the time frame. As one who uses statistics every day in my job I would recommend a longer, but stable time frame. The longer the better. However, if the numbers are all over the place, the statistical is less reliable.

However, as has been pointed out, having a target pressure is one thing, but more importantly is the process of getting there and validating it is right. The most sensible approach I have heard (and one I intend to use myself soon) is to creep up on it. Bump your pressure by no more than .5cm or 1cm and stay there for a week. Look at the results. If needed repeat. At some point you should find the sweet spot and you can stop.

Jumping right to a 95% number (however you choose to determine that) may result in a pressure that causes many centrals or what I call "equipment related arousals" like leaks and such. I plan to be on PAP therapy the rest of my life; there is really no hurry to find the optimal treatment right away. Give it time.

[Pugsy]

The chances of jumping to a 90/95% number causing centrals is very slim. If centrals were going to be triggered by more pressure they likely would have popped up when the pressures were at the higher level to give us a higher % number anyway.
It's not like it hadn't been there before anyway.
Higher pressures and central popping up that are problematic...relatively rare as maybe 10 to 15 % of the people will have that happen and when it does it doesn't always happen to just higher pressures...it can happen with lower pressure (like even 6 cm).
People talk about avoiding higher pressures because they might trigger centrals but it's really relatively rare that we would see them pop up when going from 12 to say 13. I see pressures nearing 20 often...no more centrals than on the nights the pressure doesn't change at all.

Now making an abrupt change...like going from 9 to 13 can cause a bit of a shock. The body doesn't get to adjust to the higher pressure and thus there may be some comfort issues involved until the body gets used to the pressure...comfort issues can cause sleep disruptions and anytime sleep is fractured the chances for sleep onset centrals is increased simply because there are more instances of sleep onset with fragmented sleep.

Go up slowly...body adjusts slowly...less chance for comfort being an issue...and who knows...might get lucky and not need as much as originally thought. Kind of a win win situation and hurts nothing to be cautious anyway.
Unless reports are hugely ugly for some reason that big changes need to be made pretty quickly...why get in a rush.

[RogerSC]

Set CPAP mode pressure at 11.4 last night. Seemed okay, AHI was 0.8, which is good for me. So I'll keep it here for a few days and see how I sleep in the mornings. Thanks for all the thoughts.

[sleepstar]

We use 95% percentile after a week if usage has been good (4-6 hours) and the leak has been acceptable.