POLL: How Have You Handled The Ramp Setting On Your Machine?

[mars]

Hi All

Many people appear to struggle with ramp settings, until finally giving up on them. Others continue to use them.

It also seems that all DME's and most Rt's and most Sleep Doctors put new patients on a ramp setting at the start of therapy. And this setting is often too low for a patient to breathe properly. And I wonder why this information is not getting back to the DME's and RT's and Sleep Doctors.

So here is a poll which may end up educating us all as to what happens to the ramp setting over time.

cheers

Mars

[WearyOne]

I think it might depend on the pressure setting, but I could be wrong. I quit using ramp after about a week at the suggestion of someone here. My pressure is "only" 8.5 and the ramp at the beginning almost made me feel like I was suffocating. Plus, I rarely went to sleep before the ramp reached my prescribed pressure anyway. My husband has a pressure of 19 and always uses the ramp.

Pam

[Amigo]

Since I suffer from claustrophobia, even adjusting to nasal pillows was difficult at first, to say nothing of the weird sensation of having something blowing up my nose. Ramp, with a start up of 5, seemed to help me with both issues initially.

The "some weeks" for me turned out to be 2 weeks. After that it was, "give me that 14 cm/H20 NOW!"

[Physician]

With my AutoSet S9, I find no advantage for RAMPing because I fall asleep before the unit gets substantially above the lower set limit. Mine is at 10-18, titrated pressure usually 14.

[maggie22561]

My ramp setting was set by the DME and I've left it that way. I use it every night when I first turn the CPAP on. A few times I thought maybe I would use it without the ramp but that first gush of air is too much right off the bat so I end up turning the ramp on.
I should add that I am still in the first 30 days of usage.

[BleepingBeauty]

I used the ramp feature for several months (before I found this forum and began my xPAP education) because that's what my sleep "professionals" told me to do. (What did I, a typically ignorant newbie, know?)

FWIW, when I started therapy, I was given a "stupid" (Respironics CPAP Plus, i.e., no data) machine. My pressure was 12cms, and the ramp started at 7 and ran for 20 minutes. At this point, I haven't used ramp for well over a year (and can't even imagine trying to breathe at a lower pressure). It's amazing how well we can adapt to such a major change in our lives.

[chunkyfrog]

At 14 cm, I found that a 30 min. ramp was way too long.
I've been using 5 minutes since the first night; but since I started using nasal pillows,
I wait for the pressure to get up to 6 or 7 before I put on my gear.
I'm thinking about turning ramp off unless I wear a different mask.

[bailachel]

My pressure is 10. I used the ramp for a few days and then turned it off.

chunkyfrog, you could change your ramp to start at 6 or 7 so you don't have to wait.

[rosacer]

I have been using ramp setting 15min starting at 4.5 most of the time since last December.

Since 2 moths ago my pressure was changed to 8-12 it used to be 8 for a couple of months and then it was 7-15; a lot of changes in 5 months until I started apap (PR System One) last April. All that time I used ramping.

Now I decided one week ago to make a try to C-flex (1) no ramp and I was surprised how easy it's to breath with that, I will continue testing the other settings for C-flex and A-flex without ramp. I noticed if I used no ramp or anything else that toke me a good 5 minutes to get used to the pressure and it delayed me falling asleep. I see no reason why I shouldn't use ramp or the flex to make life easy, maybe I ignore something.

What I never used was the EPR with my Resmeds, I tried it but I didn't like it and neither the fact it affected the treatment with the CPAP, my therapist didn't like me to use it that's why she set the ramp since the first day on my S8 Elite II cpap. I have no idea if the EPR would affect the results with my S8 Auto, I imagine it shouldn't because it's an auto machine I haven't test it. I'll continue using ramp with the S8 Auto

[Madalot]

It is so much easier for me to breathe at my full minimum inhale pressure (14), that I stopped using the ramp. It's very, very hard for me to breathe at less pressure, so using the ramp was counterproductive in my case.

[jabman]

I still use it at my orignal setting of 20 minutes with no problem so i will keep it that way for now.

[BlackSpinner]

I think I had the ramp set when I got it but after checking on the site - once my brains started to work I think I turned it off. Or maybe she had already turned it off and had shown me how to turn it on if I wanted it?

[pdean44]

My setting was way too low on ramp when I started. I felt like I was suffocofacting. I shortened the ramp up considerably in the first week of cpap by the 2nd month I shut it off.
I prefer not to use it.

[billbolton]

I wait for the pressure to get up to 6 or 7 before I put on my gear.

On an S9, you can adjust the starting pressure of the ramp.

Cheers,

Bill

[calgurl@hrt]

I was sent home from the DME with a ramp starting at 4 on it's way up to 11 over 30 minutes. After reading here (and learning how to adjust my nasal pillows correctly) I did away with the ramp and now start right out at 11. It's worked out great for me and my sleep MD hasn't questioned it at all.