Graphs for review

Hey there, just wondered if this tells people anything? Don't seem to hear from the doctors again for review over here unfortunately (UK).

My screen res is low, so they are in pairs to show what is needed (hopefully!)

The top one my nose was really congested at the start, which I think is why the pressure was high.

I tend to start with my mask on, on my side, watching cartoons or whatever - then I tend to fall asleep and roll onto my back.

Originally the machine was set 4-20, I upped it as the 4 meant I was usually waiting for it to get higher to breath properly via my usually blocked up nose (don't think the nose blockages are cpap related, but unsure).

I have a humidifier, I used to have it on 4, I upped it to 5 earlier in the week.

Oh, and the times are out by an hour as I forgot about daylight savings time I think! I didn't really sleep at half eight, but I do go bed pretty early!

jerryfudd wrote: ↑

Fri May 08, 2020 11:43 am

Hey there, just wondered if this tells people anything? Don't seem to hear from the doctors again for review over here unfortunately (UK).

when posting graphs, it's a good idea to let us know how you are feeling after your sleep.

also, do you sleep straight through the night?

if these settings make you feel good and you are sleeping soundly, then off you go. there is no one standard that we all have to adhere to.(to which we have to adhere?)

zonker wrote: ↑

Fri May 08, 2020 12:00 pm

there is no one standard that we all have to adhere to.(to which we have to adhere?)

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/youve-be ... eposition/

I feel okay, a million times better than when diagnosed, back then I would fall asleep mid conversation in the early evenings and want to sleep in the afternoons, my AHI was in the 90s.

I did sleep through at the start, i think you can see on one of those where there is a gap, and that'll be me getting up to use the toilet, I quite often wake quite early and then drift in and out of being awake and not.

I am occasionally sleepy, like today, I just fell asleep a bit when laying down with my son to get him to sleep.

jerryfudd wrote: ↑

Fri May 08, 2020 1:00 pm

I feel okay, a million times better than when diagnosed, back then I would fall asleep mid conversation in the early evenings and want to sleep in the afternoons, my AHI was in the 90s.

I did sleep through at the start, i think you can see on one of those where there is a gap, and that'll be me getting up to use the toilet, I quite often wake quite early and then drift in and out of being awake and not.

I am occasionally sleepy, like today, I just fell asleep a bit when laying down with my son to get him to sleep.

Jerry, if this has only been a few nights, what we're seeing looks close to "dialed in". We could rush to make suggestions, but if you've only had a few days of data, nothing looks so obnoxious that you necessarily have to change it immediately. It's possible with a few more days, we'll find that your settings are closer to ideal than usually happens on the first try.

Large leaks seem reasonably well controlled. You're hovering around 2.0 AHI, obviously dipping lower on the first night. (Yay!) Many starting CPAP would envy numbers this low, this early. From a Medicare standpoint, numbers like this would suggest your apneas are already fairly well controlled.

It's possible some of what we're seeing is just your body getting used to your new sleep regimen. There will be an urge to tweak settings because you can, and you're wanting to take control of your life. Sometimes part of that taking control can involve wait-and-see. Why not keep things as they are for a week and see how you settle into your new routine?

Meanwhile, to combat congestion, consider lowering your humidity. It may seem counterintuitive, but most people find it easier to breathe when the humidity is actually a bit on the low side.

EDIT: Also, it's really best to use the CPAP every time you sleep, even if it can come across as odd with little ones. Kids are pretty adaptable. Maybe think of it as them getting to see you taking care of yourself. As they get older, they'll emulate you when they take care of themselves. At least, that's the theory.

You are so fortunate to have such a great beginning!

Chris

Thanks for the reply, I haven't just started this, it's been around 10 months, but I only posted a couple of days data up.

Last night I had a rubbish night's sleep, but it's hard to tell if that's anything to do with he CPAP anyway, could be because it was warm etc.

I'll experiment a bit with the humidity.

When I put my son down, I don't plan on falling asleep, that was just an example of being tired to be honest.

jerryfudd wrote: ↑

Fri May 08, 2020 11:26 pm

When I put my son down, I don't plan on falling asleep, that was just an example of being tired to be honest.

Happens to all of us. Just covering all bases, having thought you might be new to CPAP. That explains why you're already dialed in! And yeah, other things can absolutely affect your sleep. Hope you'll find some useful feedback from the denizens of this forum.

