First night tonight.

General Discussion on any topic relating to CPAP and/or Sleep Apnea.
pbrankin
Posts: 36
Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2021 8:23 am

First night tonight.

Post by pbrankin » Tue Nov 30, 2021 11:39 am

Diagnosed with mild OSA (9.5 AHI).

This was determined to me positional in nature (sleeping on back)

Thought I could fix it with a tennis ball in my T-shirt. This worked at keeping me from lying on my back but ever since the home sleep study I’ve woken multiple times a night.

Have decided to rent an APAP for a month to see how I get on and to hopefully help with weight loss. (Need to lose 3st, 42lb, 19kg)

First night of APAP is tonight. I guess I’m fooling myself if I think I’ll immediately have restorative sleep. I’ve been trying to acclimatise to the mask and the machine this afternoon.

Prisma 20a machine with a Philips Amara View mask.

If you have any hints or tips please let me know!

Many thanks.

Paul.

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ChicagoGranny
Posts: 14409
Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2012 1:43 pm
Location: USA

Re: First night tonight.

Post by ChicagoGranny » Tue Nov 30, 2021 12:05 pm

pbrankin wrote:
Tue Nov 30, 2021 11:39 am
I guess I’m fooling myself if I think I’ll immediately have restorative sleep.
It does happen.

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Miss Emerita
Posts: 3416
Joined: Sun Nov 04, 2018 8:07 pm

Re: First night tonight.

Post by Miss Emerita » Tue Nov 30, 2021 12:49 pm

Congratulations on your decision to try APAP! In a perfect world, your rental machine would be supported by the Oscar software, which generates very useful reports. But let us know the data you do have access to, because that'll be a help.

You're smart to try acclimating during the day. It's best if you do this outside your bedroom, to avoid setting up mental associations that might not be helpful. Read, watch, TV -- anything mildly diverting. And do this for at least several days. Your brain can take some persuading that the alien on your face is benign.

Could you clarify: were your wake-ups due to the tennis ball and/or the effort to stay off your back? Or were you once more back-sleeping?
Oscar software is available at https://www.sleepfiles.com/OSCAR/

pbrankin
Posts: 36
Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2021 8:23 am

Re: First night tonight.

Post by pbrankin » Tue Nov 30, 2021 1:37 pm

@missemerita "Wake ups" were I think due to an increased pulse, adrenalin rush possibly due to some upper airway resistance. I was wearing an spO2 ring and that did not show any drops at the time that the pulse went higher. Could, I guess, be a sensitivity to REM sleep. My dreams are often quite vivid!

I know I was not on my back as I use a SNOOOR device that tells me the sleep position over time. The tennis ball has really worked and I consistently sleep on my side (mostly right).

I still get the occasional SPO2 drop (around 86%) for a few seconds a night (less than 20 seconds) which for the moment I'm attributing either to snoring or a brief apnea event on my side.

To be honest, I thought I could get away with just resolving the positional problem but it concerned me having a very spiky pulse during what I assume to be REM sleep, even though there is usually no corresponding SPO2 drop. That spiky pulse and the waking up is why I'm, doing what I'm currently doing (APAP).

I've been checked out by a cardiologist (48hr EKG, 24hr BP (which was high), normal CT Angiogram, normal Calcium Score (zero), normal Echocardiogram).

I see a respiratory consultant on Thursday.

A lot to unpack here in one post...apologies.

Paul.