Waking up with sinus headache

[Par301]

Good Morning and Happy Easter to All,
Lately (past month or so) I have been waking up with sinus type headaches. This has happened a few times since I have been using my cpap(4 years). I have checked my AHI and here are my stats, 6.5 last night, 4.0 over the last seven days, and 3.4 over the last 30 days. I am wondering if these are common numbers and why they can vary so dramatically each night. Is there a way to help the numbers stay steady. I am thinking of lowering my pressure to see if that helps. Here are a few details that may help in trying to figure this out.

1. I have lost 40 lbs. in the last year.
2. I spend 6 months a year in the south.
3. I no longer consume alcohol.
4. I use two different cpap machines each of those 6 months.
5. 99% fit all during use.

I know that I am seeing my Sleep Doctor in a couple of months, but am looking for any help from anyone at this point.

My Equipment:

Phillips Dreamstation/resmed ap10 mask 6 months
Resmed Airsense 10/ap10 mask 6 months

Please feel free to ask questions or give advice,

Thanks, Par301

[Goofproof]

Do you use the Software to monitor the true data, if so you need to post it here. Jim

[chunkyfrog]

The allergy season is really bad this year. And early!
Spring means pollen, and the counts are unusually high this spring.
SINUS HELL.
Antihistamines, nasal rinses, or nasal sprays might help--if that is your problem.
I am looking out at the peach tree blooming outside, sniffling, and hoping for no hail.
I love peaches.
Edit--it hailed, but the timing was good--germination had already loosened the petals,
so most stems and nascent fruit are hanging in there. Yay.

[D.H.]

Did the onset of the headaches coincide with the change of machine, mask, and location?

[zonker]

Good Morning and Happy Easter to All,

welcome to the zoo! it may well be allergies, as chunkyfrog attests. but i'm wondering if you use sleepyhead software to track your cpap journey? it sounds like you might.

if not, it's at the bottom of my post. what i'm getting at is, i think you'd benefit by posting some scren shots of your ahi event breakdown. without regard to how allergies may/may not affect you, your ahi needs to be lower, in my opinion. once we see some sleepyhead charts, the experts (not me!!) can give you some tips to lower your ahi.

good luck!

[Jas_williams]

A resmed machine will respond quicker than a Philips machine, are you on the Philips machine now if so a higher min pressure may be required

[Par301]

To all that have responded, I took your advice and have installed sleepy head software. Also installed apnea board forum. I am not sure how to post my stats from my files for the right folks can help. Any instructions on that would be helpful.

Thanks, Par301

[Par301]

Did the onset of the headaches coincide with the change of machine, mask, and location?

No they have been on and off for at least a year.

[Par301]

A resmed machine will respond quicker than a Philips machine, are you on the Philips machine now if so a higher min pressure may be required

How do I know if that is true?

[Par301]

Good Morning and Happy Easter to All,

welcome to the zoo! it may well be allergies, as chunkyfrog attests. but i'm wondering if you use sleepyhead software to track your cpap journey? it sounds like you might.

if not, it's at the bottom of my post. what i'm getting at is, i think you'd benefit by posting some scren shots of your ahi event breakdown. without regard to how allergies may/may not affect you, your ahi needs to be lower, in my opinion. once we see some sleepyhead charts, the experts (not me!!) can give you some tips to lower your ahi.

good luck!

I took your advise and downloaded sleepy head software. Do I transfer from the card each day? I am not sure how to transfer data for others to see. Any help on that would be helpful.

[katestyles]

A resmed machine will respond quicker than a Philips machine, are you on the Philips machine now if so a higher min pressure may be required

How do I know if that is true?

If you post some images from sleepyhead people here on the forum will help you understand what it shows, and how you can change the machine to give you better results.

There are instructions here
viewtopic/t158560/How-to-post-images-fo ... l#p1220783

[kteague]

...I am thinking of lowering my pressure to see if that helps...

I wouldn't lower the pressure without the data indicating it it the right move. Right now your AHI is a bit higher than I would be ok with. Maybe once you get some help here you can optimize your treatment. Once you're looking at your machine data, even if your events are relatively low in number, check out the duration. Prolonged events can cause headaches. When someone says they have sinus headaches my first thought is if they need their humidity level adjusted.

[Par301]

screenshot-20190422-183106.png (90.25 KiB) Viewed 602 times

[Par301]

I tried to attach a snip it. Hope I did this right. Do I need to just post it to a new post or to a group? thanks for any help.

[katestyles]

This is the right place to have posted your screenshot.

Well done for getting it up there!

Good news is, there is plenty that can be improved! I know just enough to be dangerous, so I'm going to hold off with recommendations. (I just get them wrong)

Even though most medics would say you are "cured" if your AHI drops below 5, most of us here at the forum find that getting it under 1 makes a much bigger difference.

What you are trying to do is get that top graph to have as few "flags" as possible, by carefully changing things. And not too many things at a time.