Chris

I agree that you are well dialed in. I see that you have EPR set at 2. You might want to try 3, which could give you a little help with the hypopneas and flow limitations. If you try that, I would suggest raising your minimum pressure to 8.

I'd be interested to see what difference, if any, those changes make. When you post your next charts, you can fit everything into one screenshot by scrunching the graphs a little. Just grab the gray horizontal bar that separates the graphs and raise it.

Is it worth changing the max pressure ever? Or leave it as it will only use it when needed?

EPR is for when you exhale isn't it? Does pushing it up make it basically easier or harder to breath against?

Should I try EPR off or ramp only mode?

jerryfudd wrote: ↑

Sat May 09, 2020 10:23 am

Is it worth changing the max pressure ever? Or leave it as it will only use it when needed?

EPR is for when you exhale isn't it? Does pushing it up make it basically easier or harder to breath against? I've seen a few places say turn it off?

leave the max alone. you have it exactly right; it'll go there if it needs to. at this stage of the game, it doesn't look like it's going there. but you never know what the future may bring.

epr is a tricky thing. when i first tried it, it felt as though it was doing the opposite of what was intended. yes, it's supposed to make breathing out easier against pressure. but when i was getting used to it, it seemed it was making it harder.

currently, it has settled down, or rather *I* got used to it, and am now using it regularly.

turning up makes it easier to breath, though your milage may vary.

I'll try humidity at 2 and EPR at 3 instead tonight.

jerryfudd wrote: ↑

Sat May 09, 2020 10:23 am

Is it worth changing the max pressure ever? Or leave it as it will only use it when needed?

EPR is for when you exhale isn't it? Does pushing it up make it basically easier or harder to breath against?

Should I try EPR off or ramp only mode?

Some people get aerophagia ("air eating" - causes gas, burps) when the pressure gets to a certain pressure that's unique for each person. Some people never get aerophagia. For those people, it's absolutely okay to leave the Max at 20.

For the AS10, the EPR as four settings: 0 through 3cm. At 0cm, EPR is off. The red line on the pressure graph is your pressure at that time. The green line is what the pressure is at exhale. On your graph at midnight May 6, the pressure on the red line shows as about 10cm. Your EPR was set to 2, so 10-2 = 8cm, your pressure at exhale which is what we see on the green line. By extension if you had set your EPR to 3, your exhale pressure at midnight would have been 7cm. So the lower number means less exhale relief. The higher number means more exhale relief.

Chris

This is last night, so I tried 3 things (maybe too many....

1 - EPR up to 3 from 2
2 - Humidity down to 2 from 5
3 - Tried to sleep on my side, put a duvet up behind me etc.

Sleeping on the side was fine to start, but I woke up a couple of times, and eventually as my shoulder and leg was aching, I switched to my back probably around 4ish.

Anyone know why the times are off by the way on mine? They are all an hour behind.



It doesn't really look like much has changed to be honest, not sure if to persist with side sleeping or not? Is it worth it longer term?

Oh and there is loads of space to the left as during the day I was trying some settings.

jerryfudd wrote: ↑

Sun May 10, 2020 4:03 am

This is last night, so I tried 3 things (maybe too many....

1 - EPR up to 3 from 2
2 - Humidity down to 2 from 5
3 - Tried to sleep on my side, put a duvet up behind me etc.

Sleeping on the side was fine to start, but I woke up a couple of times, and eventually as my shoulder and leg was aching, I switched to my back probably around 4ish.

Anyone know why the times are off by the way on mine? They are all an hour behind.



It doesn't really look like much has changed to be honest, not sure if to persist with side sleeping or not? Is it worth it longer term?

Oh and there is loads of space to the left as during the day I was trying some settings.

Well, your AHI is lower. That's good! And you've made several small changes, so it's hard to isolate which change is the one most responsible for improvement. You could try leaving the settings the same, but not worry about sleeping position. You may as well be comfortable for the next couple nights as you try out the lower EPR and humidity settings. After we have a couple nights' data, maybe let us see some more graphs.

Chris

My AHI is quite variable, is that normal? It can be under 1 or 2/3, the other day it was 4 but I was trying a full face mask at the start and it was awful.