Been a year...

[Exterminator]

Well, actually a little over a year. Still using my CPAP nightly and the numbers SleepyHead shows are generally decent but there are plenty of not so good ones too.
For a while the machine seemed to really be helping me and I felt better than I had in a long time. Now I see to have fallen down in a rut I can't get out of. I'm sure it is helping but I never sleep all night usually waking 2-4 times. I have found myself falling asleep at the computer extremely easily again and often have this terrible urge to fall asleep after lunch. Originally my starting pressure at 9 now am up to 11 to try and keep my numbers decent. My weight is up about 15 lbs from where I started so not sure if that has an effect on the seeming need to increase pressure or not.
I keep getting sinus and ear infections causing vertigo and had to take off work because of it today. The DR. says my CPAP may contributing to these infections although I have always been prone to sinus and ear problems. I started antibiotics and also a steroid nasal spray today so maybe I can lay down without the room spinning.
Comments or suggestions?

[ChicagoGranny]

Are you practicing strict sleep hygiene? Mayo Clinic website used to have a good description.

What does you leak line look like on the bad nights?

[Wonderbeastlett]

Have you been tested for any other illnesses? Diabetes makes you tired after you eat or just in general. Weight gain is also a sign of diabetes as well as dizzy spells with black specks that appear! Honestly it could be a number of different things!

[jweeks]

Hi,

I notice that my sleep goes real good for about 6 months where I am really in a groove, then I struggle for two or three months. I don't think that I am not changing anything, so I am blaming this on space aliens. It could be stress, or it could be some subtle habbit that I am changing. At any rate, I try a few new things, and then I normally hit on something that works.

I will offer a few suggestions...

1) It might be a good time to visit your family doctor and do a physical. For example, I was noticing that I was getting tired a little more quickly than normal. My doctor found that my red blood cell count was down, and diagnosed anemia. I am still doing follow tests to figure out root cause, but it might be a recent switch to a very low fat diet.

2) It might be time for a follow-up sleep study. It is possible that you are sleeping more deeply, and that is causing some additional events that are not being fully treated. Another possibility is that you have a second sleep issue that is surfacing now that your OSA is being treated. This happened to me...after losing weight, my OSA went away, only to discover that I have an issue with UARS, which is even harder to treat than OSA.

3) I was in an accident recently and had to slow down for a few weeks while the bumps and bruises healed up. The lower activity lead to gaining 5 lbs. I really notice the difference despite such a small bump up in weight. I cannot wait to lose that 5 lbs again, plus the 10 more that I need to finally hit my target weight.

-john-

[Exterminator]

Hi,

I notice that my sleep goes real good for about 6 months where I am really in a groove, then I struggle for two or three months. I don't think that I am not changing anything, so I am blaming this on space aliens. It could be stress, or it could be some subtle habbit that I am changing. At any rate, I try a few new things, and then I normally hit on something that works.

I will offer a few suggestions...

1) It might be a good time to visit your family doctor and do a physical. For example, I was noticing that I was getting tired a little more quickly than normal. My doctor found that my red blood cell count was down, and diagnosed anemia. I am still doing follow tests to figure out root cause, but it might be a recent switch to a very low fat diet.
-john-

Actually I had a physical in June, supposedly PSA and everything looked ok except for my testosterone. It was pretty low and I am being treated for that for the past month and a half. I was told it could take 4 - 6 weeks to see results. It seems to be helping somewhat with energy and helps noticeably....

[Exterminator]

What does you leak line look like on the bad nights?

Leak line looks pretty good to me.
Vibratory snore seems to keep showing up quite a bit though.

[zoocrewphoto]

Have you looked at several nights worth of graphs to see if you are having clusters of events, more events, or longer events?

My mom used her machine for years without feeling much improvement. Her machine was older and did not offer any data. After I got my machine, I let her use it for half a night before I went to bed. Her ahi looked fine at 3.4, but she had a cluster of apneas, and one of them was over a minute long. She went to my sleep doctor, got a new machine with data, and an updated prescription (10-15 instead of straight 10). She noticed she felt better in less than a week. She goes back for the 6 week followup at the end of next week.

[Exterminator]

Have you looked at several nights worth of graphs to see if you are having clusters of events, more events, or longer events?

Since Aug 1st my worst AHI is 3.35 the best is 0.81 and there are clusters of things every night most of them being vsnore and RERA.

[zoocrewphoto]

Can you tell if the clusters are when you are awake or just falling asleep? If so, they may not really be events, but mis-scored awake breathing.

Can you see the length of events? How long you actually have a problem?

[Exterminator]

That doesn't look bad at all. I'm just being a baby I guess, just not understanding the VS2's they are almost every night.

[lazer]

How long has it been since you "tweaked" - raised the pressure?

Maybe take it up slowly like .5 to 11.5 [Starting pressure] and give it a week and see if those snores get cut down. They might be the cause if you are having "fragmented sleep". I assume you aren't seeing a problem with "centrals" - correct? I don't see any in your last graph.

Just my .02cents

[Exterminator]

Wife said I was snoring right after I fell asleep. I may try to bump the pressure a bit and see what happens.

[lazer]

Snoring has been my main culprit all along. I've "Slowly" raised my pressure over the past 3 months and the snoring in general has improved along with my sleep in general other than the current "leaks" via mouth OR nasal pillows that I'm fighting with that has been disruptive at times.

I wouldn't go crazy though with the pressure and only tweak it up say a .5 to 1cm at a time and give it several days or a week+ to see how things go.

[Exterminator]

11.5

[Pugsy]

11.5

Looks better for sure. Time will tell if you feel better. See if the wake ups decrease also.
Fragmented sleep for any reason will sure mess with how we feel. Maybe the snores (and the maybe minor flow reductions that go along with them) were contributing to fragmented sleep a little.