Auto set presures

[RedRooster]

I want to try auto set. My straight pressure is 14, I have the exhale set 3 cms less. ....should I try 9-14 or 9-15? I have just switched to P10 nasal pillows from ffm about a week ago. Looking for more uninterrupted sleep!

[kteague]

Personally I'd put it to at least 15 or higher just to see if it wants to go higher. It shouldn't go up unless it needs to. The lower end might turn out to be more important. I doubt it will hurt to try it out either way for a few nights and see how your numbers are looking.

[LSAT]

How do your leaks look?

[RedRooster]

Leaks with nasal pillows around twice 15 vs 7 what my f20 was........AHI about same....pillows more comfortable.

[Pugsy]

If going from fixed pressure of 14 on inhale and 11 on exhale (that's what EPR at 3 will give you) I think I would start with 2 or 3 cm below that 14 cm and see what happens. The minimum pressure is going to be your most critical pressure setting and I am afraid that if you start the minimum at 9 cm (and with EPR at 3 that means 6 cm on exhale) that your settings may not be sufficient to keep the airway open well enough.

Or you could try the 9 minimum and see what happens but be sure to watch your software reports and if the obstructive apnea stuff (the OAs and hyponeas) increase very much you need to raise that minimum.

As far as the maximum setting...I would try just opening it up to 20 cm and see what happens. The machine won't go up there if it doesn't have a good reason. Should it want to go higher and the going higher causes problems (like aerophagia) then you can always limit the maximum if need be.

The minimum pressure is the most critical setting. It needs to be at a base line where if it needs to go higher it can go higher in a timely manner to best hold the airway open. These auto adjusting machines don't increase the pressure in the blink of an eye. Instead they can take 3 to 5 minutes to go up and come down and if it can't get high enough fast enough the airway closes and opens back up before the machine ever gets to where it was going. We have to help the machine out by giving it a good head start to get to where it needs to go.

Now for all I know the 14 cm you have been using could very well be over kill in terms of pressure requirements. So maybe you could start out quite a bit lower and that's certainly worth looking at. It's always nice to use lower when we can.
Just watch the AHI though.
Remember OAs and hyponeas need more pressure
ClearAirway/Centrals...we don't treat them with more pressure with these apap machines.

[robysue]

I want to try auto set. My straight pressure is 14, I have the exhale set 3 cms less. ....should I try 9-14 or 9-15? I have just switched to P10 nasal pillows from ffm about a week ago. Looking for more uninterrupted sleep!

AutoSet may or may not lead to more uninterrupted sleep. Some people are very sensitive to changing pressures, and don't do well on APAP. Others sleep better on APAP because it minimizes pressure when less is needed, but can still provide additional pressure when you hit REM or flip on your back or both.

The real questions are:
What do you mean by uninterrupted sleep? In other words, how will you know you've reached your goal of "more uninterrupted sleep"?

What does your data look like with straight pressure at 14cm? How low is your treated AHI? What kind of events show up in your data? What does your leak data look like?

What is triggering your current interrupted sleep and how often is your sleep interrupted?How often are you waking up at night? What are you using to establish that you are waking up too frequently? Any chance things not related to OSA and/or CPAP are causing the disturbances to your sleep? Any evidence that leaks are disrupting your sleep? Any evidence that clusters of events are disrupting your sleep?

What kind of problems are you currently having with CPAP? Details are need rather than a vague, "My sleep is interrupted".

How do you expect switching from CPAP to APAP to help in your quest for "more uninterrupted sleep"?

[chunkyfrog]

Another thing is that some interruptions occur in sleep that is perfectly normal.
If they are disturbing other than on paper, it may then be relevant.