New user - advice from cpap gods on sleepyhead data

palerider · Post by **palerider** » Wed Mar 13, 2019 3:59 am

yearning4zs wrote: ↑
Wed Mar 13, 2019 3:34 am
Ok, thanks for the advice. I'll slowly move my way toward a minimum of 9. Maybe start with 6 or 7 tonight.

You're already going way higher than 9... 6 or 7 won't do much, but, do whatever you're comfortable with.

Julie · Post by **Julie** » Wed Mar 13, 2019 4:24 am

Hi - I wrote this to another poster, but you might find it helpful-

You may be confusing the Ramp feature with pressure settings... many, if not most don't use the ramp at all - it's got it's own timing settings, etc. and is meant to be used with e.g. high prescribed min. settings (above 10 or 15) that make it hard for some to 'take' the initial blast when starting out... so at increases to your min. setting slowly, but as I said most don't otherwise bother setting it at all as scripted settings are low(er), but the scripted pressure (e.g. 7 or 9) is still set properly and you 'go' to it immediately when putting on the mask... the max. setting (often left at 20 altogether) is not involved at all. So while your 'regular' min. pressure starts out at e.g. 7, you don't 'ramp up' to it as such UNless you HAVE enabled the Ramp feature to do that.

yearning4zs · Post by **yearning4zs** » Thu Mar 14, 2019 1:37 am

It looks as though I don't have events until well into sleep, at which time I'm already at my (close to) top pressure of 9. I'm averaging ahi around 1 or less per night and using machine for around 8 hours. So I guess for now I'll just keep things the way they are for settings despite not feeling great the next day.

My question is, for people who have gone through this -- are there cases where people slowly get used to the machine and sleep improves without tweaking settings? I have heard technicians say you have to give yourself some time to get used to this new way of sleeping and sleep will slowly improve. Or should I always being trying to tweak things if I'm still feeling that sleep is not optimal?

Pugsy · Post by **Pugsy** » Thu Mar 14, 2019 6:57 am

Yes...sometimes people do just have to give it time. In fact most people do...it's actually a small minority of cpap users who feel marked improvement over night or quickly.

But that doesn't mean that while you are giving it time that you don't investigate other potential culprits for not feeling the good numbers.

So some questions to help with the investigations.

Exactly what symptoms are you having that you wished you didn't have? Be specific please.

How many hours of real sleep are your averaging? Are those hours fragmented with many wake ups? If so, approx how many wake ups and how does it take you to get back to sleep?

Do you take any medications? If so, what?

Do you have any other health issues that might impact your sleep or how you feel?

yearning4zs · Post by **yearning4zs** » Thu Mar 14, 2019 7:08 pm

Hi, Thanks so much for the reply.

My main symptoms are feeling headaches and head tightness throughout the day. I can also feel a bit lightheaded. This has always been the hallmark of bad sleep for me before. During sleep the main issue is a bit of aerophagia.

It's hard to estimate, but I'd say I've been getting 6 or maybe 7 hours of sleep per night. The sleep is fragmented. Usually wake up 2-3 times a night. Usually I'm back asleep within 10 mins. No current medications or health issues.

Finally, another concern is that central airway events seem to be creeping up. As my data below indicates. Wondering if I'm going to have to bring my top pressure down. I'll attach a zoom in on a ca event.

palerider · Post by **palerider** » Thu Mar 14, 2019 7:48 pm

yearning4zs wrote: ↑
Thu Mar 14, 2019 7:08 pm
Finally, another concern is that central airway events seem to be creeping up. As my data below indicates. Wondering if I'm going to have to bring my top pressure down. I'll attach a zoom in on a ca event.

Until they're somewhere in the 5-8 *per hour* range, just ignore them.

yearning4zs · Post by **yearning4zs** » Thu Mar 14, 2019 10:28 pm

I should add that I recently had a DISE done and the results apparently show that the only area collapsing during sleep is my epiglottis. I've heard that doesn't bode well for cpap therapy....

New user - advice from cpap gods on sleepyhead data

Re: New user - advice from cpap gods on sleepyhead data

Re: New user - advice from cpap gods on sleepyhead data

Re: New user - advice from cpap gods on sleepyhead data

Re: New user - advice from cpap gods on sleepyhead data

Re: New user - advice from cpap gods on sleepyhead data

Re: New user - advice from cpap gods on sleepyhead data

Re: New user - advice from cpap gods on sleepyhead data