Need Help, Reading my data on Sleepyhead

[Rodzzz]

Hi all, I am a first-time poster but a long-time user of this board. I have been using my CPAP religiously for 3 years and have had 3 sleep tests. The first was ordered by ENT after complaining of tiredness and dizzyness (not extreme, just noticeable). His recommendation was to loose weight (30-40 lbs over) and do a sleep study. I was diagnosed with mild sleep apnea(I was told), although I can't remember my exact results and put on a straight cpap with pressure of 11.

After a 1.5 yrs of using my machine, tying many masks, tweaks in my settings, note-taking etc...I continued to struggle with the treatment as never really experienced the full benefit in feeling good with energy. Which means I can probably count on one hand the times I woke up feeling good, with most times still struggling with tiredness, congestion, brain fog etc. Its especially worse in the winter time, and certain parts of the year which lead me down the path of tweaking my settings and humidity levels often but never figuring it out. In the mean time I went for my second sleep study (re-titration) and was prescribed a pressure of 13 this time. I continued with treatment and with the same results and till constant tweaking and trail/error, with some good days (relative) and bad days, but never the eureka phase.

This went on for another year, changed doctors and DME and went for my last sleep study earlier 2014 and was now prescribed a pressure of 9, with the addition of an auto-pap after asking the Dr if it was recommended following my experience. Now i am on the s9 auto pap with a pressure settings of 9 -14 for the last several months, including my usual hardtime during the winter. Nothing has really changed, and actually some days feel more tired, constant sleepy feeling and pressure in my eyes, sometimes very watery eyes, wake up with alot of crud around my eyes and really have a hard time waking up on most days. My current humidity settings are set between 2-3, as I have given up on the auto setting for humidity on the S9/H5i humidifier, as it always provides with way too much humidity and makes things worse (I think).

NOW HERE IS THE KICKER...all along over the past 3 years my sleep data seems to be EXCELLENT and I usually sleep like a BABY. Rarely wake up, sleep soundly and have normal dreams, and my sleep structure during sleep tests has been normal. Never an AHI over 2.0 and rarely over 1.0 but as an example definetly feel the difference if it fluctuates from a 0.1 to a 0.6 between days, which is not uncommon. But always under 1.0. So based on everything I have read these are excellent numbers..right? I will attach a screenshot in this post or the next for any additional interpretation of my data is welcomed! I have even thought that maybe I don't need CPAP and try to sleep a night without and either I have gotten really use to it or still need it, cause I sleep like crap and I wake up the next day just as bad. On top of all this I have not really lost or gained any weight during this time, so my current plan is to stick with CPAP and loose the necessary weight because its the one thing I have yet to really try...As another note, I have had my doctor run many of the usual blood tests and all thankfully have been normal, except for HBP (on meds and controlled), low Vit D a couple of years ago, but thats now normal and a case of LOW-T, that he has recommended I improve through exercise and loosing weight and I am ok with this, as I am not convinced these could be causing my ongoing issues. One last thing, is that I believe my daytime symptoms are worse now then when I started but things like BP have stabilized and all other checkups are fine. Maybe I am just not built for cpap?

Other considerations and things I have or am investigating:
1. Allergies and chronic congestion
2. 80/20% Deviated septum causing issue and impacting treatment, although data and numbers say otherwise.
3. Low T, still considering this but waiting on next checkup.
4. Basically not tolerating CPAP, pressure and humidity?
5. Other options mouthpiece, chinstrap etc., although have not tried
6. Loose weight and excercise more...as ultimate solution, hopefully

Please take a look at my screenshot and let me know if you see anything that stands out, that I am missing.
Thanks in advance and never give up!

[Rodzzz]

[Todzo]

Data, looking at this resolution, looks good.

Knowing what I do now if I were you I would obtain the services of a dietitian for three years. I now know I did not know how to eat well. It takes time to learn.

I would also obtain the services of a personal trainer for three years and pursue an active lifestyle (often defined as 10,000 steps a day or equivalent).

[kaiasgram]

Back to the OP's question:

Please take a look at my screenshot and let me know if you see anything that stands out...

Rod -- While your leak numbers are acceptable, I would not have had an easy sleep with those leaks. You may or may not be hypersensitive to leaks, but your leak graph caught my attention.

People can also be sensitive to APAP pressure changes throughout the night, enough so that they decide go to a fixed pressure, but it doesn't sound like you were doing significantly better before you went to APAP.

These two ideas seem like a stretch since you say that you sleep soundly and objective measures suggest your sleep architecture is intact, but that's all I can pull from your report at the moment.

[needtosleep51]

are you sure you need a cpap - those numbers are great and are you really overweight ?

this look like a fit persons nightly sleep - thanks for the head fake