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[/quote]I'd recommend setting the minimum pressure to 8cm and the max pressure to 10.5. And leave the settings alone for a week. In other words, for a one week period do not worry at all about the AHI. Focus on whether the bloating (aerophagia) is better, worse, or about the same when the max pressure is set to 10.5. And focus on whether or not it's getting easier or harder to get a decent night's sleep with all the equipment. And how you're feeling in the daytime.

At the end of the week you'll want to look at the data pretty closely to determine whether a pressure range of 8-10.5 is high enough to control your OSA well enough. And whether or not there's a strong correlation between how you are feeling on the days with the highest and lowest AHIs.[/quote]

okay, so a week has passed and time to look at what has happened.

before that, let me take time again to say thanks for your suggestions. really appreciate them!

ahi went like this-
tue 4.27
wed 4.88
thur 5.47
fri 4.89
sat 3.79
sun 4.60
mon 3.64
as you can see, except for that one outlier, i stayed under 5.0, for whatever that may be worth. i'm not certain what else i should be looking for and hope you will tell me.

that first night at min 8 and max 10.5 was no different than the night before. isn't it strange how the body just keeps going with what it knows? over time, i was till waking up multiple times during the night. i had a bout of stopped up nose, which threw me off. the temp rose and lowered here and i tried to compensate by lowering my machines heat but i went to far and ended up stuffy, which effected quality of sleep.

overall, my sleep pattern has changed slightly. i'm waking up at 1:30 rather than closer to 3:30. then i sleep to either 4:30 or 5:30. after that, i sort of "nap" until around 8 or 8:30.

the bloating situation went away by the third night. a little gas in the morning, but no longer a struggle through the night.

i've never had any really bad after effects from my poor sleep. mostly, i'll feel groggy in the morning, which quickly passes. every now and then, i will fall asleep in the evening watching "tv". this usually happens no more than every two weeks or so. but that DID happen during this stretch and it was after the night of the 5.46 ahi.

is there anything else i should be reporting? and do you want the sleepyhead graphs for all those nights?

zonker wrote:the bloating situation went away by the third night. a little gas in the morning, but no longer a struggle through the night.

Now that you have adjusted to sleeping with CPAP, you might be able to turn the min pressure up 0.5 cm at a time without experiencing additional aerophagia.

Personally, I feel very energetic when my AHI is less than 2.0, but not so energetic when it is 3.0 or higher.

Don't worry so much about a few awakenings during the night if you fall back to sleep quickly.

Sheffey wrote:

zonker wrote:the bloating situation went away by the third night. a little gas in the morning, but no longer a struggle through the night.

Now that you have adjusted to sleeping with CPAP, you might be able to turn the min pressure up 0.5 cm at a time without experiencing additional aerophagia.

Personally, I feel very energetic when my AHI is less than 2.0, but not so energetic when it is 3.0 or higher.

Don't worry so much about a few awakenings during the night if you fall back to sleep quickly.

well, sheffey, i tried turning up the bottom pressure from 8 to 8.5 for the last two nights. but the old gas is back. will leave it at 8.5 for longer to see if i can get used to it.

i've been at this since may last year, so it would be really nice if i COULD get used to it.

and i'm beginning to suspect that i will just have to get used to these multiple awakenings in the night!

zonker,

Sorry I didn't see this until today when you PM'd me.

So after a week at APAP 8-10.5 you report:

the bloating situation went away by the third night. a little gas in the morning, but no longer a struggle through the night.

That's a major step forward. Don't loose site of that fact.

You also report:

overall, my sleep pattern has changed slightly. i'm waking up at 1:30 rather than closer to 3:30. then i sleep to either 4:30 or 5:30. after that, i sort of "nap" until around 8 or 8:30.

Is bedtime still the same? If so, then that means that you're getting a good two more hours of sleep before the first wake, and that's progress even if the rest of the night is still problematic.

What do you think is causing the restlessness after 4:30 or 5:30? Is it that your body is actually rested enough to wake up, but your mind doesn't want to get out of bed at the crack of dawn? Or is this just plain old restlessness---as in you can't seem to get back to sleep very easily after a wake at 3:30, 4:30, or 5:30?

You also write:

that first night at min 8 and max 10.5 was no different than the night before. isn't it strange how the body just keeps going with what it knows? over time, i was till waking up multiple times during the night. i had a bout of stopped up nose, which threw me off. the temp rose and lowered here and i tried to compensate by lowering my machines heat but i went to far and ended up stuffy, which effected quality of sleep.

Have you found a temperature/humidity setting that works for you? In other words, have you found a temperature setting that's comfortable combined with a humidity setting that doesn't clog up your nose?

If you are still having stuffy nose problems, that may be the next thing to work on. Some things to keep in mind while you're trying to find the sweet spot for the humidifier: Does your nose typically get clearer or more clogged when you take a nice hot, steamy shower? If hot steamy showers clog your nose, you need to turn the humidifier and hose temperature down. If the hose still feels too warm when the temp is set at its min, you should consider getting a regular unheated hose. On the other hand, if your nose likes hot steamy showers and the congestion tends to clear up in the shower, you may need to set the humidifier much higher and you may want to experiment with increasing the hose temperature.

