Still Snoring

[Jcastle]

It's been about three weeks since I got my machine and mask and my wife tells me that I am still snoring, even through the interface. My pressure is set to 8. Do I need to adjust the pressure to something higher?

[Guest]

My DH recently revealed to me that I am still snoring at times with the full face mask. This makes me think that maybe I just happen to snore! Well, he tells me I could wake the dead when I fall asleep without the mask so there IS a difference.

Kimberly

[Jcastle]

I was under the impression that with the PAP, my snoring would decrease or be eliminated. Is this correct? If not, what is the point of the treatment?

If when I had my sleep test I did not snore particularly heavy, would not the pressure be set incorrectly?

[bdp522]

Were you found to have any central or mixed events during your sleep study? I raised my pressure and it eliminated my snores. But if you have centrals or mixed events increasing pressure could increase the central or mixed events. IF you had no central or mixed events, I would try bumping up the pressure to 9. BUT...I am not a doctor, this is just what I would do!

Brenda

[newagain]

It's my understanding that snoring, in a person with diagnosed sleep apnea, is a sign of at least some degree of obstruction. If you are having more than very occasional snoring, I would call your doctor, because it's possible your pressure setting needs to be adjusted.

[tomjax]

This is another case that shows a clear need for an APAP to be the standard for all apnea sufferers.

You will not know what pressure is optimal for you or how many ahi you currently have at the pressure prescribed.
It will always be a guessing game for you or your doc when all the questions could be answwered every night with an apap.

It is sad that so many docs and dme put their profit ahead of the patients health.
tomjax

[Sleepless_in_LM]

It is sad that so many docs and dme put their profit ahead of the patients health.

In my case, it was the insurance company. After 1 year plus of being on straight CPAP, I convinced my Doc I needed an APAP. You would not believe the hoops it took to get it covered by insurance. First it was a letter of medical neccessity. Then it was the doctors office notes. It went on for almost 4 weeks. I actually bought an APAP from cpap.com near the beginning of the process because I wanted/needed it so bad. Finally my Doc wrote a rather terse letter and I called and had a healthy discussion with the pre-approval nurse. Thankfully I was loaded with good information, proper terminology, etc (thanks to this board). She even asked how I knew so much about this stuff. She promised she would lobby the "medical review board" personally, and finally it got approved.

So don't place all the blame on the DOC's and the DME's. They are just a couple of cogs in this badly designed machine.

[Wulfman]

It's been about three weeks since I got my machine and mask and my wife tells me that I am still snoring, even through the interface. My pressure is set to 8. Do I need to adjust the pressure to something higher?

For some folks, three weeks is not a long time to see a major drop in snoring.
In my case, I started out by setting my pressure at 10. I got very low AHI numbers pretty soon, but my snore index took longer to drop. It wasn't until I bumped my pressure up to 11 and 12 (actually, I went up to 12 first and then back down to 11.....then back to 12) that I saw a major drop in my snoring (on my reports). My snoring is now almost non-existent.

One thing that I found out is that if your nasal passages aren't real clear, the least little bit of nasal congestion can register as a snore on some of these machines (that record these things). Doing a nasal rinse or in some way making sure your nasal passages are clear, will help cut down some of the "noise".

I don't think it would hurt to try going up one cm. at a time to see if it helps.
I doubt that if they saw Central apneas in your sleep study, they would have given you the S8 Escape.

Best wishes,

Den

[Guest]

Looking over my sleep study, I fail to see anything mentioning a snore index. There is a note that states "Persistent snoring is alleviated @ 7 CMS H2O PS."

In respect to Wulfman's posting, I have had a cold for the last few weeks. An antibiotic was prescribed by my doctor for broncitis. This may have something to do with my continued snoring. However, both Wulfman and bdp522 indicate raising their pressure decreased snoring.

My sleep study report does not clearly state what kind of events ( centrals or mixed) I experienced during the test. It may be that I don't know how to read the report. Also, I do not have access to the statistics on the machine and no reader or software for reading the card.

[Jcastle]

Sorry, did not see that I was logged out before. I appreciate all the feed back.

Joe

[tomjax]

Wuffman, if your machine is not apap as your profile shows, then all answers you give will be from a CPAP perspecive.

Your statement that it may take several weeks may be so for cpap with a constant pressure, but intuitively, I would think apap would provide more prompt relief.

If you or anyone on cpap had the softeware from apap, then you would see in the charts the pressure varying every night and also be able to see each snore as they happened.

If snores happen at a certain pressure at a certain sleep level, snores will not be stopped by cpap, but would with apap.
Just my thoughts based on intuition and logic. May not be totally correct.
tomjax

[Wulfman]

Wuffman, if your machine is not apap as your profile shows, then all answers you give will be from a CPAP perspecive.

Your statement that it may take several weeks may be so for cpap with a constant pressure, but intuitively, I would think apap would provide more prompt relief.

If you or anyone on cpap had the softeware from apap, then you would see in the charts the pressure varying every night and also be able to see each snore as they happened.

If snores happen at a certain pressure at a certain sleep level, snores will not be stopped by cpap, but would with apap.
Just my thoughts based on intuition and logic. May not be totally correct.
tomjax

Tomjax,

The reason I gave my answer from a CPAP perspective is that Jcastle is also (according to the profile) using a CPAP......a ResMad "Escape"......which doesn't have recording capabilities. Any mention, by me, about reports would mean nothing to him.

By the way, I have two REMstar Autos and a Pro 2.....and have monitored my therapy with software since Day One. I've also used my Autos with a range of pressures......so I have been able to make observations of these various aspects of my own therapy......and hence the nature of my comments.
In my own case, the snoring is just "noise". When run in APAP mode, my Auto was "chasing" my snoring......elevating my pressure while trying to eliminate my snoring. This was disturbing to my sleep. More so than running it at a slightly higher pressure.......SO.......I have all of my machines set at a straight pressure of 12. My snore index is 1.3 (this morning and as an average for the week and so far this month). My AHI numbers for the last three days have been 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4 respectively.....and 0.7 for the last seven days.

By the way, reducing snoring is more beneficial for the bystanders than for the sleepers.

Den

[Jcastle]

[The reason I gave my answer from a CPAP perspective is that Jcastle is also (according to the profile) using a CPAP......a ResMad "Escape"......which doesn't have recording capabilities. Any mention, by me, about reports would mean nothing to him. ]

I do indeed have the ResMed Escape. With it come no ability to monitor my statistics. This does make it hard to monitor my progress.[/quote]

[bdp522]

In my own case, the snoring is just "noise". When run in APAP mode, my Auto was "chasing" my snoring......elevating my pressure while trying to eliminate my snoring. This was disturbing to my sleep. More so than running it at a slightly higher pressure.

Same here. I raised my pressure to 9.5 on cpap. All my numbers are now under 1.0 on a daily basis(even snores). Even get 0.0 several times a week! And best of all I feel GREAT!

Brenda