Now with a reduced Flex setting

[deltadave]

Hoo-boy!!

This guy sleeps like a rock:



Excellent Sleep Stage%s, Sleep Onset Latency, Awakenings, Total Stage Changes...

Obviously at a high-quality Sleep Center.

[tetragon]

So, my REM may not be what it should, and if it is screwed up it's probably not what I'm taking?

I do not understand the question.

It is what happens if I forget to think, and re-read a couple minutes later, before I post. Now I need to figure out what I meant.

Y'know, "they" say that REM is important for memory consolidation...

What "they" don't know is that I was coming down with something short-lasting that led to an… interesting day at work. Why work? I noticed what was happening a bit too late. I'm in the final stage of how it made me feel bad: I'm hungry. At least that I can do something about. (why can't that barbeque place be open at a "reasonable" hour)

[deltadave]

(I gotta build a new graph one of these days)

OK, no time like the present...

Present?

PRESENTS!!!!

YIKES!!

TIME TO START CHRISTMAS SHOPPING!!!!!!

Merry Christmas!

[tetragon]

A brief note for anyone who actually cared about my postings about trying a different Flex setting:

I'm still at C-Flex+ 1, but I am planning on changing it in a couple of days. Yesterday, my mailbox contained a delivery notification for a package that I expect to include a barrel cozy and nicer hose covers than I have now, and I want to have a couple of nights to grow used to them before switching the settings.

I still haven't decided upon whether to pick C-Flex or to try going without.

[tetragon]

This guy sleeps like a rock:



Excellent Sleep Stage%s, Sleep Onset Latency, Awakenings, Total Stage

And yet when I had a REM percentage of 22.4, it was considered to be a decreased proportion. I guess that's where my age comes into what's normal.

[rested gal]

And yet when I had a REM percentage of 22.4, it was considered to be a decreased proportion. I guess that's where my age comes into what's normal.

The almost 21% REM that guy had, and your 22.4% REM aren't that far off from 25% REM. Heck, "24.9" would probably be called a "decreased proportion" when it comes to dotting the i's and crossing the t's on formal reports.

Maybe lights went on at 6:09 a.m. for him while he was still in REM (surely not!) Or maybe he woke up on his own at that time for other reasons and then they turned the lights on. Anyway, it looks like he was having nice, normal occurrences of REM, with each REM period progressively longer than the last one. Looks great to me (but I'm nothing in the health field) even if his REM didn't quite hit "25%" of the night. We should all sleep so well!!

[deltadave]

I think the generally accepted normal for REM% is about 20%, and is not particularly affected by age.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1978369/

Perhaps what was considered was Total REM Time (which given Sleep Efficiency would be decreased), Number of REM Periods (given the increased REM latency would result in missing a couple) or the second study.

BTW, I made my guy up. He's too normal.

[tetragon]

Just as well that I try not to make too many concurrent changes. Last night was one that I really wouldn't want to have falsely attributed to a Flex setting change (a new high score in my machine's recorded AHI: 6.68 overall, 5.64 clear airway). Instead, it was a combination of room temperature (what's a thermostat, and why would I want one when I have windows that open and a radiator with a knob) and getting the fit right after adding a barrel cozy to the mix.

Although, it does make me wonder as to what effects having enough condensation that water shoots out of the vent has, beyond the obvious "stuff gets wet".

[tetragon]

Night 2:

C-Flex+ 1, barrel cozy:

This night I started with a humidifier setting of 4, as opposed to my more usual setting of 5. After shooting water out the vents on the previous night even with the barrel cozy on, I had turned down the humidifier and I decided to leave it there. This night reminded me of why I used 5 in the first place. I was woken up part of the way through the night by how much my nose and throat hurt, and started coughing out the air that was being constantly replenished. Returning the humidifier to 5, I was at the very least more comfortable and the coughing stopped. At that point I still had some difficulty with the pillows as my nose was a bit clogged, so I dealt with that and opened the windows wider and switched to a lighter blanket to try to reach a more comfortable temperature in the apartment. And if anyone actually wants to know, I still do get woken up by aerophagia's consequences.

With only part of the night at a humidifier setting of 5, I still ended up with water condensing inside the pillows. The added weight of the short hose cover and the barrel cozy's thickness mean that once more, I need to relearn how to move around without dislodging anything. I find the pillows don't stay in place as well with the cozy on, but that with the cozy on they're more comfortable where they contact my face.

