Third Night - some thoughts

[Emilia]

Last night was my 3rd night, and it was an good night again. I did a lot more dreaming last night, and that is probably reflected by the higher AHI than the previous two nights. What is interesting is that my 95th %tile pressure has been 8.5 all three nights, and having my Auto set at 6-10 it was able to get to that setting. My insurance would not 'allow' me to have an auto machine, and had I taken their POS, basic cpap with no data, it would have been set at a straight pressure of 8 per my titration report. So, my conclusion is that having invested in my own auto machine was definitely a great investment. Now I just need to get the detailed data once my software arrives and I install. In the meantime, my Smart Code basic stats from last night are:

Usage Hrs =8.4
AHI = 5.5
95th %tile pressure = 8.5
90th %tile pressure = 8.5
NO LEAKS
NRI = .25
EPI = 1

BTW: Yesterday, I felt pretty good all day. I had just a touch of a headache, but nothing that disturbed my day. I found I was still alert and able to go do some shopping late in the day, and I never had that totally wiped out feeling. I've also noticed a huge reduction in brain fog. Yiiippppppeeeeee!! This morning, I still have the slight headache, but I am not dragging like I used to upon getting up.

[sleepymama]

it looks like it's been a good night for you. i too sometimes wake up my headaches still even using the cpap. do u find that if you dream your AHI goes up? do u feel more tired on those days? that's good your autoset told you the correct pressure. it does come in handy to have the auto feature. wish i had it.

[Emilia]

We dream during REM sleep stage; and my sleep study showed the largest # of events occurred during REM, even though it was my shortest stage during the study. So, when I did all that dreaming last night, I figured my AHI would be up a bit today, and it was. Once I have my software, I'll be able to see if my events are clustered into that latter part of a cycle, as REM is the last stage in a sleep cycle. A full sleep cycle usually lasts 90-120 minutes. Of course, without an EEG going, it is impossible to know for sure when each stage is occurring, but it should provide enough to guesstimate.

[DoriC]

Our data reports shows that events occur mostly towards morning and I learned here that is often the case when we're in deepest REM sleep.

[Emilia]

Happy Birthday Dori!! I hope you have a wonderful day and a year ahead filled with happiness!! Thanks for your input.... that supports what my doctor told me, too.

[Rogue Uvula]

Congratulations on beating the "status quo" treatment. As important as this can be, it is pretty sad how the CPAP mill is being run!

Our numbers are pretty similar, I had the same prescription (CPAP at 8 ) and the statistics for the first week show 8.3cm for 95% with maximum of 8.7 (though my detailed graphs show maximums as high as 9.92?). I adjusted my APAP max to 11, since the 9.92 came so close to my previous setting of 10.

In my case I never reached REM during the titration and I suspect if I had a way to filter out REM events, 8.0 would be a good setting. During the first sleep study, hypopneas during REM sleep was the main source of my events. Now they are almost all Central events (I only had 1 central and 1 obstruction event in the pre-CPAP study).

I'm curious if you see the same once you get your software running.

[Emilia]

@Rogue -- My REM stage during my sleep study was only 2% of the time, but the events were heavily clustered into that bit of sleep. I had all hypopneas and 1 apnea during the study. During titration, had NO events at all with a straight pressure of 8, but I only slept for about 4 hrs that night. I will be very curious to see my detailed reports to see if my machine is spiking up to 9 or so at times, and also to see if my events are clustering in one time period.

So far, I really like this machine.... it has been so quiet and I have had no mask issues, either..... amazingly good luck on my part!

It is interesting that with an AHI of 5.5 last night, I do feel more tired today than yesterday after the night of AHI 3. Such a small difference in events, but a big difference in how I feel. I hope I can get my AHI down to 1 or 2 soon.