Breathing disturbances still causing awakenings?

[Rob K]

Funny, it's like you read my mind since I've been putting off starting a log. lol I just have to figure out all the things I'm going to keep track off. Started a list: Date, basic machine settings, hours of sleep, ahi, remembered wake ups, true flags, false flags, probable arousals from chart, maybe arousals from chart, how I feel. I'll get better at interpreting breathing patterns by doing this. I kind of feel like a lot of what I am seeing is maybe false positives as far as the ahi numbers go. Possibly I'm headed in the wrong direction with pressure changes. Learning and studying the details will help figure that out.

Last night was around 7.5 hours and woke quite tired. Woke quite a few times. Had breakfast and took it easy. Slept about another 2.5 hours in which I woke a bunch of times but feel good. If I can ever get 10 hours of sleep I feel pretty darn good but thats rare. A typical 7.5-8.5 hour night has me be feeling quite tired due to fragmented sleep.

[Pugsy]

Possibly I'm headed in the wrong direction with pressure changes.

You know what the beauty of all this is.......you can always do experiments with lower pressure if you want to.
Nothing is set in stone.

If you really are having airway breathing issues being a factor in the wake ups....increasing the baseline pressure is the first thing to start with.

You might also try a fixed pressure at some point.

You might also try a pressure reduction at some point.

You get to decide what you want to do.....and you will learn by doing it.

[Rob K]

So started making small changes to machine settings and started a log. I'm realizing I'm not very good at interpreting flow rate charts so those numbers are probably not very accurate. Need to keep working on interpretation.

[Rob K]

Moving forward, working on interpretation. These charts I think are obstructive followed by awake breathing. I also wonder if I'm wrong. I'm starting to realize I probably hold my breath when I turn over in bed.

Chart 18 & 19

[palerider]

Moving forward, working on interpretation. These charts I think are obstructive followed by awake breathing. I also wonder if I'm wrong. I'm starting to realize I probably hold my breath when I turn over in bed.

Most people do.

[Rob K]

Same with these. I think are take deep breath and hold breath while adjusting mask or turning over in bed. Learning a ton, thanks so much. The first chart says it all turned the machine off when I rolled over.

Chart 20 & 21

[Rob K]

I figured out what this flow rate waveform is that I see occasionally. It is from breathing in the nose and out the mouth while using a nasal mask. Here is a link to the post by Jay that describes what is happening plus a few other waveform examples.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=113502&p=1095402#p1095379

Chart 22

[tan]

So started making small changes to machine settings and started a log. I'm realizing I'm not very good at interpreting flow rate charts so those numbers are probably not very accurate. Need to keep working on interpretation.

IMHO, those are way too many hours slept, which will most likely result in fragmented/shallow sleep, so varying sleep quality "bad/good" and frequent awakenings are quite expected. I mean if it's a bad sleep you have, you are chasing a wrong target.

[Rob K]

The hours on my Oscar charts are not the hours I slept, just the amount of time I have the mask on. I'm often awake with the mask on. It's rare for me to get 10 hours of sleep. My entire life I've been a long sleeper. 8.5-9 hours of uninterupted sleep per night is when I'm usually in top form. During the summer when I'm working a lot I typically only get 7-8 hours and that really kicks my butt. Quite dysfunctional by the weekend. If I have a day off I let all the fun pass me by choosing to catch up on sleep and rest. For a long period back 5 years ago I was sleeping 3-7 hours per night. The amount of hours didn't seem to change the fragmentation very much. It really has been persistent for several years now. It developed along with the apnea. That's why I keep digging deeper into my therapy to see if it's adequate or if it can be improved.

On a side note I'm having a blast studying the waveforms. It's so enlightening when you have a map of what went on through the night. I have a long ways to go but just knowing a little bit about it has opened up a whole new world of understanding and insight. Feels good to have the opportunity to take the therapy to the next level.

[palerider]

I figured out what this flow rate waveform is that I see occasionally. It is from breathing in the nose and out the mouth while using a nasal mask. Here is a link to the post by Jay that describes what is happening plus a few other waveform examples.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=113502&p=1095402#p1095379

Chart 22

I'd suggest right clicking on 'flow rate', selecting 'y axis scaling' and then 'override, and put some more sane limits, like -60 to 60, then autoscaling didn't work very well in that version (and earlier of Oscar and SH) and it does crap like making the whole chart scrunched so small you can't see anything.

[tan]

The hours on my Oscar charts are not the hours I slept...

if you have a bad sleep, it is a mistake to stay in bed past your sleep time as well having an irregular sleep schedule.

If I have a day off I let all the fun pass me by choosing to catch up on sleep and rest...

You keep paying for this fun with a worse sleep the following days. It takes weeks to recover from bad habits

[deficit]

On a side note I'm having a blast studying the waveforms.

Hi Rob K,

Sorry I haven't read all of the posts in this thread, but regarding your waveforms/events which are less than 10 seconds and disturbing sleep -- there is a feature of Oscar/SH which can be used to detect them. At the moment I don't have concrete examples to post, but in the past it worked for me and was helpful.

In Oscar, it's under:

File -> Preferences -> CPAP -> Custom CPAP User Event Flagging

By default it's not enabled, but it might be fun to try it. It may make it easier to locate all of the shorter apneas during the night which are still disturbing sleep. The feature allows detection based on both flow restriction level and duration.

Good luck!

EDIT to add: I just remembered, the popup help for the Custom Events says the feature must be enabled *prior* to data import and/or purge. I think it might work for older data if you do a rebuild under Data->Rebuild CPAP Data, after enabling the custom detection feature.

[Rob K]

Palerider, that is so much better thanks. I haven't been through all the settings yet for Oscar. So far have been studying waveforms most days.

Deficit. Does it make sense to keep those settings? 20% flow limit for 8 seconds and 50% flow limit for 8 seconds? This stuff is new to me. It certainly is nice to see all the 8 second events, I think. They say ignorance it bliss. Actually it will help a lot thank you.

[Rob K]

Last nigh with the custom user flags enabled so it is showing the 8 second events. Seems like quite a bit going on there between 8 and 10 seconds. At this point I don't know if I should be concerned with that or not. Definitely provides more insight.

Chart #23

[Rob K]

Where can I find the parameters used to trigger standard flags CA, OA, H, etc? I want to see how those are determined compared to the UF1 & UF2 flags I just enabled.

I figure out that they are flagged if longer than 10 seconds. There must be parameters for flow also.