Breathing but getting headaches?

[synonymous]

When I go to bed at night, I take medicine. I fall asleep and wake up the next day. In the beginning I was very very surprised as to how I never needed to take naps. However, in recent months, I've needed them. Partly because of family problems (Wife fighting with mother-in-law, waking me up in the process) and I don't get the 'best' sleep.

When I nap, 2 things may happen. I will nap (With my CPAP) and all is fine. OR, I will nap and be half asleep half awake and have very lucid dreams throughout and feel as though my brain is about to explode unless I wake up. I then wake up 'half way' and take DEEP breaths, but it doesn't help. Only when I wake up all the way and breathe does the headache go away and the feeling of destat stop. I then either go back to sleep and nothing happens, or I go through this cycle until it's time to go. Regardless, I still feel kind of rested when these strange events take place.

It's late right now, I plan on putting the data on my machine tomorrow. I was thinking I am having destats even on the CPAP. There are times, even with a chin strap on, like air is building up in my lungs and that I'm OVER oxygenated and the air just wants to get out. I see my sleep doc Thursday and I'll ask him what he thinks. I thought I would ask for opinions here first though.

[Julie]

Hi - have you not turned on EPR (to make exhaling easier)? What pressures are you using?

Do post whatever you can when you wake up.

[jlmoorekcmo]

The headaches could be caused by (hypoxia) low oxygen. After I started CPAP I was still having headaches. Did an overnight pulse ox study at home. Was put on O2 at night.

[synonymous]

I actually decided to put my data on the PC tonight.

I don't have EPR turned on (Never new I had that feature or what it was).

I'm not sure what data to show, but here's a shot of my 'nap'













I'm still trying to figure out what to look at, what to keep an eye on, and what is good/bad.

[kaiasgram]

The headaches could be caused by (hypoxia) low oxygen. After I started CPAP I was still having headaches. Did an overnight pulse ox study at home. Was put on O2 at night.

Would you mind making a phone call to my doctor ?!? (Just kidding.) I am having headaches too and asked my sleep doctor for an oximeter for one night to rule out desats that might still be occurring. She replied that since my AHI is low, none of my symptoms could be related to apnea or cpap. I wish she could hear your story. I'll have to get my own oximeter, and you can be sure that if it shows significant desats I will be sharing the information with her.

[jlmoorekcmo]

O2 has definitely helped with the headaches. When I did my original sleep study I showed low pO2, also had an a issue when in hospital for surgery. Did you show low Oxygen levels on your sleep study? Only problem has been the noisy concentrator. I got a long tube and put it in next room, can still hear it, but not as loud.

[kaiasgram]

O2 has definitely helped with the headaches. When I did my original sleep study I showed low pO2, also had an a issue when in hospital for surgery. Did you show low Oxygen levels on your sleep study? Only problem has been the noisy concentrator. I got a long tube and put it in next room, can still hear it, but not as loud.

Yes I had desats on the night of my sleep study and a couple during titration week as well. The first night on titration I desatted to 74%. I'm curious, is your O2 somehow routed through your CPAP machine?

[jlmoorekcmo]

Oxygen is attached via an Oxygen Enrichment Adapter https://www.cpap.com/productpage/oxygen ... pter+.html similar to this one. If the pulse ox showed 74 then I would be raising hell with both Dr & DME. Your family doctor may be able to help??? Since DME will be ones doing study (at least in my case) get them involved.

[synonymous]

Anybody care to chime in on the results...just in case?

[Pugsy]

Not much of great excitement to look at. You leak is fine....stay below the red line and the machine can take care of leaks.
Now if leaks (even small leaks) wake you up and bother your sleep continuity then they need to be worked on.

Minimal events occurred during the nap.

Main things to look at are the events, pressure, leak line...the other stuff you can put on the back burner for later.

Have no idea what might be going on to explain your strange symptoms. Nothing on the report screams out that it might be the culprit. On paper...very well treated OSA with minimal events.

[synonymous]

So, just so I know:

Events I keep an eye on in order to see what is happening, if anything, at night while I sleep. Am I right in that I am seeing 4 total events, to hypopnea events (At I don't know how many seconds) and 2 obstructive at 10 seconds each? These were then resolved by the pressure going up to open the airways?

Pressure, the lower the better. Using less of the machine and more of your own ability to breathe (Diet, exercise etc). The higher it goes for longer periods means something I'm doing (Maybe sleeping position) or not doing something (Taking a week off the gym) causing the pressure to go up?

Leak line, the higher the more pressure is needed to compensate and eventually maybe not able to compensate enough?

[Pugsy]

Actually you can see Hyponea duration also. On the Events tab click on the Hyponea category to open it up till you see each Hyponea listed and the time that it happened...in parenthesis next to the time of event is duration in seconds.
The machine doesn't record any events that it prevented..what you see are the events that got past the defenses.

Pressure, the lower the better. Using less of the machine and more of your own ability to breathe (Diet, exercise etc). The higher it goes for longer periods means something I'm doing (Maybe sleeping position) or not doing something (Taking a week off the gym) causing the pressure to go up?

Not sure where you are going with this but it sounds like you are thinking the machine is breathing for you and that is not the case.
The pressure that is needed is related solely towards the airway tissues and what they need to just hold them open. The machine doesn't do anything else. It won't force you to breathe if you stop breathing. It doesn't act like a ventilator. Now there are some machines that do work like a ventilator if needed but your machine isn't one of them.

So lower is better but only because of potential comfort and leak issues..nothing more. Higher pressures are harder to exhale against and harder to keep the mask from leaking. It all depends on your own airway tissues and how much pressure is needed to stent the airway open and prevent the collapse. Pressure needs are unrelated to severity of the OSA, body size, sex or whatever.

Leak....yes we want to keep leaks minimal.
Number one...they are annoying and can wake us up and we sure don't want that.
Number two....if the leaks are too large then the machine loses the ability to sense that it needs to sense and loses the ability to adequately maintain pressure sufficient enough to prevent the collapse of the airway tissues.
These machine can compensate for a good bit of leak meaning they can still get their job done with some leaks up to a point.
ResMed says that up to 24 L/min they can get the job done. Above that and things start getting iffy. The more distance above the 24 L/min line the greater the iffiness. Short excursions above 24 L/min aren't the end of the world so don't panic if you see them. The important thing is how long you might spend above that 24 L/min line. If it doesn't wake you up (we don't want anything messing with sleep) and it is short lived...I wouldn't worry about it.