High Pressure Setting

[rzw]

So, just curious on others thoughts here.....I have airsense 10 auto machine....i have my pressure setting at 6.4 to 10.4......So when i look at my sleepy head, and more specific, the pressure thru the night......When ever the machine senses there might be an issue, it will of course increase the pressure up to the max setting for a period of time and then start to fall back......I have played with max pressure just a small bit...i increased to 10.8 a few nights ago.....and what i noticed, is when the machine detected an issue, it would go to the new max pressure of 10.8.....So my question to myself is, is my max pressure not high enough? I know i need to find out on my own but I'm wondering if i set it at 12, would it go to 12 when it detects a problem....and therefore telling me my max pressure has not been high enough.....

[TedVPAP]

When the max pressure is not set high enough, the machine's ability to do its' job has been limited.
You would only want to do this for a good reason.

[Matt00926]

Having a bit of room with the max pressure is important, but the min pressure is also very important. By setting the min pressure close to the therapeutic static CPAP pressure that works, hopefully you will be preventing most of the events.

[LSAT]

You can set the max pressure at 20 and the machine will only go as high as it needs to in order to stop an apnea event. It most likely will never go higher than 12-15, but open it up for a few nights and see where it goes.

[rzw]

thanks for the feedback.....it all makes logical sense......I would say my results have been good, ranging .3 or less....but i still don't feel right......so i guess i need to open up the max pressure and see what happens for sure....

[TedVPAP]

thanks for the feedback.....it all makes logical sense......I would say my results have been good, ranging .3 or less....but i still don't feel right......so i guess i need to open up the max pressure and see what happens for sure....

If your AHI is 0.3 or less, then your OSA treatment is excellent. If you are not feeling the benefit, it is possible that you are waking-up frequently (leaking can cause some people to wake) or maybe you have other issues besides OSA.

Look at your sleepyhead data in Daily mode to see if you are seeing frequent arousals.

[palerider]

thanks for the feedback.....it all makes logical sense......I would say my results have been good, ranging .3 or less....but i still don't feel right......so i guess i need to open up the max pressure and see what happens for sure....

If your AHI is 0.3 or less, then your OSA treatment is excellent.

Not necessarily. his AHI is excellent, his treatment may be lacking.

[kteague]

Not sure exactly how long you've been at this, but it can take some time for the brain to accept all the new sensations and be comfortable sleeping through them instead of staying on high alert. Some get their sleep disturbed by pressure changes and do better with very tight ranges or a fixed pressure. Personally, I can't even tell when my ramp goes off or my pressure increases, so I'm not one of those highly sensitive types. Even so, I prefer to keep the lower end of my pressure range at a more preventative level rather than make the machine do more work. My starting pressure is 9, but spend most of my night hovering between 11 and 14. If you looked at your data in Sleephead (or had someone here check it out for you), you may be able to tell by the fluctuations if a higher starting pressure could maybe smooth things out for you. May be the same end result in AHI, but if you can get those numbers more efficiently, why not? That said, so many other things can contribute to how we sleep and how we feel. It takes time to recover from sometimes years of untreated sleep apnea and get to a place where we can feel a difference. Also consider if there could be medication side effects, pain syndromes, deficiency of things like Vitamin D and B12, medical conditions, or other sleep disorders at play in how you feel. Check out those things you feel you may need to, all while being diligent in your treatment, and usually things can be expected to improve.

[ajack]

I would trial max 20 and see where the machine lands. It shouldn't increase more than it needs to fix the apnea and other OSD.
Another way is to then go 2cm either side of the 95% pressure number in sleepyhead or the pressure shown on the machine sleep report. 95% is the commonly used pressure, for setting a fixed pressure.