Strange snoring issue

[davewalsh]

I had a very unusual night last night. I was laying on my side trying to fall asleep when I suddenly experienced what felt like a snore. Although I was relaxed at the time, I was definitely not asleep. The snore startled me enough to basically put me back into a waking state, and I had to go through the process of falling asleep again from scratch. This continued a number of times for what seemed to me like hours. I don't know for sure how long this transpired as I don't have a clock in my bedroom. Eventually I fell asleep but my sleep quality was obviously not good. When I looked at my OSCAR report it said that my AHI was 8.0 with many hypopneas throughout the night, especially in the first two hours after going to bed. When I was experiencing these snores I was lying on my side and my tongue was properly placed against the roof of my mouth, which is why I can't understand how it was a snore, if indeed it was one. I have a Resmed Airset 10 Autoset. The unit had been configured with a min/max pressure of 4/20, which I recently changed to 5/20. I also recently turned Ramp off. Experiencing these snores is a first for me. Were these actual snores, or something else? Is it out of the ordinary to snore before falling asleep? Is there something I can do about it?

[Miss Emerita]

It would be helpful to see that Oscar chart. Could you also provide a zoomed-in view (maybe 10 minutes long) showing one or more of those snores? (As you may know, this site is often unable to host uploads, so you might do best to provide a link to Imgur or some other image-hosting web site.)

[ChicagoGranny]

A minimum pressure of 5.0 is very low and doesn't work well for most people. Look at the lower left on your OSCAR Daily Details and tell us what your MED and 95% pressure were.

Ideally, you would post a screenshot of the Daily Details.

I was definitely not asleep.

This is hard to judge. Our judgments of sleep/awake have often been proved wrong in sleep labs.

[davewalsh]

A minimum pressure of 5.0 is very low and doesn't work well for most people. Look at the lower left on your OSCAR Daily Details and tell us what your MED and 95% pressure were.

Ideally, you would post a screenshot of the Daily Details.

I was definitely not asleep.

This is hard to judge. Our judgments of sleep/awake have often been proved wrong in sleep labs.

My MED was 10.04. My 95% was 13.82. I'll try to post an OSCAR snapshot soon.

[ChicagoGranny]

My MED was 10.04. My 95% was 13.82.

That's an indication your min is too low. More can be told from your OSCAR screenshot. Links to instructions in my signature.

[davewalsh]

Here is the link to my OSCAR data for the first group of hypopneas. Hope it works. I was in bed at 21:42.


https://www.dropbox.com/s/8nweoezhutiti ... 4.png?dl=0

[palerider]

Where's the snore chart?

But yeah, your min should be more like 10.

[davewalsh]

Where's the snore chart?

But yeah, your min should be more like 10.

I didn't include it because the wiki didn't include it in the list of preferred charts. I can include that if that will help your analysis.

[palerider]

Where's the snore chart?

But yeah, your min should be more like 10.

I didn't include it because the wiki didn't include it in the list of preferred charts. I can include that if that will help your analysis.

Oh? wiki/index.php/Oscar:organize

Plus, I mean, you're asking about snoring...

[davewalsh]

Where's the snore chart?

But yeah, your min should be more like 10.

I didn't include it because the wiki didn't include it in the list of preferred charts. I can include that if that will help your analysis.

Oh? wiki/index.php/Oscar:organize

Plus, I mean, you're asking about snoring...

I know, I know. But still.....

[davewalsh]

Here is the OSCAR data with Snore chart.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sg5q2mzua3vq3 ... 2.png?dl=0

[robysue1]

I had a very unusual night last night. I was laying on my side trying to fall asleep when I suddenly experienced what felt like a snore. Although I was relaxed at the time, I was definitely not asleep. The snore startled me enough to basically put me back into a waking state, and I had to go through the process of falling asleep again from scratch. This continued a number of times for what seemed to me like hours.

So you lay there in bed with machine on and are pretty sure you were not fully asleep for an extended period of time when you were experiencing the snores. Can you post the data for the very beginning of the night? I know you've posted the data for the first cluster of events, but to get a handle on what was happening while you were awake or mostly awake and experiencing the snores, we need to see the data for the very first part of the night as well.

I don't know for sure how long this transpired as I don't have a clock in my bedroom. Eventually I fell asleep but my sleep quality was obviously not good. When I looked at my OSCAR report it said that my AHI was 8.0 with many hypopneas throughout the night, especially in the first two hours after going to bed.

You self-report that the restlessness at the beginning of the night "seemed to me like hours." So there's a very good chance that first cluster of events is sleep-wake-junk (SWJ) that is full of "false" events that would not have been scored in a lab because you were not fully asleep. And being awake or having extensive periods of SWJ can be just as destructive to the quality of your sleep as a bunch of events when you are sound asleep.

