Low AHI, lots of fatigue

Good Afternoon! I posted previously and was given recommendations about my pressure settings that really helped me to feel way more rested. Over the past year or so, I've been waking more often throughout the night and feeling tired all of the time. I wear a full mask (F&P Vitera). Bloodwork is all normal (Testosterone, B vitamins, TSH,

I included 3 screenshots from the past few nights. I would appreciate any advice you can offer!

https://imgur.com/a/R1Y4EAt

Here are the device settings that are not shown in the screenshots:


Device Settings

Mode: AutoCPAP
Pressure Min: 9.00 cmH2O
Pressure Max: 20.00 cmH2O
Auto Off: Off
Auto On: On
Flex Level: 2
Flex Lock: Off
Flex Mode: A-Flex
Hose Diam.: 15mm
Humid. Level: 4
Humid. Mode: Heated Tube
Humidifier: Connected
Mask Res. Lock: Off
Mask Resist.: Off
Ramp Pressure: 5 cmH2O
Ramp Time: 20.00 Minutes
Ramp Type: SmartRamp
Show AHI: On
Tube Lock: Off
Tube Temp.: 4

Bump

lionheartck wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 05, 2023 11:42 am

Good Afternoon! I posted previously and was given recommendations

Please stay in a single thread going forward so that your history is available for reference for the forum gurus.

Thank you.

OP's original thread
viewtopic/t182947/CPAP-Settings-Help.html

I wish I could say there are changes to your settings that will make you sleep better, but if there are any, I'm not seeing what they would be.

What I do notice are two things:

*You don't go to bed at roughly the same time at night, and

*You don't get anything close to 8 hours of sleep per night.

I think you'd be wise to aim for a regular bedtime and a longer time in bed. Kind of basic advice, I know, but your body may no longer be letting you get away with irregular and short hours.

Over the past year, have you started using any new meds? Changed your habits around alcohol or caffeine? Added extra stress to your life? Gotten new bedding or started sleeping in a new bedroom?

Miss Emerita wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 06, 2023 11:28 am

I wish I could say there are changes to your settings that will make you sleep better, but if there are any, I'm not seeing what they would be.

What I do notice are two things:

*You don't go to bed at roughly the same time at night, and

*You don't get anything close to 8 hours of sleep per night.

I think you'd be wise to aim for a regular bedtime and a longer time in bed. Kind of basic advice, I know, but your body may no longer be letting you get away with irregular and short hours.

Over the past year, have you started using any new meds? Changed your habits around alcohol or caffeine? Added extra stress to your life? Gotten new bedding or started sleeping in a new bedroom?

I was worried there wasn't much to change considering I don't have any huge leaks are long periods of snoring. So, this makes sense, although I was hoping for an obvious fix.

As far as the sleep quality, this wasn't a very good for normal nights. I'm generally in bed by 10pm and up by 6am. I usually get up with my CPAP usage at 7.5hrs or longer. This week was our anniversary, so we had gone out a couple of nights and stayed up late.

Stress has been the same since over a year ago, same bed and bedding, and same caffeine but less alcohol. The medications is my suspicion. I have been on an SNRI (Pristiq) for a while and have a feeling it was causing my interrupted sleep and high blood pressure. My primary care doctor has been changing my antihypertensives as well. I'm working on weaning myself off of Pristiq now with my doctor.

Thanks for looking over my information though, I appreciate the feedback!

A belated happy anniversary! It’s good you’re working with your doctor on the meds. You might want to taper your caffeine a bit, in case you’re less tolerant of it than you used to be. I tapered by drinking the same number of cups but mixing some decaf into the caf. Worth a try?

Miss Emerita wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 08, 2023 11:10 pm

A belated happy anniversary! It’s good you’re working with your doctor on the meds. You might want to taper your caffeine a bit, in case you’re less tolerant of it than you used to be. I tapered by drinking the same number of cups but mixing some decaf into the caf. Worth a try?

I think it's absolutely worth a try! I'm a little hesitant on making a lot of changes until I get through some of the withdrawal from weaning my meds. I'm pretty sure the Pristiq has been driving my blood pressure and insomnia issues. But, with lowering the dose, I'm feeling a lot more tired throughout the day. Which is fine when I'm off work, but I'm an ICU nurse, so I have to function at a higher level while working.

I guess overall, I'm just trying to accept the struggle and keeping in mind that it's temporary.

Thanks again!