Can't Understand my results

[Just Matt]

Thanks to everyone that contributes to this site. I have read through a lot of posts and understand more than I did but I still have trouble understanding what I am looking at on my reports. I have been using an APAP for a few years and have been doing well with an AHI of less than 1, normally. Recently I realized that I am waking 10-12 times each night, I turn over and fall back asleep quickly, but I am tired all day and have been doing this for the last year or 2. After reading though some posts I realized my pressure may be set too low. It was at 6.2 and I raised it to 9 over a few day period. After raising it I noticed I no longer woke up 10-12 times, more like 1-2 at most. I am grateful for the extra sleep but I am not sure if I could still get better results. Below is my information and I hope to post a screenshot of my report soon. I am not sure what to look for and I can't seem to follow the graphs in some of the posts.

90% Pressure is about 11
Currently Pressure range Min 9 Max 14 - Originally it was set at 6-20 but I changed it based in comments
AHI less than 1
Flow Rate - current was .07 and high was .51

My wife says I no longer snore so I am sure it is working but could it be better? Anything you can tell me is greatly appreciated and I know there must be a lot of information needed that I have not supplied but I will. Thanks again!

[mummmz]

Fill out your profile, download OSCAR and read the sticky posts to learn how/what to post so people can help you.

[Julie]

90% is anything UP to that... it's not fixed at 90%.

And you might try things at 10 vs 9, but I otherwise wouldn't do more without doing Oscar to be sure you're not looking for any potential problems... not likely, but you need to be sure. Things look pretty good as they are and no one can tell you that they will be better for YOU in a given circumstance of course.

[Janknitz]

Rather than taking a stab in the dark about what might be going on or whether or not your treatment is optimized, downloading and using Oscar to print out reports will help you understand what is going on. Look at the sticky posts for where to get Oscar and how to set up the charts and post them.

It does sound like you've made some improvement (and things change as we age, our health changes, etc.), but to know if it's truly optimized the data will help you learn what is going on and if you need further tweaks to optimize the effectiveness of your treatment.

Filling in your profile will help as well, as mummmz points out.

[Just Matt]

Thank you, I will try to upload those today.

[palerider]

Currently Pressure range Min 9 Max 14 - Originally it was set at 6-20 but I changed it based in comments

Comments saying to lower the max pressure setting are almost always wrong, except in one or two very obvious cases.
they're caused by people talking about things they don't understand. All you do by lowering the max setting is preventing the machine from responding to any needs you have, the MIN pressure is the important one for the vast majority of people.

My wife says I no longer snore so I am sure it is working but could it be better? Anything you can tell me is greatly appreciated and I know there must be a lot of information needed that I have not supplied but I will. Thanks again!

Snoring is a clear sign of pressure being too low.

[Just Matt]

I certainly appreciate the comments and your understanding, I am new to trying to improve my APAP results and new to posting on forums. I added information to my profile and I downloaded the Sleepyhead and Oscar software. I tried to attach the image but could not. I will go back and read the new user post again and try to post it here later today. I remember reading something about new uses need to have 4 posts prior to attaching so I am posting this to get closer to the 4. Thanks

[Pugsy]

I remember reading something about new uses need to have 4 posts prior to attaching so I am posting this to get closer to the 4.

Don't know where you read that fact but it is incorrect.
Your problem posting attachments isn't related to the number of posts you have made.
It's related to the forum software capacity to store attachments. It's full....so people can't post attachments until/unless other people remove their stored images.
What has happened is people come here and post attachments and then leave and the storage capacity gets full and if people don't remove the old, and unneeded images, then no one else can post any attachments.

You can host your report images on any photo hosting website....I use imgur.com. It's free.

[Just Matt]

OK, I read the post for new users, I am sure you all get frustrated when people like me start posting without reading, sorry. I updated my profile with text and I posted my Sleepyhead results on the website, link below. I did edit the report view as recommended. Thanks again for the assistance.

https://imgur.com/a/i4tXiim

[Pugsy]

Your posted report looks pretty darn good. I see no reason to change anything at this time if you are sleeping decently and feeling decent.

Are you having any problems???

[Just Matt]

No problems and feel much better since I raised the pressure and set a range. I was just amazed that I didn't know I needed to make a change and my doctor has been very limited with assistance and information. I have been using it for a few years now but noticed I have been waking up a lot for the last year, that is why I started reading more and decided to increase the pressure. I have been waking less and it is odd but I find it easier to breath at the higher pressure. It is actually relaxing to breath at the higher pressure but I thought it would be harder to exhale. It was uncomfortable exhaling at the 6.2 pressure but at 9 I don't feel like it is on at all. The ERP is set at 1 and that is how it was set prior to the pressure increase I made. Thanks for taking a look and let me know it is good.

[Pugsy]

Problems staying asleep seem to be a common complaint but I don't see anything on your report that might point to any sleep problems being airway related. Sometimes we just have problems staying asleep.
I know that it is a problem I have dealt with for years but in my case I know that the problems messing with my sleep are related to either stress or my long standing arthritic pain issues.

If you are waking just from a physical need to urinate...see your doctor because depending on your age there may be other issues involved. With the guys it's the old prostate gland that is sometimes the culprit.
Also it is normal to wake after a REM sleep stage cycle has ended. Normally we just are awake a very brief time and roll over and go back to sleep and don't remember being awake but sometimes it takes us longer to go back to sleep for some reason or other. When this happens fairly often it is called sleep maintenance insomnia and there are some common causes like medication side effects or maybe other physical causes (like my pain issues) which we can try to work on as best we can.

This getting older sure isn't for sissies but I guess it beats the alternative of not getting older.

I see no reason to go messing with your settings at all unless you just want to try something just to be trying something.
Certainly no urgent need.

If your wake ups seem to be too numerous and really affect how you feel the next day then I would suggest that you google "sleep maintenance insomnia" and start reading up on all the different things that can mess with our sleep quality and sleep apnea is but one item on a very long list.
On the other hand if you are feeling great during the day....no urgent need to go doing extra detective work.

And yes....it's kind of amazing what we can get used to in terms of pressures used and how they can feel now when compared to back when we first started cpap therapy and 4 or 5 cm seemed like hurricane force winds to deal with.
The body is truly quite unique in how it adjusts to things. Now those hurricane force winds are nothing more than a gentle breeze.