zonker therapy thread redux: in the arms of morpheus

[Jlfinkels]

is there any other adjustments i can make to ease myself into a gentle breathing rhythm that will let me fall easily to sleep?

At the risk of stating the obvious, shutting down your brain before bed may prove helpful. Practicing slow deep breathing, no TV or screens of any kind, darkening the room, listening to calming music and slowing your breathing to match it, all may prove useful. It takes practice but it works for me most of the time.

[zonker]

Try setting trigger to high, or very high.

i shall try that tonight. i must've have been thinking bass ackwards. i was thinking lower would be better.

I feel it's important to keep that in mind, and use the right terms to reduce confusion.

and i suppose next you'll not want me calling it bipap?


will try setting the trigger high and see how that goes.

thanks!

[zonker]

is there any other adjustments i can make to ease myself into a gentle breathing rhythm that will let me fall easily to sleep?

At the risk of stating the obvious, shutting down your brain before bed may prove helpful. Practicing slow deep breathing, no TV or screens of any kind, darkening the room, listening to calming music and slowing your breathing to match it, all may prove useful. It takes practice but it works for me most of the time.

thank you for that. i do practice those techniques but they seem to be of little use in this situation. i know this is a case of mind over matter. but the family jokes goes "you have no mind, so it don't matter"!

[Jlfinkels]

thank you for that. i do practice those techniques but they seem to be of little use in this situation. i know this is a case of mind over matter. but the family jokes goes "you have no mind, so it don't matter"!

Sorry to hear that my friend, but with practice it may get easier. It took me months to really get the hang of it and still struggle at times. One thing to consider trying is ASMR as a way to calm the mind. It feels goofy at first and intellectually makes no sense, but for many does work.

Hang in there, you’ll figure it out. Just don’t beat yourself up, you have family to do that.

[zonker]

Hang in there, you’ll figure it out. Just don’t beat yourself up, you have family to do that.

literally, laugh out loud.

thanks for that.

[zonker]

Try setting trigger to high, or very high.

thank you!

setting trigger to very high did the trick and i was able to breathe much more normally.

actually got some sleep.

yay!

[palerider]

Try setting trigger to high, or very high.

thank you!

setting trigger to very high did the trick and i was able to breathe much more normally.

actually got some sleep.

yay!

In essence, setting the trigger higher encourages the machine to help you more, with less effort on your part.

[Miss Emerita]

actually got some sleep.

I wish I knew how to post one of your gifs, Zonker -- maybe the one with the wild applause!

[zonker]

In essence, setting the trigger higher encourages the machine to help you more, with less effort on your part.

well, i certainly need MORE machines in my life doing that!

cool. this means i've learned my first "thing" about my vauto.

[zonker]

actually got some sleep.

I wish I knew how to post one of your gifs, Zonker -- maybe the one with the wild applause!

well, hell, let me get that for you.



to which i reply-

[Miss Emerita]

Oh, hey, you’re doing all the voices!

[zonker]

Oh, hey, you’re doing all the voices!

my mother always said "if you want a good and faithful servant, serve yourself."!


another pretty decent night on the machine with one oa and one hyp.

won't keep updating unless something significant happens.

[zonker]

On a more serious note. When I moved from the Air 10 AS for Her to the VAuto, Pugsy advised me on the settings based on my AutoSet settings. She also shared her experience on increasing Pressure Support (PS) to 4.

Based on her experience, I set PS to 4 and love it. Feels so much more comfortable than the EPR of 3 I was using on the AutoSet. Once you're settled in with your VAuto, consider decreasing Min EPAP and increasing Pressure Support (PS), see if it's a fit.

thought i'd revisit this because i remember you giving advice. will look into that after giving this a few more nights. while i still have "wakeups" during my sleep, they have been reduced by about half. and the sleep i'm getting APPEARS to be deeper.

so i'll stay with current settings for a bit(maybe even a week?) and then do some experimentation.

thanks, my friend.

[zonker]

been at this for what, ten days? and nothing exciting to report. except for that one night of an ahi of 4.29 (thanks, obstructives!) the going seems to be smoothing out. looks like i'm trending towards an ahi of 11. that's hypopnea. oh! and one other night where i hit 1.26 and again that was obstructives.

don't believe i'll be fiddling with the settings. instead, i'm going to be concentrating on comfort. last year was an experimentation in sleeping prone. overall, it didn't lead to great sleep. the problem seems to lay (lie?) with my left shoulder. a night prone doesn't exactly cause it to hurt. more like discomfort. i'm thinking that this was what caused my wakeups in the early hours.

i'm now going back to something i tried and rejected my first year of being on the cpap. at that time, i bought a mattress "wedge" to get my head up higher. i think that i'd read on the forum that this helped some apnea sufferers. but it did nothing to lower my ahi and at that time, that was what i was mainly concerned about.

i'm willing to try the head elevation thing. but instead of buy another wedge(that first one is long gone.), i trying some old wine cartons to prop up my mattress. it's four inches higher. last night i slept on my side with occasional forays onto my back. i slept from 11 to 6, with no awakenings! then stayed in bed and "napped" until 8.

and oscar shows that one hypopnea.

so will keep going with this to see how it goes. i've started a sleep journal to keep track of what's going on with the "new" machine. now i'll see what will happen with the raised mattress.

excelsior!

[ChicagoGranny]

i slept from 11 to 6, with no awakenings! then stayed in bed and "napped" until 8.

I would be Superwoman every day if I could sleep like that.

Why not use 4-inch blocks under the head of your bed?