How much xpap per night needed until you feel better?

[ciounoi]

Even though I'm still having n00b problems with my mask, machine, and just adjusting, I do manage to sleep for about two hours on the thing on a good night. I have noticed that I do feel better on days when I get just those two hours... I'm kind of suprised at that! If I'm only using bipap for less than 25% of my sleeping night, is that really already making a difference? (If so, I'm happy! )

[georgepds]

FWIIW, the Encore pro software that Respironics uses with its machines counts anything over 4 hours a night as compliance. I do not know a medical reference for this selection. It has to be related to sleep cycles. My guess is, on average, you go through two complete sleep cycles in 4 hours.

What I've noticed (a newbie myself) is there are two periods of use. Before and after the 3am bout of insomnia. If I manage to use it afterwards, I can sleep another 5 hours and feel much more rested. So, IMO.. the more the better

[jnk]

"Because many patients find CPAP uncomfortable and difficult, they tend not to use it for the duration of the entire night. However, while some patients’ daytime sleepiness may improve after 4 - 6 hours of CPAP use each night, maximum benefits in quality of life require at least 7.5 hours of nightly CPAP use. It appears that longer nightly duration of CPAP use is best for achieving normal daytime functioning."

http://www.walgreens.com/library/conten ... sleepapnea

[Goofproof]

It's easy to figure out, if you sleep for 8 hours a night, and you have Sleep Apnea, If your treatment is done prefectly correct, and you sleep with if for two hours, it means that night you only tried to kill yourself for six hours. That's the real math, that's the same as playing Russian Roolette, with a pistol with a 8 hole cylinder, and only using 6 bullets.

That's a game I won't play, I use my XPAP correctly every time I lay down to sleep, for all the time I sleep, I keep my bullets out of my cylinder.
Actually I have a Walther PPK, not good to play with a Auto. Jim

[Paul56]

It isn't so much a question of how much time on the xPAP but rather than you need to be using it for ALL sleeping hours to get your AHI down to a reasonable number.

What is keeping you from using the machine all night?

[moombeam]

ciounoi

I am about two months ahead of you on my apap. Felt pretty much the same you have.
This mask business and puffing air up my nose was not my idea of how to sleep.
But like you lucky to get two hours in of a night. Like you I began to feel 25% better.
Which wasn't good enough for me I wanted 50% So I set my mind to another hour each night.
Then again I am not settling for 50% I felt better again . Now I am just plain determined.
I am going for 100%

I wanted my normal 7hrs maybe 8 back a night. Reading and following all the info on this forum I have it .

I have gotten my software , changed my settings pressure and flex and with the new mask
that I really like I have lowered my AHI' from 5 to 1 and less or good nights. I tritrated at
15 with a pressure of 6
My new nightime lifestyle is making my daytime lifestyle the quality of life what I want.
My sleeping doesn't even know it's on apap.

At 23 I wouldn't want anything to slow me down during the day or nighttime hours. I had living to do. I still do I get up at 8.20 daily and retire at 12pm most nights. I am
awake and alert.

My question is do you want to be happy with 25% or 100 to 1000% of daytime quality?
Are you willing to give it what it takes to attain that goal.?
I encourage you to take the challenge you have a long lovely life ahead of you.
I am under the impression apnea doesn't improve with age--- only with therapy.
It's your life your choice may you choose wisely.
Moonbeam

[Robadob]

Way more than 2 hours.

It's easy to figure out, if you sleep for 8 hours a night, and you have Sleep Apnea, If your treatment is done prefectly correct, and you sleep with if for two hours, it means that night you only tried to kill yourself for six hours. That's the real math, that's the same as playing Russian Roolette, with a pistol with a 8 hole cylinder, and only using 6 bullets.

SO TRUE!

[Pineapple]

2 hours is better than nothing, but goof-proof hit the nail on the head - that leaves 6 hours of suffocation the rest of the night. You need to work toward 100% compliance (even naps).

What are the issues you are having? Perhaps we can offer some solutions that will help you.

[georgepds]

...
I wanted my normal 7hrs maybe 8 back a night. Reading and following all the info on this forum I have it .

I have gotten my software , changed my settings pressure and flex and with the new mask
that I really like I have lowered my AHI' from 5 to 1 and less or good nights. I tritrated at
15 with a pressure of 6

Not sure how much is a related to pressure , but some people develop central apnea problems on cpap. The clinical rule for effective treatment is an AI <5 ( Apnea/hour) In shooting for an AHI<1 ( (Apnea+hypopnea)/hour) you are really raising the pressure above what the sleep clinicians would recommend.

Now I'm not disputing your right to do this, it's your body and your life. What I wonder is if the original titration was lower to avoid the central apnea complication.

Could use a clue here

[jnk]

. . .Could use a clue here . . .

georgepds,

You may have misread moonbeam's words. Or I may be misreading yours. If so, I apologize in advance. I am only trying to be helpful.

Moonbeam's doctor and DME are on board with moonbeam's changing pressures, according to an earlier post: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=35895&p=309636#p309636

Moonbeam has an apap, which means the machine can make decisions about the pressure. Moonbeam is smarter than the machine. Hopefully we all are.

