A Little More Help Please

[caffeinatedcfo]

So the last couple nights I've woken up 3-4 times (briefly) through the night. Two nights ago, 3 of 4 conscious awakenings corresponded to OAs so that made sense.

Last night I noted on my notepad that I woke up at 12:20am, 1:35am, 4:40am, and 5:48am. I think the last two were brief mouth-breathing episodes, but I do not see anything below that explains the earlier events. Obviously many non-CPAP related triggers can wake a person ... I'm just asking to see if anyone sees anything below I might be missing. Thank you!

[Pugsy]

Looks good to me...this is where we get to blame things on the every popular alien abduction theory.
Sometimes we just don't get any answers at all to our questions.

Care to guess how many times I woke up during this night last week? Wake ups that I remember?
Care to guess how I felt?

AHI was 8.33 I didn't include it ..it's so ugly a person doesn't really need to know how ugly.



Answer coming up shortly.
BTW..this is exactly why we DON'T go changing things based on one night of data.

[caffeinatedcfo]

Ouch - I'm guessing I would just do whatever you said the next day without comment.

Yeah - I figured the first two were failed attempts to abduct me via tractor beam and I probably didn't realize time stopped for 9 secs. For you newbies, that's why we don't really know why we woke up during alien encounters, as our machines only record events that last 10 secs and the aliens know this.

[ArmandXP]

I'm just curious, are your settings 9.8 to 20? It seems it never reaches that high is why I was wondering.....I hope to get my AHI that low!!!!

[caffeinatedcfo]

I'm just curious, are your settings 9.8 to 20? It seems it never reaches that high is why I was wondering.....I hope to get my AHI that low!!!!

Yes. I'm working up to my prescribed pressure of 10cm per my titration study. I will be there tonight. I want to leave it open on the top end and in APAP mode just to ensure it can adjust if I have a bad night. I don't think the max range needs to be tighter, but veteran hose heads please comment if you think otherwise.

[Pugsy]

Ouch - I'm guessing I would just do whatever you said the next day without comment.

Ah, my husband would tell you never mess with the redhead...on a good day or bad day.

Actually...I only remembered maybe 3 or 4 awakenings which for me with my pain issues...pretty normal and not unexpected and I go right back to sleep...and I woke up feeling like I always wake up and I didn't crash at about 4 PM and I don't think I even had a desire a nap that day.

I was totally amazed when I saw the report.
For some reason I managed to get almost 9 hours of sleep that night. I don't know why...just one of those things.
I have notice a real strong correlation between hours of sleep and how I feel the next day...much more of a correlation than with AHI numbers. I think that extra 90 minutes or so of sleep helped me ward off a possible crappy day in terms of how I might have felt. If I only get 6 hours of sleep, even with a nice low less than 1.0 AHI....I feel like the bus ran over me and I almost always will need to take a short nap.

So while on paper I probably should have felt like total crap but I didn't. I felt just about like I do any other day. Some days are better than others but mostly do to pain issues and not sleepy/tired issues.

[Pugsy]

I don't think the max range needs to be tighter, but veteran hose heads please comment if you think otherwise.

Some will suggest a tighter range but I don't see the need. If it doesn't want to go there it won't and so far I haven't ever seen you have it go very high. Just because it is set at 20...doesn't mean it will go there and if it doesn't go there it becomes a moot point. The max setting doesn't do a thing unless it is ever reached anyway. You could set it for 100 cm if the machine would do it and if it never went above 12 then it doesn't matter what the max is set at.

Of course people can say...well if you don't need it why not just set it closer? Well it still doesn't change the way the machine works...if you set max at 14...and you never went past 12...it still works just the same way as if it was set to 20.

Limiting the maximum is useful if the machine was prone to chase leaks and in the past this was a real concern but with these newest technology machines they just don't go chasing leaks like the past generations of machines did. Your leaks are a non issue anyway.
Limiting the maximum is useful if pressure changes disturb sleep but if that happens you would want a much, much tighter range anyway...
Limiting the maximum is useful if higher pressures seem to cause worsening aerophagia...and then you have to compromise and probably use a much tighter range.

In your situation...the maximum setting really never becomes a factor...if you set the max to 12...it still would be a non issue unless you reached it and it's only an issue if it creates a problem. A non issue is a non issue no matter what the max is if you don't ever reach it.

[ArmandXP]

The reason I asked is I always hit my max pressure. Should I try changing it and see if it makes a difference? All opinions welcome.....

[Pugsy]

The reason I asked is I always hit my max pressure. Should I try using it and see if it makes a difference? All opinions welcome.....

Actually the minimum pressure is the most critical pressure. I don't remember seeing a copy of your report...so I don't know how much traveling it does. If you are spending a lot of time at your max..you may need more max but you also just need a little more minimum...get the minimum to work better and the need to increase pressure playing catch up mode is reduced.
So would need to see your reports to know what you are seeing to offer a more specific idea.
People think maximum is the first thing to increase but actually the minimum is the better choice in most cases.

Read this and see if it makes sense to you.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=39869&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

[ArmandXP]

Thanks Pugsy, I'll post some stats once my Internet is back up. Doing everything from my phone at the moment.....

[caffeinatedcfo]

The reason I asked is I always hit my max pressure. Should I try changing it and see if it makes a difference? All opinions welcome.....

What I have found is as I raised my minimum pressure, I experienced less events and my maximum pressures decreased. I only adjusted by fractions every couple of days (i.e. 9.0 to 9.4; then 9.6, 9.8, etc).

[squid13]

I'm like Pugsy, I put my IPAP at 20 and let the machine go to where it needs to go. Some nights I have hit 18 and one night 19 but most nights it's 16.4 to 17.

[ArmandXP]

The reason I asked is I always hit my max pressure. Should I try changing it and see if it makes a difference? All opinions welcome.....

What I have found is as I raised my minimum pressure, I experienced less events and my maximum pressures decreased. I only adjusted by fractions every couple of days (i.e. 9.0 to 9.4; then 9.6, 9.8, etc).

Cool. Thanks for the input!!!

[RandyJ]

I have notice a real strong correlation between hours of sleep and how I feel the next day...much more of a correlation than with AHI numbers.

I have noticed this too. I don't really feel any different in the morning after a 0.1 AHI or a 1.0 AHI night, but I definitely feel better after 8.5 hours slept than 6 hours.

[caffeinatedcfo]

I have notice a real strong correlation between hours of sleep and how I feel the next day...much more of a correlation than with AHI numbers.

I have noticed this too. I don't really feel any different in the morning after a 0.1 AHI or a 1.0 AHI night, but I definitely feel better after 8.5 hours slept than 6 hours.

ditto, ditto. My AHIs have been good, but for example last night was .4, but I was a bit groggy for a while due to wife's snoring woke me twice and the damn cat invested life #6 jumping on the bed an hour before I needed / planned to wake up.