You also write:

okay, so a week has passed and time to look at what has happened.

before that, let me take time again to say thanks for your suggestions. really appreciate them!

ahi went like this-
tue 4.27
wed 4.88
thur 5.47
fri 4.89
sat 3.79
sun 4.60
mon 3.64
as you can see, except for that one outlier, i stayed under 5.0, for whatever that may be worth. i'm not certain what else i should be looking for and hope you will tell me.

These AHIs are acceptable, at least for now. How much of the AHI is CAI? If most of the AHI is OAI+HI, then once you are genuinely comfortable getting to sleep with the machine and sleeping well enough to feel like your sleep is mostly continuous, you may want to slowly raise the min and max pressures to see if the AHI goes down without causing you to redevelop the aerophagia problems.

Personally, I'd give it another week at 8-10.5 to consolidate the progress you've made concerning the aerophagia before increasing the pressure settings. That would also give you a week to experiment with humidity to see if you can find a humidity&temperature combination that works for you. Unlike the pressure settings, there's no real need to stick with the same humidity setting for an extended period of time: If your nose dislikes the humidity setting after one night, or even part of one night, change it. But keep track of what the settings are and how well the nose likes them.

Finally you asked whether I needed to see any additional charts. Show me what you want. In particular, if you are wondering if there's something another pair of eyes might see in what's going on during the second half of the night when you're still quite restless (i.e. "dozing"), post one or two of nights of data. Post the best night in terms of subjective sleep continuity and the worst night for sleep continuity. Comparing the two may shed some light into what else you might try.

robysue wrote:zonker,

Sorry I didn't see this until today when you PM'd me.

So after a week at APAP 8-10.5 you report:

the bloating situation went away by the third night. a little gas in the morning, but no longer a struggle through the night.

That's a major step forward. Don't loose site of that fact.

You also report:

overall, my sleep pattern has changed slightly. i'm waking up at 1:30 rather than closer to 3:30. then i sleep to either 4:30 or 5:30. after that, i sort of "nap" until around 8 or 8:30.

Is bedtime still the same? If so, then that means that you're getting a good two more hours of sleep before the first wake, and that's progress even if the rest of the night is still problematic.

What do you think is causing the restlessness after 4:30 or 5:30? Is it that your body is actually rested enough to wake up, but your mind doesn't want to get out of bed at the crack of dawn? Or is this just plain old restlessness---as in you can't seem to get back to sleep very easily after a wake at 3:30, 4:30, or 5:30?

You also write:

that first night at min 8 and max 10.5 was no different than the night before. isn't it strange how the body just keeps going with what it knows? over time, i was till waking up multiple times during the night. i had a bout of stopped up nose, which threw me off. the temp rose and lowered here and i tried to compensate by lowering my machines heat but i went to far and ended up stuffy, which effected quality of sleep.

Have you found a temperature/humidity setting that works for you? In other words, have you found a temperature setting that's comfortable combined with a humidity setting that doesn't clog up your nose?

If you are still having stuffy nose problems, that may be the next thing to work on. Some things to keep in mind while you're trying to find the sweet spot for the humidifier: Does your nose typically get clearer or more clogged when you take a nice hot, steamy shower? If hot steamy showers clog your nose, you need to turn the humidifier and hose temperature down. If the hose still feels too warm when the temp is set at its min, you should consider getting a regular unheated hose. On the other hand, if your nose likes hot steamy showers and the congestion tends to clear up in the shower, you may need to set the humidifier much higher and you may want to experiment with increasing the hose temperature.

You also write:

okay, so a week has passed and time to look at what has happened.

before that, let me take time again to say thanks for your suggestions. really appreciate them!

ahi went like this-
tue 4.27
wed 4.88
thur 5.47
fri 4.89
sat 3.79
sun 4.60
mon 3.64
as you can see, except for that one outlier, i stayed under 5.0, for whatever that may be worth. i'm not certain what else i should be looking for and hope you will tell me.

These AHIs are acceptable, at least for now. How much of the AHI is CAI? If most of the AHI is OAI+HI, then once you are genuinely comfortable getting to sleep with the machine and sleeping well enough to feel like your sleep is mostly continuous, you may want to slowly raise the min and max pressures to see if the AHI goes down without causing you to redevelop the aerophagia problems.

Personally, I'd give it another week at 8-10.5 to consolidate the progress you've made concerning the aerophagia before increasing the pressure settings. That would also give you a week to experiment with humidity to see if you can find a humidity&temperature combination that works for you. Unlike the pressure settings, there's no real need to stick with the same humidity setting for an extended period of time: If your nose dislikes the humidity setting after one night, or even part of one night, change it. But keep track of what the settings are and how well the nose likes them.

