CPAP Newbie: Requesting assistance on OSCAR data review - A lot of Clear Airway events??

Hi All,

Firstly, thanks for your insights and guidance in advance. Been reviewing a few threads and already learned a ton!

So my mother was diagnosed with moderate OSA a few months ago which prompted me to get a sleep study done at a lab myself. Turns out, I have Mild OSA as well (14 AHI) at the time of the study. I was prescribed CPAP therapy and received an AirSense 10 AutoSet For Her + Dreamwear Full Face Mask. I've been using the machine for about 5 nights now and I have to say, I'm really struggling unfortunately. I honestly feel a lot WORSE than I normally did before CPAP therapy. Before CPAP therapy, I didn't feel too bad after waking. I'd have sinus congestion and light headache that would pass after I had my morning coffee. I did notice on certain days that I had brain fog and was more irritable, but nothing too major. Now after CPAP therapy, I wake up multiple times throughout the night and I'm left feeling really exhausted, irritable and feel brain fog / pressure in my head which causes a lingering headache.

Curious if anyone can take a look at my Oscar data and make any recommendations to improve the therapy?

Thinking maybe I should narrow the range and turn EPR off...

I really don't want to give up, but I can't continue like this as my job requires me to do many presentations. If I don't sleep well, my articulation suffers greatly!

Would greatly appreciate any advice and I'm happy to share more details if needed.

Thank you so much!

Welcome to the forum!

Did you have central apnea (CA) in your sleep study? If not, these maybe woke breathing being falsely flagged as CA because the machine can't tell whether you are awake or not. Personally, I observe an increase in CA during unrestful sleep such as when I was adapting to a new mask.

Pugsy often posts a link explaning how to determine whether you are seeing real or fake CAs but I can't remember the link.

I would definitely try bumping up the minimum pressure due to the huge difference between your min and max.

cyberdreamer wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 01, 2021 3:28 pm

Pugsy often posts a link explaning how to determine whether you are seeing real or fake CAs but I can't remember the link.

http://freecpapadvice.com/sleepyhead-free-software

ViI2uS wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 01, 2021 1:09 pm

I wake up multiple times throughout the night and I'm left feeling really exhausted, irritable and feel brain fog / pressure in my head which causes a lingering headache.

Poor sleep quality for any reason is going to guarantee feeling like crap. Even with AHI of 0.0.
So why are you waking often? Any idea?

Take any meds of any kind, if so, what?

Pugsy wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 01, 2021 3:45 pm

cyberdreamer wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 01, 2021 3:28 pm

Pugsy often posts a link explaning how to determine whether you are seeing real or fake CAs but I can't remember the link.

http://freecpapadvice.com/sleepyhead-free-software

ViI2uS wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 01, 2021 1:09 pm

I wake up multiple times throughout the night and I'm left feeling really exhausted, irritable and feel brain fog / pressure in my head which causes a lingering headache.

Poor sleep quality for any reason is going to guarantee feeling like crap. Even with AHI of 0.0.
So why are you waking often? Any idea?

Take any meds of any kind, if so, what?

Thanks for the link. Will review and report back.

I'm not on any meds.

Not sure why I'm waking up so often... Maybe it's the CPAP therapy that's causing it?

Without CPAP, I wake up 1 - 3 times a night. I thought maybe this was caused by untreated OSA. With CPAP, I'm waking 5 - 10 times that I can remember. Something is going on...

I'm going to try turning off EPR tonight and see if that helps.