[tetragon]

Night 3:

C-Flex+ 1, barrel cozy:

Another "fun" night. When I was trying to get to sleep, I had a repeat of an issue that my DME claimed would go away if I just changed the Flex settings. That issue wasn't that the setting felt like it was starting too early, it was that it felt uncomfortable just breathing, that I couldn't get enough air. It felt kind of like when you have a cold, everything's plugged up, and you need to go cough up a lung or two, but can't, so you're left with a nasty vibratey feeling on every breath and a fuzzyheadedness to make it more annoying. That was with the cozy and XS pillows. I then tried XS pillows with no cosy, no change. Filter swap, no change. Cozy with S pillows, a bit better, but not what I'd like. If I had a different mask, I would have tried it, but only one for now. I checked the settings to ensure that my machine was at least claiming to be at the correct pressure setting with no ramp, and that its display claimed.

I did eventually get to sleep. I had my usual moments of waking up. I had my usual run-in with the temperature and removing much of my down nest to cool part of the way through the night. There was the usual condensation forming inside the pillows. But at least I had a night where the pillow and cozy combination was relatively stable.

[tetragon]

Night 4:

C-Flex+ 1, barrel cozy:

Finally, a reminder to me that I do occasionally dream in times that aren't dozing off on the bus home from work. I actually remember part of a dream (at the same time, I feel like someone bashed my head in with the metaphorical sledgehammer).

Yet another night where, once the pressure started, I felt like I was going to hurl, and didn't. Yet another night of having thermal issues in the middle of the night. I think I might be able to get the place a bit cooler by adjusting where I have some boxes.

I think I have the fit with the barrel cozy stable now.

[tetragon]

Night 1:

Flex off.

And so I decided on what to do next: I turned off Flex. I also opened the windows wider. It may be -11°C out, but it gets my apartment to a comfortable sleeping temperature. I have enough down and not-down blankets and pillows that I can build a rather comfortable nest without using all of them.

And so for the obvious bit (to me, anyway): less middle-of-the-night blanket fussing. I might have finally cooled the room enough. And I have a headache, but that's probably nothing.

For the less obvious bit (had to visit a computer): this is the first night where the machine didn't log any clear airway events. It logged more obstructive events than usual, but that increased number was still lower than my typical clear airway count. Still, just one night doesn't mean much. It could be turning off Flex, it could be less fidgeting about the temperature, it could be chance. If this does continue past one night, I'll probably forget to widen the window at some point, which could help clarify the situation.

[tetragon]

Night 2:

Flex off, wider window:

I decided to give the window "change" status, and I'm thinking of forgetting to remember to open it in a few days.

Once again, the machine logged no clear airway events. Once again, I had a headache when I woke up. At least I still have my pressure pulses, so that SleepyHead's flow graph doesn't get too lonely.

If you choose to believe in Zeo's, one thinks that this was pretty much my best night yet. My machine has only one day with a lower recorded AHI. Why do nights that the machine's decide are good end up being such rotten days? Them misreporting in an attempt to avenge their kin? How much is robot insurance these days?

At least the headache stopped on its own in under a hour. Hopefully I'm a bit more awake today than yesterday. Yesterday ended up being really hard to stay awake for.

[tetragon]

Night 3:

No Flex, wider window

The basics of how I woke up were along the same lines as the past two days: no clear airway events, still with the loads of pressure pulses, and a headache.  And I did, once more, wake up, take everything off, realize that it's not time to get up, put everything back on, and return to sleep.

This morning, though, I am much more tired than I was previously.  It probably doesn't help that a friend dragged me out to stand-up comedy, which kept me up two hours later than I'd like.  I'm so used to when I normally get ready for bed that it was a struggle to stay awake, although it wasn't so bad during the last two sets.

I did find out that I'm not the only person to have a hard time keeping their apartment in this building cool enough in the winter.  Another friend of the one who dragged me out last night had the same problem when she lived here.

Bleh, that headache is lasting longer than the ones from the past couple of days.  At least that short kilometre walk helped get it to a more reasonable level.

[tetragon]

Night 4:

Flex off, wider window:

At this point I'm fairly certain that while the wider window makes the apartment more comfortable, it's not what stopped the clear airway events. It was warmer last night, and I once more ended up waking up to adjust them off of me, with no change in those numbers. I also had the room cold enough for no blanket removals in the floor-camping days.

For the first time since I turned off Flex, I woke up without a headache. I also spent more time awake. That was due to the festivities and their impact on some of the other tenants of this building. And on the off-chance that they (or similar) are listening: don't holler a conversation with your friends with a few storeys separating you; no clanging the banister; and don't let your tipsy friends fall down the stairs. After all, some of us are trying to remain asleep.