CPAP - Low AHI, still cannot sleep. Trouble determining beneficial pressure

[DreamDiver]

Also, under the clinician's menu, all the way down under Options, set "Essentials" to "Plus". This will give you more information directly on your patient menu screen and may be more useful than myAir in some circumstances.

[frustratedsleeper]

Hello, I don’t take any other medications. And I downloaded the OSCAR software but my Cpap doesn’t have a chip in it to transfer the information over. Is there a way to use OSCAR without the chip?

OSCAR requires an SD card.
The only other options is the myAir app which only offers a minimum of information for looking at therapy.
Since you have an AirSense 10, you can by an SD card. Let the machine format it, and you should be good to go!

Chris

Oscar is free to use?

[DreamDiver]

Oscar is free to use?

Yes! I know right? Free and open-source.

[frustratedsleeper]

Hi frustratedsleeper. Thanks for PM'ing me to let me know of Julie's suggestion. My expertise is pretty much limited to experience, but I've had a heck of a lot of that.

About the few limb movements noted on your study. While they are too few to be of clinical significance in their own right, they could be a red flag. If, and that's a big if, you were to happen to have an issue with periodic limb movements, it is not uncommon when experienced in conjunction with obstructive sleep apnea for either or both conditions to be underappreciated in a study as they can mask each other. Whichever is the strongest on any particular night will get the higher count, and we don't sleep the same night to night. Sometimes people see only a few limb movements in the lab, but once they resolve their sleep apnea with effective CPAP therapy and are sleeping better, the limb movements have the opportunity to more fully manifest. The question for you is if your legs are disrupting your sleep or not. If possible, video recording your legs (uncovered) while sleeping is one way to find out if there is significant movement. Is that something you are able to do?

Hopefully with the guidance of the machine and data gurus here you can make sure your treatment is optimized. Some of them can look at things like flow limitation graphs in the machine data and tell a lot. (Definitely not me.) I wouldn't worry too much about recording your legs until your OSA treatment is going pretty good and you have passed through the adjustment phase with all the new sensations. So many things can disrupt sleep. It's a process of elimination. Good luck with things.

Thank you for that information. I’ll try to see if I can narrow down the issue. Thank you again

[frustratedsleeper]

sounds more like insomnia

Why do you say that? I have times where I stop breathing during my sleep.

[milboltnut]

what was your AHI # before you went on the CPAP? Your sleep study said you stopped breathing or somebody else in your house?

CPAP - Low AHI, still cannot sleep. Trouble determining beneficial pressure

Isn't that your complaint? And not your Apnea?

[frustratedsleeper]

what was your AHI # before you went on the CPAP? Your sleep study said you stopped breathing or somebody else in your house?

CPAP - Low AHI, still cannot sleep. Trouble determining beneficial pressure

Isn't that your complaint? And not your Apnea?

My AHI from my sleep study was 7.2. My complaint is that I cannot stay asleep despite my Cpap treatment. The sleep study represents information about my sleep. My question is why am I still waking up though my apnea’s aren’t happening as much anymore.

[Pugsy]

Sleep maintenance insomnia....google it and start reading the miles long list of potential causes and sleep apnea is just one item on that very long list.

Two kinds of insomnia...sleep onset which is trouble falling asleep and sleep maintenance which is trouble staying asleep or frequent awakenings or waking way too early.

CPAP machines can only fix insomnia when the insomnia is caused by sleep apnea....it can't do a darn thing for insomnia caused by anything else.

[Julie]

Can't remember if you said you take some meds, but if you do, should we presume you've looked at side FX of those to be sure they don't interfere with sleeping?

And if you work out before bed, don't - do it lots earlier because it won't 'tire you out so you sleep better', it can have the opposite effect for some.

[frustratedsleeper]

Hello, everyone I have an update. These are some images that represent my sleep struggles. Hopefully I can receive some insight using these images.

[Julie]

Is there a reason your max pressure setting is 12 vs the more usual 20?

[frustratedsleeper]

Is there a reason your max pressure setting is 12 vs the more usual 20?

I just went back to something more compliant to my prescription, I am still able to have 0 AHIs,but sleep is still inconsistent

[DreamDiver]

Hello, everyone I have an update. These are some images that represent my sleep struggles. Hopefully I can receive some insight using these images.

