benefit of not so low pressure?

hi, I wanted to understand the benefit of the machine presure of 5 to 15 vs 6 to 15 especially if your machine has autoset that spans the pressure settings from 5 to 15 especially if you had an event that happened at 8? I recently increased my low pressure to 6 at the suggestion of an expert here 2 days ago. thanks for chiming in.

These machines don't increase the pressure in a blink of an eye. It takes several minutes and sometimes if the pressure is on the low end the airway can try to close up while the machine is in the process of trying to increase the pressure.

Having a little higher minimum gives the machine a better head start to where it needs to maybe go....and sometimes a little more optimal minimum pressure helps hold the airway open better and the airway won't try to collapse as much so the machine won't need to try to increase as much.

These machines work so much better in prevention mode than in fix it after it happens mode.

Very good response. thank you. my minimum pressure was set to 6. I asked that question after I caught myself dozing off in my Meeting today. I wonder if I should try the pressure again to 7, 8, 9, may be till I reach 10?

If your machine's minimum is too it can take a while to get to the pressure point to address the limitation and events can happen. It also takes less pressure to maintain an open airway than to open up a closed or narrow airway.

Below are my charts of me optimizing my pressure:

The left most my settings were 8-13, now I'm at 11.2-20.

Not how much more Apneas I was having than I do now. The other thing worth noting is after increasing my minimum, the machine was not using as much pressure when it increased.

When the minimum pressure was 8 or 9 almost always my pressure was gong up to 13 and maxing out at my upper limit. Now look on the left, with a minimum of 11.2, my machine rarely hits 12.

Increasing my minimum actually reduced my maximum and average pressure needs, and stopped the cycle of going up and down from minimum to maximum all night.

I would like to understand these different charts. Is there a place I can look to make sense of what the charts mean whe I look at them using oscar or sleephead ?

TonyExecutiveDrive wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 12, 2019 1:03 pm

Very good response. thank you. my minimum pressure was set to 6. I asked that question after I caught myself dozing off in my Meeting today. I wonder if I should try the pressure again to 7, 8, 9, may be till I reach 10?

You need to be checking your treatment with software, that way you would have a idea of what works best. Jim

TonyExecutiveDrive wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 12, 2019 1:19 pm

I would like to understand these different charts. Is there a place I can look to make sense of what the charts mean whe I look at them using oscar or sleephead ?

a good place to start would be in the announcement section at the top of the forum. look at pugsy's pointers. while it mentions "sleepyhead" rather than "oscar" for the purpose of learning, consider them the same.

posting your charts in this thread and asking specific questions works, too. the experts will answer whatever questions you have about said charts.

good luck!