trying to adjust

[mjastro]

Back story, I was diagnosed last January and tried using a machine for about a month, but finally gave up out of frustration. This fall my doctor strongly encouraged me to give it another try. So I am. I was also diagnosed with a delayed sleep onset issue so I take .5mg melatonin 3 hours before bedtime and use light therapy for 30 min right after waking. It all seemed to help before I started with the machine and I've struggled more with falling asleep since then.

I've had my machine now for a week, and am trying to adjust, but wow, it's hard. I think the longest I've actually slept with it on is about an hour. Looking at the Oscar charts (which are very short so not really worth posting) it seems to follow a predictable pattern -- I am able to comfortably breathe at the min. pressure while reading and finally fall asleep. Then without any event noted, the pressure rises up to around 11 or 12, then there is a large leak, and then 10-60 minutes later I wake up. And I have a terrible time falling back asleep so don't put the mask back on. Sigh. I'm really confused about the rise in pressure, but the charts show that every night while nothing else seems to be happening. And the leak is after the rise, but not long after. Any suggestions? Oh, I've tried some different masks back in January, but the Brevida seems to stay put the best, I am a side sleeper with my face tilted toward the pillow when I don't have a mask on.

autoset for her mode
min 7 max 15

[Julie]

Do Oscar anyway... nothing to lose and some here are pretty good at seeing what's what. And stay in this thread please.

[khauser]

Back story, I was diagnosed last January and tried using a machine for about a month, but finally gave up out of frustration. This fall my doctor strongly encouraged me to give it another try. So I am. I was also diagnosed with a delayed sleep onset issue so I take .5mg melatonin 3 hours before bedtime and use light therapy for 30 min right after waking. It all seemed to help before I started with the machine and I've struggled more with falling asleep since then.

I've had my machine now for a week, and am trying to adjust, but wow, it's hard. I think the longest I've actually slept with it on is about an hour. Looking at the Oscar charts (which are very short so not really worth posting) it seems to follow a predictable pattern -- I am able to comfortably breathe at the min. pressure while reading and finally fall asleep. Then without any event noted, the pressure rises up to around 11 or 12, then there is a large leak, and then 10-60 minutes later I wake up. And I have a terrible time falling back asleep so don't put the mask back on. Sigh. I'm really confused about the rise in pressure, but the charts show that every night while nothing else seems to be happening. And the leak is after the rise, but not long after. Any suggestions? Oh, I've tried some different masks back in January, but the Brevida seems to stay put the best, I am a side sleeper with my face tilted toward the pillow when I don't have a mask on.

autoset for her mode
min 7 max 15

As Julie said, we'd need to see the OSCAR charts. The machines don't raise the pressure for no reason at all ... but it isn't always triggered by an event that is logged. For example, here is a zoomed in chart from a pressure increase I had:

Capture.PNG

No event is logged, but at the bottom there is a machine-detected flow limitation. That is what caused this pressure increase. (I lined up the green time-cursor to what I am talking about.)
-Kevin

[mjastro]

download/file.php?mode=view&id=13535

[mjastro]

Do I know what I'm doing trying to get Oscar files here? I do not. Tried the screen shot method. Where's the other instructions?

[khauser]

Screen shot is fine.
The posts you're looking for are here:

Capture.PNG

The easiest way to zoom in is to mouse down at the start of the time you want to view, drag over and mouse up at the end of the time you want to view.

However, in the post you made you can clearly see flow limitations that triggered the pressure increases.

[mjastro]

Well, duh, I feel stupid. Thanks for pointing that out. I don't know how I was missing that except when I was doing this in January flow limitations showed up in the events box -- it was a different machine and a different version of Oscar. Now I clearly see that pressure is increasing/decreasing with the flow limitations. That makes sense! At least I know the machine is responding to a need I have. If only I could get and stay asleep. I just keep reciting Pugsy words about our brains needing to get used to the idea that this thing on our face is no big deal.

[Pugsy]

Try a fixed pressure or a very tight range. The machine obviously wants to fight the flow limitations but right now it's not doing much fighting when you can't sleep and take the mask off because leaks wake you up and you can't go back to sleep.

My suggestion...try fixed pressure at 8 cm or tight range of 7 to 9...and work more on sleeping with the mask on all night.
Worry about the Flow Limitations later.
Is that ideal? Obviously not but it a heck of a lot more ideal than only getting maybe at best 1 hour of sleep using the machine.

[mjastro]

Thanks. I will try that. I figure I have time to work on one thing at a time and take this slow now that insurance isn't watching. Better to do that than quit all together this time.

[Miss Emerita]

Some daytime use, outside your bedroom, may help speed up your adaptation. Set it up where you can watch TV or read -- something pleasant and diverting.

I bet Pugsy's recommendation will help. Once you start logging more actual sleep, you can post charts so you can get further advice about tuning your settings.

When you post charts, could you show the left-hand panel (minus the calendar and pie chart)? And if you grab the gray bars separating the graphs, you can push them up to squeeze the graphs a little. That way you can include Snores.

Don't beat yourself up if it takes you some time to start using the machine all night. It's a process, and patience is the watchword.