First 2 (horrible) nights SH data

[kawi1234]

Looking for help understanding the SH charts. Last night was the second night. Diagnosed mild with "trouble breathing 9x per hour" as doctor put it. RX MIN 5 MAX 20. First night, fell asleep with it even though I felt as if I could not inhale a full breath. Slept from about 930 till 1130PM until I was awoken by whatever....

Then slept without it due to the discomfort for a while, then tried again and upped MIN pressure to 6. A good bit better comfort wise. Could not fall asleep until 530AM -630AM or so.

Last night was second night.

Fell asleep fairly easily with 6 MIN but was awoken an hour later at 1130PM (not sure why). Then slept without due to aggravation/discomfort. Tried a few times to use but could not fall asleep. The noise the machine makes (or rather me breathing) annoys me as I focus on it. Tried white noise, tried boring audible book.

Anyway, I am looking for help understanding any info that can be learned from the first 2 nights. Obviously upping the pressure to 6 was helpful but i don't know what to try. I'm afraid I won't last long with these hardly sleeping nights. THANKS!

...won't let me post pics...trying....

Philips dreamstation, Dreamwear nasal mask

https://imgur.com/a/ursHZxb

[Pugsy]

Please review this thread for the format.
viewtopic/t158560/How-to-post-images-for-review.html
Hide the calendar and turn off the pie chart (Preferences/Appearance tab and uncheck the "show pie chart". This will let useful statistics move up into viewing area.

No need to redo these 2 nights reports though...just mentioning it for future reports.

What time frame were you for sure asleep last night? Anything after 2:30 AM at all or were you awake wearing the mask with machine on but unable to sleep?

Try increasing the minimum pressure to 7 cm.
I know it's easier said than done but try to not focus on your breathing or the machine so much....it's causing insomnia.
Wear the mask and machine for a couple of hours or so while watching TV or reading a book and you aren't under any pressure to fall asleep or stay asleep.

Do you take any medications of any kind? If so, what?

Do you have anything going on that would prohibit you from taking an OTC sleep aid?

[kawi1234]

Please review this thread for the format.
viewtopic/t158560/How-to-post-images-for-review.html
Hide the calendar and turn off the pie chart (Preferences/Appearance tab and uncheck the "show pie chart". This will let useful statistics move up into viewing area.

No need to redo these 2 nights reports though...just mentioning it for future reports.

What time frame were you for sure asleep last night? Anything after 2:30 AM at all or were you awake wearing the mask with machine on but unable to sleep?

Try increasing the minimum pressure to 7 cm.
I know it's easier said than done but try to not focus on your breathing or the machine so much....it's causing insomnia.
Wear the mask and machine for a couple of hours or so while watching TV or reading a book and you aren't under any pressure to fall asleep or stay asleep.

Do you take any medications of any kind? If so, what?

Do you have anything going on that would prohibit you from taking an OTC sleep aid?

Thank you kindly for the reply. I was only asleep last night from 930 to 1030 with the mask. Everything else was with mask unable to sleep.

I do not take any medications at all and was considering taking a sleep aid of some sort tonight. No issues with doing so but never had much success with them in the past (but maybe because of the sleep apnea of course).

I think I can handle 7. Actually when I was just lying there trying to fall back asleep I noticed the machine was hitting 7 and 8 while awake, which I thought was weird....

and thanks for the link....

[Pugsy]

While awake your breathing is irregular but the machine doesn't know that you are awake (it only measures air flow and has no way to know if you are asleep or not)...but it will still try to respond to the irregular breathing by increasing the pressure in response to what it thinks is a reduction in flow in the airway but of course it's just awake breathing and not real apnea caused reductions.

Quite common...lots of tossing and turning and sighing and such when trying to go to sleep and we can't. We end up with a lot of flagged events that aren't real because we aren't asleep. We call it SWJ or sleep/wake/junk. Makes it real hard to evaluate pressure needs when there's a lot of SWJ clouding the picture.

Try taking an OTC sleep aid tonight along with the wearing of the mask and using the machine for a while just to get used to breathing with the machine....so that you can learn to relax. Don't stress out if you can't go back to sleep...get up and go some place quiet and regroup...then go back to bed when you get sleepy and try again.

Read this blog that a forum member wrote about some things she found helpful with her insomnia.
http://adventures-in-hosehead-land.blog ... er_19.html

[kawi1234]

While awake your breathing is irregular but the machine doesn't know that you are awake (it only measures air flow and has no way to know if you are asleep or not)...but it will still try to respond to the irregular breathing by increasing the pressure in response to what it thinks is a reduction in flow in the airway but of course it's just awake breathing and not real apnea caused reductions.

Quite common...lots of tossing and turning and sighing and such when trying to go to sleep and we can't. We end up with a lot of flagged events that aren't real because we aren't asleep. We call it SWJ or sleep/wake/junk. Makes it real hard to evaluate pressure needs when there's a lot of SWJ clouding the picture.

Try taking an OTC sleep aid tonight along with the wearing of the mask and using the machine for a while just to get used to breathing with the machine....so that you can learn to relax. Don't stress out if you can't go back to sleep...get up and go some place quiet and regroup...then go back to bed when you get sleepy and try again.

Read this blog that a forum member wrote about some things she found helpful with her insomnia.
http://adventures-in-hosehead-land.blog ... er_19.html

Hi Pugsy. I took OTC sleep aid and still woke up after an hour and a half or so. AHI went down after upping the pressure @ 6.5 (actual sleep time approx 10:20-11:42) Must have took off mask and didnt shut off the machine. Then upped to 7 for a short nap today, AHI went up past 9 (actual sleep time apprx 4:25-4:42)...which is confusing to me. Thank you for all your help. it means a lot to me.