Air Sense 10 issues (former Dreamstation user)

[Aimee]

Hi all, I'm getting oxygen starvation as soon as I drop off to sleep and don't understand why - any ideas on what might be different between Philips and resmed would be very helpful.

Successful Dreamstation set up - auto (7-20, rarely above 9), flex setting on max, ramp 5 minutes, p10 mask, humidification on high, heated hose. AHI pretty much always under 5, mostly under 3. Great sleep until I was too worried to use it because of FoamGate.

3 weeks into Air Sense 10 for her: settings: p10 mask (with & without mouth taping), heated hose, manual humidity turned up high (7 of . I've got the exhale pressure relief on 3 (seems better than without which was dreadful, And better than 2).

I've tried: apap, apap for her, CPAP ( mostly APAP). Normal and "soft" mode (mostly soft as it was supposed to be more like the DS)

I can't sleep - every time I drop off I wake up gasping for air. The odd night I've managed to ignore it my AHI is very low (less than 0 .5), but it's not good sleep and it's inky for a few hours, not my usual 8-10 with DS- I'm having nightmares with as well as without which is what happens when my breathing is off during sleep.

Things I've tried:

Changing from auto to CPAP, but I could only manage at 5.4cm, when I went up to 6 it was too high whilst awake. APAP Setting the maximum to 8, and then 7. No benefit.

Mask - tried dreamwear full face - I got a sore throat straight away from mouth breathing (I stopped using it originally with DS due to head and neck pain which returned in less than an hour so it's not viable), didn't manage to sleep as I had to work to breathe.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

I'm going to try to speak to my sleep clinic, but I've spoken to someone who was rubbish twice and excellent once.

I'm Autistic and find it really difficult to talk when I'm upset. I'm so angry at Philips (my DS was only purchased privately in November) and enormously frustrated that after 5 unpleasant months getting my Dreamstation set up so it worked and didn't hurt, I only had 2 good months before needing to spend another chunk of money and go back to the drawing board in terms of not being able to get a decent night's sleep.

Because of this I feel like I'm on my own trying to problem solve as you don't get a named member of staff, you just get whoever and I am not able to speak to someone who doesn't know what they're doing or I will have a meltdown and possibly get thrown off the service for being difficult/rude.

[ILoveFlowers]

I am getting used to the AirSense 10 for Her also. I found that I did not need the ramp, so I turned it off. Have you thought about trying it without ramp?

[palerider]

Hi all, I'm getting oxygen starvation

Eh, no, CO2 buildup perhaps.

...7-20...
I can't sleep - every time I drop off I wake up gasping for air.

ASSuming you're using the same 7-20 settings you had on the DS, your problem is that your pressure is *TOO LOW*.

EPR works differently that *flex on the philips, each number of EPR is a reduction of 1cm of base pressure, so if you set your min to 7, and EPR of 3, then you're trying to breathe with a pressure of 4, and your throat is closing up.

Set your min to 10 and see how that works for you, that'll give you the pressure of 7 you're used to between breaths.

[Aimee]

I am getting used to the AirSense 10 for Her also. I found that I did not need the ramp, so I turned it off. Have you thought about trying it without ramp?

I've tried no ramp, auto and a few set times.

I tend to read for an hour or so with my CPAP on so a short ramp shouldn't be an issue (in theory!)

[Aimee]

Hi all, I'm getting oxygen starvation

Eh, no, CO2 buildup perhaps.

...7-20...
I can't sleep - every time I drop off I wake up gasping for air.

ASSuming you're using the same 7-20 settings you had on the DS, your problem is that your pressure is *TOO LOW*.

EPR works differently that *flex on the philips, each number of EPR is a reduction of 1cm of base pressure, so if you set your min to 7, and EPR of 3, then you're trying to breathe with a pressure of 4, and your throat is closing up.

Set your min to 10 and see how that works for you, that'll give you the pressure of 7 you're used to between breaths.

Thanks for the idea - with my DS I had the equivalent pressure relief thing (flex) set to 4cm as standard, so with a higher than 7 pressure on the Airsense I'm having to breathe out against more resistance, but as 7 isn't working, maybe I need to try turning my range up.

It took me a while to find out about the EPR, so I may not have used APAP going up higher with the EPR on.

Thanks again

[palerider]

Thanks for the idea - with my DS I had the equivalent pressure relief thing (flex) set to 4cm as standard

I'm sorry to have to correct you again, but 1) flex only goes to 3, and there's no direct correlation between the setting, and cm of pressure drop. at *max* setting, when you're breathing very heavily, flex *might* give you as much as 2cm pressure relief.

, so with a higher than 7

The problem is that with your min pressure of 7, and an EPR of 3, that drops your min pressure to 4, which is why you're snapping awake because you're not breathing.

[SleepGeek]

I tend to read for an hour or so with my CPAP on so a short ramp shouldn't be an issue (in theory!)

You may get better results reading when the ramp is off. Give it a try to see how you do. Just be conscious of not holding your breath.

[AussieBob]

Switched to the Air Sense last week (former DS user also) and found that I had to up my pressure settings as I was not getting enough air.
On the Dreamstation I had my low set to 10 and on the Air sense I have it set to 12.