zonker's crib--somewhere over the rainbow

[zonker]

djams suggested i try using the straight apap and quit using the "for her" mode. thanks, guy, that helped!

palerider suggested i take this VERY SLOWLY and up my minimum just a very small amount and let it play out. thank you, sir. i just bumped my min last night. after about 10 days of staying at 9.6 i bumped last night to 9.8 with no ill effects.

djams had a great idea about that.. and I think that you should keep sneaking the pressure up, you're still spending most, if not all the night above the minimum, and ideally, you want the minimum to be high enough that you spend some of the night there, instead of the constant up and down. If it weren't for the bloating you've had, I'd say bump your min to 11. However, with the bloating, I think that sneaking up on it is better, letting you get used to the higher pressures over time, till they don't bother you.

yup, i plan on getting there in the end. i don't think i said, but i felt comfortable with the 9.8 min last night. ahi of 1 which was mostly hypopnea. will stick with it for a week or so and raise it again, if all still feels well.

[palerider]

djams suggested i try using the straight apap and quit using the "for her" mode. thanks, guy, that helped!

palerider suggested i take this VERY SLOWLY and up my minimum just a very small amount and let it play out. thank you, sir. i just bumped my min last night. after about 10 days of staying at 9.6 i bumped last night to 9.8 with no ill effects.

djams had a great idea about that.. and I think that you should keep sneaking the pressure up, you're still spending most, if not all the night above the minimum, and ideally, you want the minimum to be high enough that you spend some of the night there, instead of the constant up and down. If it weren't for the bloating you've had, I'd say bump your min to 11. However, with the bloating, I think that sneaking up on it is better, letting you get used to the higher pressures over time, till they don't bother you.

yup, i plan on getting there in the end. i don't think i said, but i felt comfortable with the 9.8 min last night. ahi of 1 which was mostly hypopnea. will stick with it for a week or so and raise it again, if all still feels well.

Sounds like a plan.

[zonker]

okay, kids, looks like i'm on a good path here. it continues to be a fact that the read wine is contributing to my fragmented sleep. i'm currently experiencing sleep of 2-3 hour duration. i haven't repeated the 5 hour stretch merely because i can't seem to keep myself to just one glass. i will either get to that point or i will quit bitchin' about fragmented sleep!

here's a few screenshots for you to ogle-

screenshot-20181117-104133.png

screenshot-20181117-104143.png

screenshot-20181117-104153.png

i'm trying something new, a new combination of features on my machine. this SEEMS to be doing what i want and i'm remaining comfortable in the process. however, i'm a very superstitious lout and don't want to say anything yet before further testing. there have been at least 3 times in my journey where i've made changes, gotten good results, then watch it not "take". in other words, my ahi would jump up after a few days. so i'll stay with what i have for a goodly while.

i add that there is no bloating or other discomfort. not waking up sore, fuzzy or with headache.

i'm liking this!!

[palerider]

okay, kids, looks like i'm on a good path here. it continues to be a fact that the read wine is contributing to my fragmented sleep. i'm currently experiencing sleep of 2-3 hour duration. i haven't repeated the 5 hour stretch merely because i can't seem to keep myself to just one glass. i will either get to that point or i will quit bitchin' about fragmented sleep!

Something to keep in mind. Sleep goes through cycles... and in between those cycles, you're just barely asleep, or even awake.. that's totally normal. It's just that when you "sleep all night through", you don't *remember* those brief wakeups. just like you didn't remember all the wakeups that happened because of apnea.

However, (my theory) because of the extra stimulus of the mask, you're more likely to remember the wakeups between sleep stages.

I just turn over, snuggle into the pillow, and go back to sleep when it happens to me.

i add that there is no bloating or other discomfort. not waking up sore, fuzzy or with headache.

i'm liking this!!

That's the goal, waking up, feeling as good as you can.

[Pugsy]

i can't seem to keep myself to just one glass. i will either get to that point or i will quit bitchin' about fragmented sleep!

The wine probably plays a part in the fragmented sleep but most likely isn't the only culprit. Just one of several factors.
At least you know that it plays a part and now you can plan accordingly...and make choices.
I do stuff that I know is bad for my sleep quality...it's a choice I make. Since it's my choice I also decided to not bitch about it. Even if I didn't do some known bad things my sleep most likely wouldn't be optimal anyway. It is what it is and I choose to not expend much energy on stuff that I either can't change or won't change.

[zonker]

okay, kids, looks like i'm on a good path here. it continues to be a fact that the read wine is contributing to my fragmented sleep. i'm currently experiencing sleep of 2-3 hour duration. i haven't repeated the 5 hour stretch merely because i can't seem to keep myself to just one glass. i will either get to that point or i will quit bitchin' about fragmented sleep!

Something to keep in mind. Sleep goes through cycles... and in between those cycles, you're just barely asleep, or even awake.. that's totally normal. It's just that when you "sleep all night through", you don't *remember* those brief wakeups. just like you didn't remember all the wakeups that happened because of apnea.

AND-uh, this was a sticking point for me when i first came to this forum. i would complain about fragmented sleep. you and pugsy and others would say the same thing. at the time, i thought "you boneheads aren't LISTENING to me!". but come to find out, *I* wasn't listening to you guys!

i now know that i wasn't expressing myself properly. mine are what i consider "hard" wake ups. and i'm sure that there are times that i wake up and don't recall it. hell, surely i did that, too, in my one marathon five hour sleep!

