Something weird is waking me up!

[JasonK94Z]

For the past two days, I have woke up in the morning to an air pressure pulsing sensation inside of my nasal mask. Obviously I'm in a light sleep for it to wake me up. I don't think there is any water in my hose. I have the humidity on 2, and no hose heat. Room temp is 70 F.

Any ideas? Is it an apnea event and the machine is adjusting pressure and I happen to notice it?

[Wulfman...]

For the past two days, I have woke up in the morning to an air pressure pulsing sensation inside of my nasal mask. Obviously I'm in a light sleep for it to wake me up. I don't think there is any water in my hose. I have the humidity on 2, and no hose heat. Room temp is 70 F.

Any ideas? Is it an apnea event and the machine is adjusting pressure and I happen to notice it?

Look at your reports. We have no way of knowing.
Most APAPs won't respond to solitary apneas unless they're preceded by flow limitations or snores.


Den

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[JasonK94Z]

I'm going to download sleephead tonight. Hopefully my machines data is compatible with it.

[Wulfman...]

I'm going to download sleephead tonight. Hopefully my machines data is compatible with it.

Therein lies one of the problems with being on the cutting edge of technology.........


Den

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[Pugsy]

Is it an apnea event and the machine is adjusting pressure and I happen to notice it?

Until you can evaluate the pressure graph using software there is no way to know much of anything.
The disadvantage to be one of the first to have the "latest and greatest"...Respironics software hasn't been upgraded yet to work with these new models and Sleepyhead hasn't either. Historically in the past Respironics will usually have Encore updated for new model machines in 2 or 3 months after release.
If SleepyHead won't work for you and you want to try Encore just in case it might...send me a PM and I will help you find Encore to at least give it a try.

These machine's don't try to blow through an apnea when the airway is trying to collapse or in the process of collapsing. Instead they wait until the airway is open and they evaluate the airflow and make a decision what to do to prevent the collapse from happening again.

People often think that apap machines sense the airway collapse and 10 seconds into the collapse the machine will increase the pressure quite a bit but that's not how it works. They don't do anything during the collapse itself except wait for it to be over with.

What you may have been sensing might have been related to the reduction during exhale if you are using exhale relief.

These machines don't increase the pressure rapidly at all. It sure won't bounce around on a breath by breath time frame. I would think more along the lines of your being hyper sensitive to the exhale relief reduction.

[ericob]

For me, I have noticed some "pulsations" when I've had Exhalation Pressure Relief active. It seemed like the machine sometimes got a bit confused about whether I had stopped inhaling. There seemed to be a pressure relief just before I finished a breath in, but not quite at the turn around point. Which felt very odd. Then the machine would decide "Oh, not now really" and pressure would return briefly before I switched to exhale. Then it had to scramble to catch up with me. I wouldn't think that the blower could react as quickly as I experienced these little flutters, but something was going on.

Very irksome. I disabled the Exhalation Pressure Relief feature and this oddity went away.

[RogerSC]

I've tried just holding my breath with mask on just to see if the machine would do anything, and after a while it will start to pulse at a low level. I don't think that level of pulsing would wake me up, but it was noticeable. What wakes me up are leaks, which means that I work mostly on minimizing leaks these days so that I get a good nights sleep. But yes, I have noticed my machine pulsing, too.

[MarylandCPAPer]

For the past two days, I have woke up in the morning to an air pressure pulsing sensation inside of my nasal mask. Obviously I'm in a light sleep for it to wake me up. I don't think there is any water in my hose. I have the humidity on 2, and no hose heat. Room temp is 70 F.

Any ideas? Is it an apnea event and the machine is adjusting pressure and I happen to notice it?

I have a Resmed A10 machine. I awakened once to air puffs that felt like Morse code. I think you are probably experiencing the machine doing its job, just as I did. No idea what it meant. When I next used the machine, and ever since, the machine has worked properly with no noticeable air puffs. Write down the date and time you felt the pressure pulsing. When you get Sleepyhead set up, check and see if you can figure out anything that occurred at that time. If you figure out what it was measuring, let us know.

[Pugsy]

Pressure pulses on the Respironics machines are tiny puffs of air used when the machine senses that no air is flowing in the airway to help it determine if the airway is open or closed. They don't always happen with every cessation of breathing and they shouldn't be happening while a person is awake unless the person is holding their breath and maybe not realize they are holding their breath.
I have forced my PR S1 machine to do the puffs of air to experience them and I just don't see them causing a feeling of inflation and deflation of a mask.

Pressure pulses are shown on the flow rate graph...and I assume will be available on the software reports from the DreamStation machines as soon as we can find it.
Rumor control has it that a new version of Encore Basic is now compatible with the new machines but I don't have a source for it just yet. My most recent version that I have is 2.4 and it has been out a long time and thus I am pretty sure it won't work.

[Janknitz]

It could be that there was an apnea and the pressure pulses being sent out to check the airway, in combination with your physiological response to the obstructed airway, were in combination enough to wake you. Data will help understand this.

[palerider]

For the past two days, I have woke up in the morning to an air pressure pulsing sensation inside of my nasal mask. Obviously I'm in a light sleep for it to wake me up. I don't think there is any water in my hose. I have the humidity on 2, and no hose heat. Room temp is 70 F.

Any ideas? Is it an apnea event and the machine is adjusting pressure and I happen to notice it?

I have a Resmed A10 machine. I awakened once to air puffs that felt like Morse code. I think you are probably experiencing the machine doing its job, just as I did.

PLEASE stop gibbering on with bullshit about things you know nothing about.

resmed and respironics machines behave *completely* differently in this regard.

to any other readers, she's totally wrong.