Need Some Help with SleepyHead

[ziuaploia]

Hey Everyone,
I've been using my CPAP machine for about 10 days now (since March 15th), and while I keep transferring all of my data over to SleepyHead I honestly have no idea what any of it means.

A little bit about me:
* I do take a sleep medication, Zopiclone (5mg) every night before bed as well as 20mg of Cipralex (Lexapro in the USA), and 150mg of Welbutrin
* I did a home sleep study and the specialist determined I had sleep apnea, but my doctor disagreed and did not give me the results or recommend investigating further. I then saw an ENT who again agreed that I had sleep apnea and simply told me to get a CPAP machine. I was never given a recommended pressure setting or any real information, so I am trying to figure it out as I go.
* I am using the AireSense 10 AutoSet for Her and the F30 mask

I am including two different nights of data to give a better overview of what I'm experiencing in the hopes of getting some help with what my pressure should be at, if I'm doing things correctly/incorrectly, etc. The first image is from March 23rd (8 days after starting) and the second image is from March 19th (4 days after starting).

Thank you to everyone who responds!

[Thumper68]

Welcome to the forum. 1st off you are doing great! I think that you need to kill the obstructive events first. You do that with more minimum pressure so you can prevent them from ever happening. If those were my charts I would bump the minimum pressure up to 10 and see how the machine performed. You picked a good machine by the way. If you don't want to make that big of a minimum pressure increase, you can increase in steps. How are you doing with the pressures now? On the 2 charts that you posted you seem to be using the machine for 6-7 hours, which is great (especially for just starting out). I predict that your final minimum pressure will be closer to 12 than 10 in the end.

[Pugsy]

watch all the videos here first.
http://freecpapadvice.com/sleepyhead-free-software

[ziuaploia]

Welcome to the forum. 1st off you are doing great! I think that you need to kill the obstructive events first. You do that with more minimum pressure so you can prevent them from ever happening. If those were my charts I would bump the minimum pressure up to 10 and see how the machine performed. You picked a good machine by the way. If you don't want to make that big of a minimum pressure increase, you can increase in steps. How are you doing with the pressures now? On the 2 charts that you posted you seem to be using the machine for 6-7 hours, which is great (especially for just starting out). I predict that your final minimum pressure will be closer to 12 than 10 in the end.

Right now my pressure is 5.6 which I know is quite low and it's no issue. In terms of higher pressures, for the first week, I would wake up any time my machine bumped me up to 10+ but now I seem to sleep through until I wake up for work (for the most part).

With increasing the minimum should I set up that EPR feature? Or just try without it?

Thanks!

[ziuaploia]

watch all the videos here first.
http://freecpapadvice.com/sleepyhead-free-software

That you for the link - will watch through them today. I've been doing a lot of reading, both on here and off, but the technical information currently seems to go right over my head! Very motivated to learn, however, so I appreciate the resources.

[Thumper68]

EPR is a personal choice. It is basically a comfort setting. You will have to try it with and without to know what you prefer. I do use a EPR of 2. My minimum pressure is currently 12.4. EPR drops my exhale pressure to 10.4 on exhale.

[ziuaploia]

I took the advice given and upped my starting pressure to 7, which seems to have worked like a charm and left me with my lowest AHI since starting (0.19).

With that said... I woke up this morning because of terrible stomach pains and very loud, large burps. After doing some reading online I have a hunch that it could be aerophagia. My sleep was a lot more restful, but it was also a lot shorter.

So my question is, will I just have to make a choice between being quite gassy and having a low AHI, or, having a higher AHI but no stomach pains? Or, are there things I can do to combat the gas and pain?

Thank you!!

[Pugsy]

Did you add EPR when you increased the pressure minimum to 7cm? If not that would be the first thing I did. If you did...increase it if you can.

wiki/index.php/Aerophagia

[ziuaploia]

Did you add EPR when you increased the pressure minimum to 7cm? If not that would be the first thing I did. If you did...increase it if you can.

wiki/index.php/Aerophagia

Hi Pugsy - No, I didn't touch the EPR setting because I wasn't too sure what I was doing and it had two options, Ramp Only and Full-Time.

The way I have my settings right now is that I am using a starting pressure of 5.6 with Auto-Ramp, and then a minimum pressure of 7. So would it be smarter to turn off my ramp setting and just start at 7 with the EPR on full-time?

[Pugsy]

Use the ramp if you need it to ease up to the 7 cm starting minimum.

Set EPR to full time (you can still use ramp if you wish) and set it to 2 for now and see what happens in terms of aerophagia issues.
The idea is hopefully the lower pressure on exhale will stop the air from entering the stomach so much or so often. Less consistent pressure on the LES lower esophageal sphincter.

[ziuaploia]

Use the ramp if you need it to ease up to the 7 cm starting minimum.

Set EPR to full time (you can still use ramp if you wish) and set it to 2 for now and see what happens in terms of aerophagia issues.
The idea is hopefully the lower pressure on exhale will stop the air from entering the stomach so much or so often. Less consistent pressure on the LES lower esophageal sphincter.

Perfect - I will try this tonight and see if I wake up less... bubbly...

Thank you for taking the time to help!!

[ziuaploia]

Hey Everyone!

So I gave it about a week after moving my minimum pressure up to 7, but now it seems my AHI has gone up along with it. The first few days were great, but the last few not so much.

I'm attaching a sleepyhead screenshot from last night hoping one of you might be able to decipher it for me and pinpoint where I'm having any issues? I know that since I am under 5 it is considered good and therapeutic - but it is more me being worried that my settings aren't correct and that I could be doing something better.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and help, it is greatly appreciated.

[Pugsy]

How is your sleep quality? Waking often or sleeping soundly?

[ziuaploia]

How is your sleep quality? Waking often or sleeping soundly?

My sleep quality is significantly better than before I started CPAP. I used to wake up at least 10+ times a night, and now I wake up maybe once. Even last night, with the higher AHI, I still feel quite rested this morning.

[Pugsy]

The bulk of your AHI is clear airway/central related. Can’t do much about those with this machine and you really aren’t having enough of them to worry about.

I wouldn’t change anything. Give yourself some time and just get used to using Cpap. A few centrals are normal anyway.

The main thing is you are sleeping good and feeling good. I suspect with time the central numbers will drop on their own.....and since we can’t do anything about them anyway with this machine....give it some time.

Actually for a newbie report......pretty darn good. Excellent job.