When I was experiencing these snores I was lying on my side and my tongue was properly placed against the roof of my mouth, which is why I can't understand how it was a snore, if indeed it was one.

What is your usual sleep position? And any chance there were some pesky little leaks going on at the time? The reason I ask is that the data you posted shows a whole series of very small leaks during the time the Hs are being flagged. None of these leaks is big enough to be of any concern---except that you say you were having trouble getting to sleep for what "seemed like hours." If those leaks were bothering you because they were creating some kind of noise, that could be your "snores." Or it could be they're really nothing.

I have a Resmed Airset 10 Autoset. The unit had been configured with a min/max pressure of 4/20, which I recently changed to 5/20. I also recently turned Ramp off.

As others have said, chances are a min pressure of 5 may not be enough to optimize your therapy.

Experiencing these snores is a first for me. Were these actual snores, or something else? Is it out of the ordinary to snore before falling asleep? Is there something I can do about it?

What follows is my own experience and just anecdotal.

Pre-cpap, I would often snore very quietly while getting to sleep. My husband referred to them as cute Robin-purrs since they sounded quite like the purring of a cat. I myself found them comforting as they indicated I was fully relaxed and my brain was letting go and allowing me to fall asleep. These "purrs" were quite different from the alarming snort-like snoring that would sometimes wake my husband up and result in him getting exceptionally worried about my nighttime breathing.

I can still do these "purrs" while awake and I still find them relaxing in a weird kind of way, as long as I don't get so relaxed that I'm worried about falling asleep. In my case the purr snores are usually on my exhalations and I can feel the vibrations at the back of my nose, not my throat. I can most certainly do it with my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth. Heck I can do the "purrs" while sitting up wide awake with no intention of going to sleep.

But I do find them difficult to do if I am exhaling against my Resmed AirCurve 10's pressure. Every once in a while I find myself doing the purrs while settling down to get to sleep, but then my fear of aerophagia kicks in and I start worrying that the machine will score these things as "snores" and increase the pressure just enough to potentially trigger the aerophagia. And that's enough to make me quit doing them asap. (I would not wish aerophagia on my worst enemy.) When I look at the data? Most of the time I can't see any evidence that the Resmed scored anything as a snore, but occasionally there will be a few small "blips" on the snore graph.

So post your data for the beginning of the night when you think you were doing the snoring. That may help us help you tease out what was happening.

As for fixing the problem? If it is real snoring, the answer is a more pressure, particularly if increasing the pressure does not lead to problems with aerophagia.

[palerider]

Here is the OSCAR data with Snore chart.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sg5q2mzua3vq3 ... 2.png?dl=0

When you got down to around 8 (and that's 8+3 for the set pressure, ie, 11) , you got more FL's and a little snoring, and the pressure popped back up.

I think you'd do better with a higher minimum pressure. I'd start with 10.

[davewalsh]

Here is the OSCAR data from the moment I first went to bed up to the first group of hypopneas.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cggdxyt0wlcs1 ... 3.png?dl=0

[davewalsh]

What is your usual sleep position? And any chance there were some pesky little leaks going on at the time? The reason I ask is that the data you posted shows a whole series of very small leaks during the time the Hs are being flagged. None of these leaks is big enough to be of any concern---except that you say you were having trouble getting to sleep for what "seemed like hours." If those leaks were bothering you because they were creating some kind of noise, that could be your "snores." Or it could be they're really nothing.

I start out the night sleeping on my side. I am unable to fall asleep on my back, although I quite often find myself on my back during the night when I come out of a sleep cycle. I then have to roll back over on my side if I want to fall back asleep.

As others have said, chances are a min pressure of 5 may not be enough to optimize your therapy.

These snores are a first for me, and as I indicated they startled me into being completely awake and having to try to relax to get back into the rhythm of falling asleep. It seemed like just when I was starting to relax it would happen again, and so on. I purposely don't have a clock in the bedroom as I would be tempted to see what time it is and then would become hyper focused on how "bad" or "good" a job I was doing of falling back asleep.

I have other CPAP data issues that I need some advice on but I prefer to focus on this most recent issue first. TMI and all that, you know.

As for fixing the problem? If it is real snoring, the answer is a more pressure, particularly if increasing the pressure does not lead to problems with aerophagia.

The highest I've set my min pressure to was 7 a few nights ago. I had a decent AHI but I know that doesn't tell the whole story. Should I set my pressure to 10 or should I go from 4 to 10 over the course of a few days?