Sleepyhead question

[Lou Cypher]

Not good....... the leaks and whatever else woke me up 4 times.....

I actually had to shut off the machine and take off the mask,,,as I could not stop the leaks.....

My machine was running at almost 20 CM which is the top of what is loaded for this new cpap.......It was at that pressure every time i was woken and I checked it....

As you can see I was waking up consistently about every hour to hour and a half.....

I finally decided to give up and try something else... the last time I woke up...around 5 AM... I moved the pressure back down 1 cm... down to 10.8 again.....

As you can see,,, I then slept all the way till 8:44

Here are the comments from SH

The last time you used your ResMed AutoSet...
was last night (on Friday, February 23, 2018)
You had an AHI of 17.51, which is considered horrible, please consult your doctor
You machine was on for 7 hours, 46 minutes and 4 seconds.
You had a small but acceptable amount of major mask leakage.
Your pressure was under 19.92cmH2O for 95% of the time.

Here is the chart.....

[Jas_williams]

You seem to have ramp set to 30 min could you turn that down ?

[Lou Cypher]

RAMP is off...

[Pugsy]

Back up and use the pressure you have been using for years and get the sleep first and get your mask fit/leak issues minimized and then revisit increasing the pressure if the AHI needs it.

You gotta get the sleep first and your previous AHI with the minimum at 10.8 wasn't bad anyway.

[chunkyfrog]

This is exactly the kind of situation that affirms the need to
sometimes not leave the upper level at maximum pressure.
Sometimes it simply DOES NOT WORK.

[HoseCrusher]

I will second that.

My machine seems to not be able to tone back down from higher pressures. This caused me to set a higher limit rather than letting it run to the max.

I would wake up with air blowing a full pressure and that caused leaks. My solution initially was to just shut the machine off then cycle it back on. I then adjusted the max pressure and haven't had a problem since.

I think the issue has to do with my particular breathing style and it seems to confuse the algorithm on my older machine. The newer machines seem to be better at dealing with this issue.

[Pugsy]

He's got too many variables in the mix...been sick, coming off prednisone, new machine, new mask and we're messing with the pressures.
Need to slow down with the changes and take things more slowly.
He didn't have problems with the max pressure until the minimum was raised.
We're doing things too fast with some extra variables and that's just not good experiment protocols.

[Lou Cypher]

last night was the best night since this all started back in Mid Jan........

So I went to sleep and actually slept around 12... I woke up around 3:15 or so. The only issue I noticed was my mouth was dry. I really didn't have to turn off the machine but I did to just get a drink of water and check out some numbers etc ..

I tried going back to sleep and it worked...... I slept straight through until about 6,,,, that was the only time I awoke all night......

Here is the usual comment from SH.

The last time you used your ResMed AutoSet...
was last night (on Saturday, February 24, 2018)
You had an AHI of 8.46, which is considered not very good
You machine was on for 5 hours, 5 minutes and 2 seconds.
You had no major mask leaks (maximum was 14.40 L/min).
Your pressure was under 19.76cmH2O for 95% of the time.


Total time in apnea 00:09:26
Time over leak redline 0.000%

[Pugsy]

When you feel up to experimenting again...
How about sneaking up on the minimum pressure increases that it looks like you need instead of a big jump...do 0.2 cm increases??
Take your time...get adjusted and watch the data and then try smaller increments.

[Lou Cypher]

OK,,, I want to give it a few days to settle down first....... then we will try sneaking up on it...LOL

What are your feelings on last nights data ??? if I was to be stuck right here , what do you think

[Pugsy]

What are your feelings on last nights data ??? if I was to be stuck right here , what do you think

Given a choice between last night and you slept decently....and the prior night when you didn't get much sleep at all.
I would take last night any day of the week.
A nice low AHI doesn't mean squat if your sleep quality is in the toilet.

[Lou Cypher]

Here are the last two nights charts.
Been working on new sleep positions , trying to get away from sleeping on my back........ and I think it is working, along with not on any drugs for sinus ....

[Pugsy]

Looking pretty darn good.
Sleeping better?

[Lou Cypher]

Yes sleeping better but with some reservations....

I used to sleep all night long with no issues...... but now I still wake up each night...... the good news is after a while I can go back to sleep.....

I used to sleep 7 - 71/2 hours,,, now 6 is about my average.....

I never fell asleep in the evenings.... now occasionally I do ....

I am hoping that all will mellow out with time........

I do find that the pressure is higher than it was before...I see it mostly seems to be in the are closer to 20 when working on correcting issues.

I guess that is ok......

So do you think all is well with the way my settings are....... 10.8 to start and up to 20 max.........

Or should we try to do any changes?????

[Pugsy]

You know the algorithm is different with this auto adjusting mode than it was with your S8 machine. So I am not surprised that the machine seems to go to different pressures.

I wonder if the higher pressure variations are a factor in your problem with waking up.
It's possible I suppose. You might consider limiting the max and just letting the machine peg out those short periods where you seem to need more pressure and see if you can sleep a little sounder. Maybe reduce the maximum to 16 or 17. See what happens. If the AHI doesn't increase much and you find you are sleeping better then maybe a worthwhile compromise. Worth trying.

I feel better when I get 7 1/2 to 8 hours of sleep but it's rare I get that much. Seems like I am doing good to get 7 and if below 6 1/2 hours I am going to want to take a nap and my butt will drag for sure.

Any change in medications or dosage that might be a factor in the sleep maintenance insomnia?
Notice anything in particular bothering you when you wake up???

I have been battling the same thing for last 3 or 4 months I guess it is. I think mine might be related to mental stress over my mom's breast cancer diagnosis this past Oct. For most of Dec and Jan I was getting maybe 5 hours of sleep. Would wake up and just not be able to go back to sleep.