Susancpv1 wrote: ↑Sun Jan 19, 2020 1:34 pm
Is there a harmful effect to cranking it up?
Not really. Aerophagia is probably the worst thing that will happen and that's not guaranteed.
Susancpv1 wrote: ↑Sun Jan 19, 2020 1:34 pm
Is there a reason to not crank it up high?
No, not really. I just wanted to point out that if you keep smoothing out the pressure graph that you are fast approaching what fixed pressure more does.
If your pressures were really going wildly all over the place AND it was happening not just in REM...then I would be more on board for maybe smoothing things out a bit but if someone just wants to smooth things out just because of REM pressure needs....might as well use fixed pressures.
Maybe I am kinda funny but I don't see a minimum of 9 and the machine not going over 11 (which means a 2 cm range) equal to a lot of variations and I would leave it alone assuming I was sleeping decently and feeling decent.
Meaning I don't see the need to smooth that 2 cm range out any more.
Like I said....it all depends on why the machine wants to go up and back down and when and how a person is sleeping and feeling.
But it hurts nothing to probably be using more minimum than might be technically needed for the bulk of the night.
I have been down that experiment road myself some years ago. At the time I was using a Respironics machine so needed a little more minimum pressure to break up the REM clusters. I had come to the 10 cm minimum and 20 cm maximum (and would often see 16 cm and sometimes 18 cm during probable REM)...and AHI was ranging 1 to 3. Back then we didn't have centrals flagged separately and no flow rate to maybe discount SWJ flagged events.
So I decided to increase the minimum in 0.5 cm increments over a period of time to see what difference, if any, it made in my AHI or sleep quality or how I felt. I spent 1 week at each new minimum...0.5 cm increase each week up until I spent a week at 13 minimum...so took me 6 weeks.
Nothing changed with the increases...absolutely nothing. AHI didn't change...sleep quality didn't change nor how I felt.
More minimum and less variations in the pressure did nothing for me. I see no sense in using more pressure if it doesn't change anything.
Now it didn't hurt me but it wasn't real comfortable using 13 and I thought there wasn't much sense it doing it since nothing really changed except the pressure line smoothed out.
I see no sense in using more pressure during the entire night for REM related stuff when the machine can easily reach where it needs to go to with an optimal minimum setting. Supine sleeping for me never made any real difference in pressure needs. If it had I might have done something different.
You can do what you want to and it won't hurt you to use more all night....but YMMV and you may be like me and it simply not make any big difference in anything.
Or you might be like some of the others who notice that smoothing out the pressure line means they feel better and sleep better.
Everything regarding to cpap comes with a big YMMV sticker.
I may have to RISE but I refuse to SHINE.