Husband is More Tired with CPAP

Angielynn · Post by **Angielynn** » Wed Apr 17, 2019 4:54 pm

Hi everyone.

My husband has been working on adapting to his Resmed AirSense 10 AutoSet. It took quite a while to get a mask he's good with, as he has facial hair, but he's found one that's not leaking and that he's comfortable with.

He sleeps okay waking up once or twice, but he feels much more tired usually after using the CPAP. He has to take a break from it to get rest because he gets exhausted.

We've noticed that the number of apneas varies quite a lot from night to night.

I'm posting his Sleepy Head charts. Is there something he can do differently?

Thanks!

Pugsy · Post by **Pugsy** » Wed Apr 17, 2019 5:03 pm

His AHI could stand some lowering.
As to whether or not that would equal feeling better and not worse...don't know but sure worth trying.
His pressure is roaming around wildly throughout the night and there are times that it can't get to where it needs to be quickly enough to prevent the airway from collapsing and sometimes dense clusters of events are happening sort of back to back. That might be impacting his overall sleep quality and thus impact how he feels during the day.

His minimum is 6 cm now...EPR is set to 3....I am thinking maybe have the minimum be 9 cm instead of 6...leave everything else the same and see if the clusters still happen or not. Give the machine a little bit better head start on getting to where it needs to go and at the same time maybe smooth out the pressure graph a little so not so much fluctuations.

Angielynn · Post by **Angielynn** » Wed Apr 17, 2019 5:26 pm

Thank you Pugsy, I'll have him give it a try.

Angielynn · Post by **Angielynn** » Mon Apr 22, 2019 4:50 pm

Hi Pugsy, we made my husband's minimum 9, as suggested. He had a lot of apneas last night - I think he said around 8 of them. Even before this change he was going up and down quite a bit, so I don't know that the change had anything to do with it. He's still feeling tired. Would you mind taking a look at his sleepytime charts to see if there's anything else he might do? Thanks!

Pugsy · Post by **Pugsy** » Mon Apr 22, 2019 5:00 pm

A little over half that AHI was central/Clear Airway....ask him if he thinks he was awake around 6:00 this morning???
Also 1:40 to 2:00...asleep or awake....if asleep any chance he was on his back?

Did he have a home sleep study or a sleep study done in a lab with a tech in attendance for his diagnostic sleep study?

Angielynn · Post by **Angielynn** » Mon Apr 22, 2019 5:05 pm

Hi Pugsy, he doesn't remember being up at those times. He mostly sleeps on his back because of back problems.

He had a home sleep study.

Pugsy · Post by **Pugsy** » Mon Apr 22, 2019 5:18 pm

Check your PM box. I sent you a private message.
I have to go outside and do some chores...be back later.

Pugsy · Post by **Pugsy** » Tue Apr 23, 2019 3:14 pm

I will update this thread later when I have more time.
Short version....I had AngieLynn send me a copy of the SD card contents so that I could look through all the nights.
I was hoping that the bulk of the flagged events were SWJ.....not so lucky there. Majority appear to be asleep flagged events.
Way too many centrals and some are CSR and the ones not flagged as CSR must have just barely missed the criteria.
Plus some of the OAs look CSRish to me and they might be central and not obstructive.
I don't know what is going on but something isn't right. Might be complex sleep apnea....dunno at this point but working on figuring it out.
We don't know how many centrals (if any) might have been present on the diagnostic sleep study...or even if the home study recorded central vs obstructive stuff. Too much unknown.

First and easiest thing right now...turn off EPR and see if EPR is triggering the centrals.
I don't want to increase the pressure any more right now as I am not certain those OAs are real and if they are central more pressure won't help and might make things worse.

Angielynn · Post by **Angielynn** » Wed Apr 24, 2019 5:07 pm

Hi Pugsy, I didn't see a way to upload the image in the private messaging so I upload it here in the original post. Please let me know how it looks to you.

If you could tell me how to upload it in the PM area, I'll know for next time.

You mentioned that he was going up and down with apneas, so I'm hoping that last nights result continues, and he'll do consistently better now. He's pretty exhausted still, which is the opposite of my experience. I feel much more energetic the more cpap sleep I get.

Thanks for your help!

Pugsy · Post by **Pugsy** » Wed Apr 24, 2019 5:22 pm

There is no way to do attachments to private messages that I can find.
What you have to do is put the image on some place like imgur and then link to it.
So it's fine you did it here.

Let's do one more night tonight at these new settings...6 minimum with EPR off.
Let's see if the centrals stay reduced...and not quite half that AHI is central. I suspect we need a little more minimum from the looks of the hyponeas and the flow limitations but lets go up slowly. No big jumps.
Looks like EPR was a major trigger for causing the centrals....lets see if it hold like this. I don't know if EPR was the lone culprit or if there is a line in the sand in terms of pressure that is also a factor in the centrals.

See what things look like after tonight.

Does he take any medications of any kind? Have any other health issues that could be a factor in how he feels?

Angielynn · Post by **Angielynn** » Wed Apr 24, 2019 5:35 pm

Thank you Pugsy Will do that again tonight and send you images tomorrow. No he does not take any medication that could be causing the fatigue. I believe I private message to you exactly the couple of prescription meds he takes, and I don’t think anything that is taken could have an impact. He actually feels much better when he doesn’t use the CPAP. He feels more rested. So I really feel it has something to do with the CPAP. I’m hoping given a few days without the EPR he’ll do better. I’m looking forward to seeing if you think he needs any other setting changes. Have a great night!

Husband is More Tired with CPAP

Husband is More Tired with CPAP

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Re: Husband is More Tired with CPAP

Re: Husband is More Tired with CPAP

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Re: Husband is More Tired with CPAP

Re: Husband is More Tired with CPAP

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