CPAPtalk.com

@Pugsy

AHI 7.32
CA events 12
OA events 13
Hypopnea events 19

So it looks like I had a better night. I feel that my sleep is decent but I can't say that I am waking up full of energy and ready to conquer the world.

Hypopnea events were 19 while previously it has been 30+ to 40+ a night.
OA events were 13. That is higher than previous sessions.
CA events were 12, again higher than previous sessions except for my bad AHI 17.29 night from 2 days ago.

In previous posts you had suggested a PS of 5.5 or 6.0 and EPAP of 7, 7.5, or 8. I'm currently at PS 5.5 and EPAP 7.5. Should I try 6.0 and 8.0 to see what that does or would you say that we have arrived at the as good as it gets settings?

I do have a couple of questions.

- Both this morning and the morning before that I have been dizzy for just a minute or so when getting out of bed. Would the increase of EPAP and PS cause that?

- In chart below I highlighted in a couple of hypopneas because I want to make sure that i am correctly identifying hypopneas occurring when I think I'm asleep vs. an arousal one. Am I correct that the hypopnea at around 7:04 is an asleep one and then the one around 7:07 is an arousal one?

- Do you think that a different machine might handle my events better than the one that I have now. I doubt that I will get insurance to cover a new machine when the one I have is working. Even if they would cover it I probably need to show several months of compliance because now I am showing a little over 2 weeks of compliance after many years of not using it at all.

Again you have been greatly helpful as I have tried to slog my way through this.

IMHO....all the hyponeas and OAs appear to be arousal related from 06:56 to 07:07. You have zoomed out a little too far for optimal evaluation but I don't see asleep breathe for sure except the short segment right before the obvious arousal at 06:56 and at the right side asleep from after the last hyponea flagged.

I also assume the groupings at the beginning of the night were arousal related....is that what you saw?

Such a small difference in PS shouldn't account for dizziness or I can't think of any reason anyway. Remember all we did was start with a slightly higher PS baseline...the PS can still range higher if the machine wants to and it does it often and has been doing it anyway on the other nights.

Can you safely take some sort of OTC sleep aid to help you get a night with more for sure solid blocks of sleep?

And yes...if you can find a ResMed AirCurve 10 ASV....or even it's older big brother the ResMed Adapt model 36037 (works the same as the AirCurve 10)....I like their algorithm better.

You only got 6 hours of machine use...I didn't say 6 hours of sleep because I already know you weren't asleep the entire time or even most of the time but even if you had slept 6 hours solidly.....that's not enough sleep to expect to be a bundle of energy under the best of circumstances. We both know that. FWIW...the insomnia monster came for a visit to me last night. I didn't quite make it for 6 hours of sleep and I already know my butt will be dragging all day.

I don't want to change anything tonight. I want you to let your body get used to the new settings and let's see if you can sleep more soundly. It's not good to change something every night. That doesn't let the body learn to adjust so it can sleep.
In lab sleep titrations change things quickly but they have the advantage of minute by minute known state of sleep and airway patency....when we do it at home he don't have same advantages.

@Pugsy

Sorry about zooming in too far. I was just trying to zoom in on what I thought was 2 examples of hypopnea where I thought I was asleep for one and in arousal state for another so that I can confirm if I was reading the charts correctly. Next time I post something I'll expand the view.

I'm pretty sure that the groups at the beginning of the night are arousal related as that is when I am first going to sleep so I'm probably moving around some.

I'm not a big fan of taking an OTC sleep aid. I don't want to become dependent on that to get to sleep. But I'll think about it and revisit this thought.

OK so I'm going to leave my settings alone and see what happens. I'll lay off of posting my nightly results and maybe next week I'll post back. You have been very helpful so thank you.

An OTC sleep aid for a couple of nights just so we can get data that isn't clouded by potential awake flagging.
Not an every night forever kind of thing.
Besides the OTC sleep aids usually are using either Benadryl (diphenhydramine) or Doxylamine succinate both of which are simply antihistamines and used because they cause drowsiness. They aren't habit forming.

I keep Benadryl (plain) on hand for several reasons and when I have trouble sleeping I take it because it helps with minimal morning hangover. I don't buy the official sleep aid product....I just buy the active ingredient in that product. Cheaper.