Need Help interpreting OSCAR data

I have been using CPAP at night for several years with no improvement. Daytime fatigue has become worse; my activities are more limited.

I use the AirFit P10 mask because it seems to be the only one I can tolerate. It touches my face in the least way and it can be removed and put back on with one hand. This is important in case I remove the mask at night. Removing the mask was a major problem but now I think i am better at replacing it, as I can see in my usage time going up. Last year average: 6:00 hrs per night, last 30 days: 6:55 hrs.

I attached my OSCAR Daily statistics as an example. Please let me know if you see anything in my data. I am too cowardly to get any apnea surgery , I have to make CPAP work.

Do you take any medications of any kind? If so, what?

How many times during the night are you waking up? Any idea why?

I see several breaks in therapy on this report where we know you turned the machine off....were there other awakenings where you didn't turn the machine off?

When you have time please review the graph formatting guide and if you post additional reports can you post the graphs we need to see and omit the graphs that aren't particularly useful.

http://www.cpaptalk.com/viewtopic/t1585 ... eview.html

before midnight I may be getting up because I'm not sleepy yet.

I take Lexapro, Modafinil (for daytime fatigue), Lorazepam (for anxiety) and Olanzapine (helps me get more time asleep in the early-morning).
I know some or all of these medications affect sleep architecture. I stopped Modafinil entirely for 12 days but did not feel I got more refreshed sleep ( maybe I should have tried a longer term experiment?)

Yeah, not only can those meds affect sleep itself they can have some unwanted side effects.

Look up the side effects for Lexapro and those other meds. Not only can they negatively affect sleep it also has some rather nasty daytime symptoms.

Specifically what daytime symptoms are you having that you wished you didn't?

if you have a day where you had very little sleep..... and you were fatigued but you pushed to get through the day. Now imagine that is your life, every day. it's misery.

davep700 wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 29, 2024 7:33 am

I have been using CPAP at night for several years with no improvement. Daytime fatigue has become worse; my activities are more limited.

and

davep700 wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 29, 2024 10:05 am

I take Lexapro, Modafinil (for daytime fatigue), Lorazepam (for anxiety) and Olanzapine (helps me get more time asleep in the early-morning).
I know some or all of these medications affect sleep architecture. I stopped Modafinil entirely for 12 days but did not feel I got more refreshed sleep ( maybe I should have tried a longer term experiment?)

Since the Modafinil was prescribed for daytime fatigue, the more appropriate question is: Did you feel more daytime fatigue when you stopped the Modafinil for 12 days? If so, then, the Modafinil is probably doing you some good. If not, then you ought to have a long chat with the doctor who prescribed the Modafinil for the daytime fatigue.

davep700 wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 29, 2024 7:33 am

I use the AirFit P10 mask because it seems to be the only one I can tolerate.

If the leak data you posted is typical, then your leaks are quite acceptable and there is no real reason to be trying other masks.

davep700 wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 29, 2024 7:33 am

Removing the mask was a major problem but now I think i am better at replacing it, as I can see in my usage time going up. Last year average: 6:00 hrs per night, last 30 days: 6:55 hrs.

Are you sleeping only with the CPAP? Or are you taking the CPAP off in the morning and sleeping another hour or two without it?

If you were only getting an average no more than 6 hours of sleep a night, that could explain the on-going fatigue. Most people's bodies want and need more sleep than that. If you are now getting an average of (almost) 7 hours of sleep a night, all with the mask, then in time your body might start feeling better in the morning and all through the day. But if your body really wants and craves at least 8 hours of sleep, then you still need to work on getting the usage up to where you are sleeping with the mask for as many hours as your body wants/needs to sleep.

If your body is "stuck" at only being able to get about 6 or 7 hours of sleep, then it's time to talk with your docs about all of your medications and the underlying conditions for which they were prescribed.

On the other hand, if you are simply taking the mask off around 7:00 AM and then getting another hour or two of sleep without the cpap, then that could explain the continuing problems with daytime fatigue: When you sleep without the mask, your untreated OSA can come roaring back and an hour or two of apnea filled sleep can destroy the rest achieved by 6 hours of decent, non-apnea filled sleep.

davep700 wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 29, 2024 10:05 am

before midnight I may be getting up because I'm not sleepy yet.

If you didn't have to worry about waking up for a job or family obligations, when do you think your body would most like to sleep? Please list both a bedtime and wake up time. Some people have circadian rhythms that just aren't in sync with what our culture expects. I'm lucky enough that my job as a college professor can accommodate the fact that my body really wants to sleep from about 2:00AM until about 9:00 or 9:30AM, and if I had a job that forced me to get up before 7:30 five days a week, I would be pretty exhausted most of the time simply because my body really wouldn't get enough decent sleep simply because it is not sleepy by midnight almost all of the time, no matter how much or how little I slept the night before.

I understand your frustrations. It is hard to keep on PAPing night after night when you are still feeling bad during the daytime. But given the CPAP data, it looks (to me) like there may be something else going on in addition to your now reasonably well treated OSA. In other words, you should consider other things that might be causing your sleep to be less restorative than you want it to be.

Thanks for your answers.

Another reason could be I eat and snack late due to anxiety and have gained 20 pounds in the last year or two. BMI is now 33.5.

I sleep from around 11 pm to 7 am. I let myself sleep as long as I want, with option beginning at 9pm, when I am too tired to sit up any longer. Every minute counts, whether my mask is on or not. In the last week, I have had a trend of almost completely treated nights with an average of 7:27 hrs. But today I woke up at 5:30am and couldn't get back to sleep and the day was ruined.