Something i don' understand about apap and pressures (respir

[Punchyandtired]

Hi there. Received my philips respironics system one on Dec 19.
Doc originally prescribed min 7 max 20.

AHI was 33.6

EDS persisted and interfered with my life (sleeping 14 hours a day, reflected on SD card). I read on here about bumping pressure up and went to min 10.

I have sleepyhead data and data was showing hypopneas at min 7. Going to 10 eliminated hypopneas. Doc approved.

EDS continued, so doc ordered second sleep study. (BC wouldn't approve split study the first time). This study was study + MSLT to rule out narcolepsy and idopathic hypersomnia. They also titrated me to pressure of 13 and said that is where i need to be.

I activated comfort settings on my unit so now i inhale pressure 13 and exhale level 3. EDS is slowly decreasing, Im napping less and slowly feeling better.

Only slept 3.74 hours for the entire sleep study this week including MSLT, so the only explanation for the sudden inability to sleep for the MSLT is that i was under pressured and now Im at the right pressure.

Problems:

When I was at min 7, machine would go up to ten.

When I was at min 10, machine would go to 12-13-14.

Now that Im at 13, machine is going up to 16-17 for short bursts of time.

What is going on here? Why are my pressures suddenly going up and up and up? Does this make any sense?

Thank you
Oh, since going to pressure 13 my AHIs are under 1

[Sleeprider]

Your last sentence says, treatment is working pretty well. If the machine is showing less than 1.0 AHI, that's excellent. The machine simply responds to snores and flow limitations, so that is why pressure is going up. You can limit that, but unless your sleep is disrupted, why? Is there anything in your sleep quality that makes you think you should change something?

You're doing great from all I can tell. If you want to share some data, this tutorial is very easy to follow https://sleep.tnet.com/docs/imgur

Congrats on a great job chasing this down and getting to effective therapy with some difficult obstacles.

[Punchyandtired]

Thanks. It has required much more time and effort than I would have known. The whole diagnosis was shocking to me. They were going for narcolepsy the first time and when I woke up and they told me MSLT was cancelled because i have severe sleep apnea-- news to me. Wasn't even on my radar. (I since found out you can have sleep apnea and not snore).

Lots of troubleshooting here and a lot of reading.... But Im highly motivated to feel better, so i am 100% compliant for sleep and naps. Doc is so thrilled to have a compliant patient. Lol

I'll be happy when a few weeks pass and I can see a definite trend of feeling better. Right now, its not even a week, so ....... Really really looking forward to not napping 4 hours a day and getting to reclaim my life...

[Punchyandtired]

That link has a 404 error BTW.

[Pugsy]

Try this link instead. It worked for me just now.
https://sleep.tnet.com/

[Punchyandtired]

Thanks

[palerider]

That link has a 404 error BTW.

the proper link is: https://sleep.tnet.com/reference/tips/imgur

[Sleeprider]

I just heard from forum member Krelvin who created the site I linked to earlier. He has put in a redirect so the old link works, but yes, the link was updated and is CPAP-Sleep-Apnea-Forum.html I've updated my reference, and many thanks to Krelvin for making such an easy to follow tutorial, and informative site.

[Wulfman...]

Hi there. Received my philips respironics system one on Dec 19.
Doc originally prescribed min 7 max 20.

AHI was 33.6

EDS persisted and interfered with my life (sleeping 14 hours a day, reflected on SD card). I read on here about bumping pressure up and went to min 10.

I have sleepyhead data and data was showing hypopneas at min 7. Going to 10 eliminated hypopneas. Doc approved.

EDS continued, so doc ordered second sleep study. (BC wouldn't approve split study the first time). This study was study + MSLT to rule out narcolepsy and idopathic hypersomnia. They also titrated me to pressure of 13 and said that is where i need to be.

I activated comfort settings on my unit so now i inhale pressure 13 and exhale level 3. EDS is slowly decreasing, Im napping less and slowly feeling better.

Only slept 3.74 hours for the entire sleep study this week including MSLT, so the only explanation for the sudden inability to sleep for the MSLT is that i was under pressured and now Im at the right pressure.

Problems:

When I was at min 7, machine would go up to ten.

When I was at min 10, machine would go to 12-13-14.

Now that Im at 13, machine is going up to 16-17 for short bursts of time.

What is going on here? Why are my pressures suddenly going up and up and up? Does this make any sense?

Thank you
Oh, since going to pressure 13 my AHIs are under 1

Makes perfect sense.
They determined you needed 13 cm.
But, even with that pressure, sometimes there are still some other events like flow limitations or snores which will trigger the machine to increase pressure.

Your initial pressures were too low. Now they're better.


Den

.

[archangle]

Don't forget that you can limit the upper pressure as well.

Maybe you're having short episodes of something that makes the machine bump your pressure up. The machine adjusts pressure up slowly. If the episode is short, maybe it doesn't have time to get to the higher pressure before it goes away. It could also be something more complicated, the human respiratory system is complex. It could also just be the machine "searching" for the right pressure. They don't "learn" from one day to the next.

Do the higher pressure "spikes" bother you?

[Punchyandtired]

Ok, thank, all!

*I havent taken a nap so far today*!!!!!!!!! Though i probably could about right now but will have to do carpool in less than an hour so oh well.

No, the pressure spikes dont bother me and i woudlnt have noticed them if sleepyhead hadnt displayed them.

I guess i just took a little bit to pull out of this drag of sleep apnea.