Pressures going down

[lizpalika]

It's been slightly over three months now since I got my machine and began using it. (And signed into this forum! smile....) I've been 100% compliant and sleep slightly over 7 hours each night. No mask problems, no sleeping problems, and no machine problems. I'm sleeping great and feel better during the day. I'm not tired and ready for a nap in the afternoon any more. I'm even dreaming again which is great; I hadn't realized previously that I wasn't dreaming.

But here's my confusion. When I began, my average 7 day pressure was 17 plus; usually about 17.5 or 6. That's pretty high but I was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea.

Over the past month, however, I have noticed my average pressure going down. This morning, for example, my 30 day average is 14.8 and my 7 day average is 13.8.

What causes this?

Liz

[Captain_Midnight]

Liz asks why her pressure is going down.

And, I can offer a guess (but, it's only a guess).

Consider that OSA causes local and systemic inflammation (please see http://www.chestjournal.org/content/126 ... l.pdf+html ) and that inflammation can cause swelling. Further, consider that xPAP can address the inflammation, and thus edema, meaning that one's upper airway passages could become a bit less narrow with consistent and successful xPAP.

Interestingly, I've found the opposite in my case. My initial pressure was 5 (subsequently changed to 8 ). Now, with APAP AFLEX, I have found my optimum lower range at 9.5 cm. Part of this is a peculiarity w AFLEX, and I think that the other part is likely that I'm sleeping more deeply, throat muscles relaxing more thoroughly, and dipping lower thus requiring a slight boost in lower range pressure (I call this "Therapeutic Creep".

Hope my guess us useful. I'm sure some others here can offer some other potential possibilities.


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