Brain Fog

Has anyone experienced brain fog from adjusting their pressures? For years I had used high pressures, usually a range of 16-20. About a little less than a year ago I decreased this to 12-20 to experiment and for the past 8 months or so have had brain fog very badly. I attributed this to new stresses in my life because I have a new job and a lot going on. Over the past few weeks I have slowly increased my pressures and am now at 14-20 and have no brain fog to speak of over the past few days. I am wondering how I did not realize it could have been my CPAP machine this whole time. Has anyone had this experience before? And why would this be happening, could it be from oxygen levels when I am sleeping?

You need to install the software instead of WingDinging your feelings. Jim

Post some data.

Were you following your data during and after the pressure change? Since you left your upper end open the machine should have gone where you needed it to go. However, starting at a lower point could have caused it to take too long to reach a pressure high enough to be effective in warding off events. Since increases are incremental over time, ideally one's starting pressure should not be too far under where it might need to go. That difference varies by individual. Those having trouble with high pressures causing air in the belly or blowout leaks etc sometimes opt for a bit more in their AHI to be comfortable enough to get better sleep. If for you that means a tradeoff with brain fog, then it's probably not a good tradeoff. Good luck at figuring out your best settings to accomplish your needs. And yes, having brain fog if pressures are too low makes sense. Even if there aren't a lot more events, those who are sensitive to to all the pressure changes or whose brain senses the imdpending problems that don't meet the threshold for an event, it makes sense that disrupted sleep stages could lead to brain fog.

joeljjk11 wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 15, 2019 12:47 pm

Has anyone experienced brain fog from adjusting their pressures? For years I had used high pressures, usually a range of 16-20. About a little less than a year ago I decreased this to 12-20 to experiment and for the past 8 months or so have had brain fog very badly. I attributed this to new stresses in my life because I have a new job and a lot going on. Over the past few weeks I have slowly increased my pressures and am now at 14-20 and have no brain fog to speak of over the past few days. I am wondering how I did not realize it could have been my CPAP machine this whole time. Has anyone had this experience before? And why would this be happening, could it be from oxygen levels when I am sleeping?

Changing pressures "just because" leads to bad results, pressures shouldn't be changed unless the need to do so is indicated by the *data*.

joeljjk11 wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 15, 2019 12:47 pm

am now at 14-20

If those pressures are uncomfortable for you, have you considered wearing a firm foam collar while using CPAP? Many of us have found that our pressure requirements are considerably lower when using collars.