djam's therapy thread

[palerider]

I wish I has a real answer... But at least I can say it's not unheard of.

I didn't mention that the unusual breath shapes occured with EPR off, didn't suspect that it was relevant. Had been trying EPR OFF earlier in the day, and forgot to turn it off. I noticed it of course when I went to bed, but just decided to leave it off - kind of a "eff-it" moment.

I went the past 2 days with EPR ON/3cm, and saw no weird breath shapes. Turned EPR OFF last night and they re-appeared.

Wondering if this could be related. Simply trying to adjust to exhaling against 12cm instead of 9cm while I'm asleep?

I may continue the ON/OFF experiment to see if the correlation continues. I'm very surprised that I'm able to tolerate EPR off all of a sudden(meaning that I can fall asleep with no problems). This was unthinkable in the past. Then again, the odd breath shapes may indicate that I'm not really tolerating it.

Edit: I hooked up the Wyze cam last night to see if these breathing spells were causing any noticeable distress. I slept through all of it with nothing out of the ordinary happening movement-wise. If anything, I moved around less than normal last night.
Also decided to rename this thread what it is. My therapy thread.

It absolutely makes sense that it could be related to the EPR.

EPR helps you breathe in a more fluid manner, encouraging more even breaths, with easybreathe on, it assists your inhalations and exhalations, so it makes sense that your breathing is different without it, compared to with it.

Of course, different people are going to react differently, and it's not a given that other people will react the same way (insert standard disclaimer here, batteries not included), but you can see how it can work in your case that you just like EPR

[djams]

I wish I has a real answer... But at least I can say it's not unheard of.

I didn't mention that the unusual breath shapes occured with EPR off, didn't suspect that it was relevant. Had been trying EPR OFF earlier in the day, and forgot to turn it off. I noticed it of course when I went to bed, but just decided to leave it off - kind of a "eff-it" moment.

I went the past 2 days with EPR ON/3cm, and saw no weird breath shapes. Turned EPR OFF last night and they re-appeared.

Wondering if this could be related. Simply trying to adjust to exhaling against 12cm instead of 9cm while I'm asleep?

I may continue the ON/OFF experiment to see if the correlation continues. I'm very surprised that I'm able to tolerate EPR off all of a sudden(meaning that I can fall asleep with no problems). This was unthinkable in the past. Then again, the odd breath shapes may indicate that I'm not really tolerating it.

Edit: I hooked up the Wyze cam last night to see if these breathing spells were causing any noticeable distress. I slept through all of it with nothing out of the ordinary happening movement-wise. If anything, I moved around less than normal last night.
Also decided to rename this thread what it is. My therapy thread.

It absolutely makes sense that it could be related to the EPR.

EPR helps you breathe in a more fluid manner, encouraging more even breaths, with easybreathe on, it assists your inhalations and exhalations, so it makes sense that your breathing is different without it, compared to with it.

Of course, different people are going to react differently, and it's not a given that other people will react the same way (insert standard disclaimer here, batteries not included), but you can see how it can work in your case that you just like EPR

Excellent. It's great to have a probable explanation. It does make sense, with the way you've explained above. And there's no doubt that I like my EPR.

I was on the verge of sending a screenshot of the odd breath shapes to my sleep doc. Who knows what sort of circus might have ensued.

[djams]

Here's an unusual night out of the blue. Pressure hardly increased all night. Looks like someone else's chart to me. I jump up to 18-20 nearly every night. This is a real flier.

Only thing consistent about my sleep is that it's inconsistent.

[palerider]

Here's an unusual night out of the blue. Pressure hardly increased all night. Looks like someone else's chart to me.

kwitcherbichin!

[djams]

Here's an unusual night out of the blue. Pressure hardly increased all night. Looks like someone else's chart to me.

kwitcherbichin!

Right?

[Pugsy]

It's the aliens...they left you to come visit me...don't worry though....I heard them mention that they were going back to your house to screw with you because you were more fun to play with than I was.

[palerider]

It's the aliens...they left you to come visit me...don't worry though....I heard them mention that they were going back to your house to screw with you because you were more fun to play with than I was.

I imagine you're enjoying the quiet times

[DreamDiver]

Here's an unusual night out of the blue. Pressure hardly increased all night. Looks like someone else's chart to me. I jump up to 18-20 nearly every night. This is a real flier.