Finally you asked whether I needed to see any additional charts. Show me what you want. In particular, if you are wondering if there's something another pair of eyes might see in what's going on during the second half of the night when you're still quite restless (i.e. "dozing"), post one or two of nights of data. Post the best night in terms of subjective sleep continuity and the worst night for sleep continuity. Comparing the two may shed some light into what else you might try.

robysue!

first, thanks again for the response. i appreciate the fact that you take the time to extract all of the information. and you ask detailed questions. this makes me feel as though you are really trying to help. this approach is very different than the usual drive by commenting one gets on the internet.

you've driven out a couple of things here which may be key. i seem to have two problems with my 4:30-5:30 wake ups. one of my problems is that, while i no longer have to wake up to an alarm, i still feel as though i "should" wake up by at least 8:30. i realize that's all in my head, so that's something i need to work on.

the other problem is that i awake at that earlier time (4-5:30) with a stopped up nostril. for quite awhile, i was using flonase. but i got a little carried away with it. if one squirt of flonase was good, two would be better. and hey, three would really do the trick! i was doing this about one hour prior to lights out. well, as you can imagine, that was way too much and i ended up with nose bleeds. so for about a month, i backed off of flonase. during the day, i'd use saline to get my nose back into shape.

all of that to say, last night i kept these two things in mind. lights out at 11:15.( i am on a routine of lights out at between 11:15 and 11:30)i woke at 3:30 went off to the bathroom then ONE spritz of flonase into my left nostril, as it was beginning to close up. then awake at 5. another hit of flonase. then back to sleep until 8:53!

now, there were other awakenings past the 5:30 one, but i just rolled over and back to sleep. didn't look at the clock. and i woke up feeling pretty damned good.

i think that if i use the flonase with a bit more restraint, i won't have the clogged up issue. and it's pretty much always just one nostril that closes. in fact, this was the very issue(along with one scary night of extreme mouth dryness) that drove me to my doctor in early 2015. and that's when i discovered i had OSA. so i think i'll continue with the flonase and see how that goes.

you mention "How much of the AHI is CAI?". i take it CAI is centrals? i'm afraid i can't answer that. my machine doesn't seem to pass that information over to the graph. or is this something i need to find elsewhere in sleepyhead?

i'm composing this offline. i'm not sure if i want to put up last night's graphs. one night of data and all that. but it shows that i had maximum pressure chasing hypopneas until my 3:30 wakeup. then afterwards, pressure stayed at the bottom and no clusters of hypops.

i choose to take this as a good sign.

i'll stay the course for now and in a week, i'll put up some more graphs because i really would like to have some things pointed out to me. i'm afraid even after these many months that i'm not proficient at reading the data.

again, thanks!

robysue, i hope you "have your ears on" as we used to say back in the old CB days. if not, i'll come bug you in private.

i've been off line for awhile due to a trip me and the missus took to flagstaff arizona. it's soon to be our new home and we were checking it out. while i traveled with my cpap machine (don't leave home without it!), i didn't take any computer but a tablet with me. so i didn't obsess over my sleepyhead data.

what i found was that i slept about the same to a bit better. that is, i felt more comfortable on those "foreign" mattresses. we drove from seattle to flagstaff and even the motel mattresses were fine. so the first thing i did when i got back was order a new mattress. it may not cure sleep apnea, but it may help to relax me.

the sleep pattern remained the same. i was having lights out at 11 or 11:30 pm and finally getting up around 8 or 8:30 am. and would wake up at around 3:30 am to pee then back to sleep. then waking every hour or so until i got up.

here is what i'm thinking my problem with waking is: i'm getting JUST stuffy enough in one or the other nostril to wake me up. what i'm now trying to train myself to do is blow my nose,squirt a shot of flonase up the offending nostril and go back to sleep. and it will be grand when i can do this on auto pilot and then just go back to sleep.

also, i'm lowering my heat/humidity setting a notch. through the winter, i had it on the highest setting. on a devilbiss machine, there is no separate humidity setting, at least that i can find. so will continue to watch that too to see if it helps with my stuffy nose.

i didn't change any settings when i was on the road. now that i'm home, i've increased the bottom pressure to 9 while leaving the top at 10.5. i've done this now(as of this writing) 4 nights and have tolerated the gas buildup okay. so i'm going to leave that alone for a week or two and let my body get used to it.

following are screen shots and i'll have some comments-



that one was weird. i ended up with ahi of 6.20! which is the highest i've had in some time. also, i woke up fully twice, once to pee then later to use the flonase. i notice that i had one obstructive, something that shows up more n the next nights. and when the pressure peaks is when i do the minor wake up and go back to sleep.


more obstructives here. ahi 4.78. and a large leak! i didn't notice any leak during the night and certainly i didn't wake up at that time. i notice that my snoring seems to be less. coincidence? and i see that throughout my sleep graphs, i have less apneas in the second half of my sleep, but end up not sleeping as well then.



this last one is the one where in i slept best. as you can see mask off for the bathroom at shortly after 4. then next awake at 6:51, just when the pressure raised again. no other awakenings that i remember! i'm pretty stoked about that. again, i'm getting those obstructives. and notice on this last graph, just ONE incident of snoring.

these three graphs are from the time i got home from the trip. i don't what i'm doing right, but i hope to continue.

please, anyone with any comments, please speak up. i really really want this cpap therapy to work!