It looks like your apnea is being well-managed via cpap. So this is one part of your equation that you've mostly figured out. That's great! Why not continue with your current settings? Part of the insomnia thing could be getting used to a new way of sleeping with a mask and machine.

It looks like you're beginning sleeping at different times. On the 12th, you started at 3am and ended at 7am. On the 13th, you started at 7 and ended at 11:30am. Getting sleep when you can is important, but changing when you sleep may be counter-productive. Do you have a job that is second shift or floating shift? Are you sleeping for any periods without the mask? Are you finding yourself taking the mask off at some point and continuing sleeping without?

Sleep hygiene is important. Here are some considerations:

• going to bed at the same time each night
• getting up the same time each morning
• lowering the amount of room light in your bedroom, bathroom, etc. before sleep
• not looking at phone screens or TV screens after sleep time has started
• covering LED's especially blue LED's in your bedroom with tape
• no bright daylight-spectrum bulbs in the bedroom/bathroom. Only less-bright, soft warm-spectrum light bulbs if possible.
• blackout curtains if necessary to block light from street lamps
• refraining from eating as early as three hours before bed
• no news broadcasts, action/horror flicks, facebook just before bed
• no exercise just before bed
• mindful meditation before sleep
• medication review - This may not apply to you since you said you're not taking sleep meds.
• getting out of bed for maybe 20 minutes to read a book if awake, then going back to bed, masking up and lights out.
• Mask up every time you sleep -- naps, etc.
• If you nap, try to nap around the same time every day.

It's possible that with continued use and practice, incorporating good sleep hygiene practices, that could be enough to resolve insomnia. That could take time and practice, just getting your body used to what your mind already knows is good for you. If you are unable to resolve your insomnia, it may be time to go back to the your sleep doc to pin down the remaining parts of your equation.

Chris

[frustratedsleeper]

Hello, everyone I have an update. These are some images that represent my sleep struggles. Hopefully I can receive some insight using these images.

It looks like your apnea is being well-managed via cpap. So this is one part of your equation that you've mostly figured out. That's great! Why not continue with your current settings? Part of the insomnia thing could be getting used to a new way of sleeping with a mask and machine.

It looks like you're beginning sleeping at different times. On the 12th, you started at 3am and ended at 7am. On the 13th, you started at 7 and ended at 11:30am. Getting sleep when you can is important, but changing when you sleep may be counter-productive. Do you have a job that is second shift or floating shift? Are you sleeping for any periods without the mask? Are you finding yourself taking the mask off at some point and continuing sleeping without?

Sleep hygiene is important. Here are some considerations:

• going to bed at the same time each night
• getting up the same time each morning
• lowering the amount of room light in your bedroom, bathroom, etc. before sleep
• not looking at phone screens or TV screens after sleep time has started
• covering LED's especially blue LED's in your bedroom with tape
• no bright daylight-spectrum bulbs in the bedroom/bathroom. Only less-bright, soft warm-spectrum light bulbs if possible.
• blackout curtains if necessary to block light from street lamps
• refraining from eating as early as three hours before bed
• no news broadcasts, action/horror flicks, facebook just before bed
• no exercise just before bed
• mindful meditation before sleep
• medication review - This may not apply to you since you said you're not taking sleep meds.
• getting out of bed for maybe 20 minutes to read a book if awake, then going back to bed, masking up and lights out.
• Mask up every time you sleep -- naps, etc.
• If you nap, try to nap around the same time every day.

It's possible that with continued use and practice, incorporating good sleep hygiene practices, that could be enough to resolve insomnia. That could take time and practice, just getting your body used to what your mind already knows is good for you. If you are unable to resolve your insomnia, it may be time to go back to the your sleep doc to pin down the remaining parts of your equation.

Chris

Is there anything in the data that stands out. For the most part my sleep hygiene is really good. I check a lot of the boxes you say, but the Corona stuff messed up my sleep schedule

[Pugsy]

There is nothing in your software reports that is standing up screaming "fix me and you will sleep better".
Sorry, I wish there was because it would give you something tangible to work on but it's just not there.
You look really, really good on paper anyway.
Unfortunately there are a lot of culprits that can and will mess with sleep quality that have absolutely nothing to do with sleep apnea and the best cpap therapy in the world can't fix a problem that isn't related to sleep apnea.....no matter how much we want it to.