Only thing consistent about my sleep is that it's inconsistent.

What a win! No large leaks. Low pressure all night and a reasonable AHI.

[djams]

It's the aliens...they left you to come visit me...don't worry though....I heard them mention that they were going back to your house to screw with you because you were more fun to play with than I was.

Well, I heard from the alien king that you've been targeted because you're helping too many people drive the aliens off permanently.
They're nice once you accept them.

[djams]

Here's an unusual night out of the blue. Pressure hardly increased all night. Looks like someone else's chart to me. I jump up to 18-20 nearly every night. This is a real flier.

Only thing consistent about my sleep is that it's inconsistent.

What a win! No large leaks. Low pressure all night and a reasonable AHI.

A good night for sure. What I like most about it, and would like to see more of, is that uninterrupted 8 hour session.
This morning I woke up 10 minutes before the alarm. Ready to go.

[djams]

It's the aliens...they left you to come visit me...don't worry though....I heard them mention that they were going back to your house to screw with you because you were more fun to play with than I was.

Apparently you've got more pull with the aliens than I do Pugsy!

Another atypical night - in a different way. The pressure activity at 02:30 is what I was refering to when I said that I "jump up to 18-10 nearly every night". This business from 4 to 5am actually made me gasp in surprise when I clicked on the daily tab. I basically lost a full hour of sleep. Still isn't a bad night at all. I do consider 1.13 to be a high AHI number these days. Thanks to all the help here.

I'll say it again - Only thing consistent about my sleep is that it's inconsistent.

[djams]

I tried out the Swift FX nasal pillow mask (thanks Pugsy) last night. It's unbelievably comfortable to wear, but did not work out well. As I was nodding off, the slightest puff of air escaping through my lips would awaken me. I used the pillow mask for 1.5 hours before switching back to FFM, so that I could fall asleep.

I also learned just how effective the Resmed FFM diffuser elbows are. The vent on this mask shoots out quite a stream of air. So I got to experience some of the things I've read about here, and have always just thought "huh, guess I'm not so sensitive".

As I'm off for the holidays, this is a good time to experiment. I can sleep in if I lose some time. I'm not just going to throw in the towel, I really want learn what happens with the pillow mask once i fall asleep. I'm pretty certain that these little puffs of air that were keeping me awake could be contained by the scunci trick. So I'll give that a try - see if I can get to sleep with the mask on.

Looking at my awake breathing, I'm seeing odd jaggies in the flow rate and mask pressure traces. This goes on the entire time. Any idea what this is?

[Pugsy]

On mask pressure looks like FOT kicking in. Your awake breathing irregularities are confusing the machine a bit. Probably little pauses in breathing and the machine trying to decide what’s up.

Wish I had a P10 for you to try. The FX venting is like a jet engine compared to the P10. But on the other hand compared to the FX predecessor the Swift LT....the FX venting is minimal.

Try taping the lips tonight. At least stop the air going out the lips. Won’t do much for chipmunk cheeks though but maybe they won’t be too annoying.

FWIW. My first Cpap stuff was the Swift LT and I did the taping thing about 3 months until the tongue learned to keep that back door closed.
Old habits are really hard to break.

[djams]

I don't know about taping over my beard. Probably would reduce the effectiveness a bit. Would do this for sure otherwise. I'll see how the scunci works. I suspect that I am already ignoring chipmunk cheeks in my sleep. It happens occasionally while I'm drifting off. Hoping the scunci will let me fall asleep.

I thought about FOT as well, but since I wasn't having an apnea didn't mention it. Wouldn't surprise me if my crappy awake breathing confused the machine.

Definitely not complaining about the mask vent. Mostly it just made me realize how easy us newbies have it getting started these days. Fancy machines with comfort features, masks with all the latest improvements. And as you point out - this venting was a big improvement over it predecessor. We're kinda spoiled.

While I was wearing the pillows, I felt like I was cheating somehow. They're that minimal.

[djams]

I forgot to ask about this - immediately when I put the mask on to get it fitted, I noticed that the air seemed warmer than usual. This perception continued when I went to bed. Is this a normal thing with pillow masks or just me being weird? It's a nothing issue - I'm just curious.