If one has a data-capable machine, one can easily figure out if one is causing apneas instead of reducing them.

The so-called clinical rule is about diagnosis and insurance, not about how we feel. If someone feels great with 5 AHI, great. If it takes closer to 1 or 0 to feel good, hey, it is nice to feel good. Hopefully no one says "Dang! My AHI is below 5, so I guess I am not allowed to try things to feel better! Oh well."

The AHI numbers our machines give us are estimates, not the same thing as the AHI number from a PSG. Each brand of machine has its own way of measuring flow limitations according to percentage of airflow change for so many seconds. So a high AHI on one machine may be the equivalent of a low AHI on another machine. That means we all have to be involved in our own therapy if we want to do all we can to feel better, insead of going solely by the numbers a machine gives.

It is true that unduly raising pressure could cause a central or two. But that's because the body has to balance out its gasses to make up for the change. Once the body figures out what is going on, those few occasional centrals should subside, in any relatively normal healthy person. But the key is that when you have a full-data machine, you will see right away if you are causing any excessive centrals.

The trick is to raise pressure gradually when you do it and see what it does to your numbers for a week and then decide. Naturally, most of us want the amount of pressure to be as low as possible to avoid side effects, like aerophagia, yet high enough for it to feel easy to breathe with the mask on (which for some means more than 6, or even 8 ).

Anyway, I'm not sure I understand the question, when moonbeam was titrated at a very low 6 and is using an apap and the doc is on board with moonbeam changing pressures.

Even if I misunderstood your question, maybe there is a clue up in there somewhere. If not, ask again, and I'm sure someone else will be of help if I can't.

jeff

[tillymarigold]

Am I the only one who keeps seeing this post's title in the forum and thinking "Well, all of it, of course!"

Seriously, even a few minutes' sleep without my APAP makes me feel nearly as bad as all night without it.

BTW, my PSG showed an AHI below 5 (though honestly, looking at my software I suspect my PSG was a bit low) and I still had enough symptoms to be on CPAP and to benefit from treatment. My sleep doctor says I'm more sensitive to lack of sleep than any patient he's ever seen (i.e. I have the most severe symptoms relative to the mildness of my UARS).

[Halfpint]

Hello all..
I am very new to this..all i know is I was titrated to a 16 on a 1/2 study(?) after the first Awful night this was dropped to 14 my machine is NOW also set so i don't have to fight it when I exhale (3 digit difference) like i did the first night. Because my pressure is high and i'm a bit of a mouth breather I have a full mask. I tried on 12 different types, actually used 2 {second left a bruise on my nose}, and the 3rd one did the trick. I have a relatively small frame so finding a mask that fits my proportions I not easy. Either the forehead piece is too far from the nose so it doesn't support right, or the bridge of the nose is the wrong size so it leaks into my eyes. The mouth and nose part is either too long or too short, again causing leak problems. When i found one that was comfortable on my nose it hung below my chin. you get the idea.

Well, last night was the second night with the new mask and settings, and yess i slept, only waking up twice when the mask was making noise. This morning i had a bit of redness as well as some pressure lines(?) Guess you could call them mask induced wrinkles ( kinda looked like Droopey Dog from the old cartoons) and still had them more than 2 hours later. I did not have this problem my first night with this mask. Now here is the catch, i work as a sign language interpreter so unless there is a way to make the creases from the mask go away faster than 2 hours i may be looking for yet another mask (Pls, not that, to sleep relatively uninterrupted was SOOOOOOooooOOOoo nice). I will be trying to loosen the mask tonight to see if i can get a good fit without sounding like a baloon loosing all it's air..

Can anyone give me some advice on how to make the marks go away faster?

[georgepds]

. . .Could use a clue here . . .

.... maybe there is a clue up in there somewhere....jeff

Thank you

--george

[roster]

It's easy to figure out, if you sleep for 8 hours a night, and you have Sleep Apnea, If your treatment is done prefectly correct, and you sleep with if for two hours, it means that night you only tried to kill yourself for six hours. That's the real math, that's the same as playing Russian Roolette, with a pistol with a 8 hole cylinder, and only using 6 bullets.

That's a game I won't play, I use my XPAP correctly every time I lay down to sleep, for all the time I sleep, I keep my bullets out of my cylinder.
Actually I have a Walther PPK, not good to play with a Auto. Jim

Another truth spoken in a classic manner.

GP, Another good one! Thanks.

[MartyR]

Even though I'm still having n00b problems with my mask, machine, and just adjusting, I do manage to sleep for about two hours on the thing on a good night. I have noticed that I do feel better on days when I get just those two hours... I'm kind of suprised at that! If I'm only using bipap for less than 25% of my sleeping night, is that really already making a difference? (If so, I'm happy! )

hang in there. this is a process. the sooner the better on increasing the amount of time with the mask. be committed though. it took me a good 7 seven months b/f i was sleeping 5-6 hours a night. i had a bad cold last week and was only getting 2 hours a night and man did i feel like shit each day.

hang in there...even if you have set backs...reset your goals and keep going