[zonker]

i can't seem to keep myself to just one glass. i will either get to that point or i will quit bitchin' about fragmented sleep!

The wine probably plays a part in the fragmented sleep but most likely isn't the only culprit. Just one of several factors.
At least you know that it plays a part and now you can plan accordingly...and make choices.
I do stuff that I know is bad for my sleep quality...it's a choice I make. Since it's my choice I also decided to not bitch about it. Even if I didn't do some known bad things my sleep most likely wouldn't be optimal anyway. It is what it is and I choose to not expend much energy on stuff that I either can't change or won't change.

but, but, but....you're our hero! you are supposed to have perfect sleep.

that reminds me of talking to my then five year old grandson. he was telling me about his nightmares. i assured him that, i too had bad dreams. this blew his mind. "no, grandpa. YOU don't get bad dreams!"

it may, indeed, be more than the wine. i'm also reminded of how i would always shy away from the sleep hygiene list that granny posts. (sort of like how an old school vampire would react to a cross worn round the neck!) but it may come to eliminating other things from my diet.

but, that's tomorrow's worry....

[palerider]

okay, kids, looks like i'm on a good path here. it continues to be a fact that the read wine is contributing to my fragmented sleep. i'm currently experiencing sleep of 2-3 hour duration. i haven't repeated the 5 hour stretch merely because i can't seem to keep myself to just one glass. i will either get to that point or i will quit bitchin' about fragmented sleep!

Something to keep in mind. Sleep goes through cycles... and in between those cycles, you're just barely asleep, or even awake.. that's totally normal. It's just that when you "sleep all night through", you don't *remember* those brief wakeups. just like you didn't remember all the wakeups that happened because of apnea.

AND-uh, this was a sticking point for me when i first came to this forum. i would complain about fragmented sleep. you and pugsy and others would say the same thing. at the time, i thought "you boneheads aren't LISTENING to me!". but come to find out, *I* wasn't listening to you guys!

You're not alone...

i now know that i wasn't expressing myself properly. mine are what i consider "hard" wake ups. and i'm sure that there are times that i wake up and don't recall it. hell, surely i did that, too, in my one marathon five hour sleep!

The thing that probably wasn't conveyed well is "don't worry about waking up during the night, just accept it, and go back to sleep when you can".

There's a school of thought going around that it used to be normal to sleep a few hours, wake up, putter around doing whatever, then sleep a few more hours... instead of a "solid 8" or whatever.

The biggest takeaway... don't let not sleeping through the night upset you.. especially during the night, because that will just make it worse.

[Arlene1963]

The biggest takeaway... don't let not sleeping through the night upset you.. especially during the night, because that will just make it worse.

+1

I so agree with this and it took me a long time to "make peace" with waking up at night and just relaxing, not stressing, it is so important.

[djams]

i add that there is no bloating or other discomfort. not waking up sore, fuzzy or with headache.

i'm liking this!!

This is great news. Keep up the good work!

[zonker]

i add that there is no bloating or other discomfort. not waking up sore, fuzzy or with headache.

i'm liking this!!

This is great news. Keep up the good work!

thanks! i'm really chuffed that i'm getting good and steady results. this coming week, i'll wager, will have some downsides sleep wise. i'm going to be out of town overnight and i have an "event". an "event" for me is any time i feel i have to be somewhere in the morning at a set time. so that usually monkeys with my sleep, asdoes sleeping in a strange bed.

anyway, excelsior!

[djams]

an "event" for me is any time i feel i have to be somewhere in the morning at a set time. so that usually monkeys with my sleep.

This is called "the daily grind" for us workin' folk. You gotta be messing with me!

anyway, excelsior!

excelsior!

[zonker]

This is called "the daily grind" for us workin' folk. You gotta be messing with me!

what is this puzzling word, "working"?

[zonker]

all right, time to bring this thread to it's conclusion. i am well pleased with my current situation. as i predicted, this last week was rough on sleep. even so, this past week averaged 1.51 ahi as compared with the previous average of 2.09. i'm certain once i get back to a more typical sleep pattern, things will get even better.

i'm sleeping well as i continue to get a handle on the fragmented sleep. thanks for the help on that.

i've found out something that has helped out my sleep comfort, too. a user in another thread(wish i had made a note of who!) suggested to a newbie that they try, under "response", the setting of "soft". i figured what the hell, i'll try that myself.

what a HUGE difference that made! i can now breath more normally against the pressure. now, when i breath out, i don't feel rushed to inhale. i can let there be a more comfortable lag in between.

this couple with an epr of 1 has allowed me to increase my minimum pressure so that i have better control over my events. i've gone up slowly over the last few weeks from 9.6 to 10. that's something i thought would NEVER happen.

again, thanks you guys. you've been a great help!!

[Mark55]

I'm glad to hear things are going better for you. You just spoke about the response setting, and it being easier to breathe with the soft setting.

I was always under the impression that standard/soft response settings only related to how quickly the machine raised the pressure in response to an event in APAP mode? Mine is still in the default mode unless I hit a button in the clinical menu by mistake.

I may have just learned something new!!