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Not sure why, but my trend the last three days has moved the wrong direction. I seem to be having a lot of large leaks, due to my mouth being open.

I am still at a minimum pressure of 6 and EPR of 2, would it be a good idea to bump up to pressure of 7 and EPR of 3 and give that a try?

Also, Oscar flagged a "cheyne stokes respiration" for 24 minutes, and upon googling that I felt a little freaked out. Is that a common issue?

Thanks again for your time and help!!

It's a shame that all periodic breathing is labeled "Cheyne-Stokes" breathing. CS is a small subset of periodic breathing, and it has a distinctive flow rate. If you zoom in on about 6 or 7 minutes in the CS-flagged segment, someplace where there are a lot of CA flags, we can take a look to confirm that you should have no worries.

Periodic breathing occurs when one CA sets off another. You breathe more deeply, washing out a bit of CO2 and delaying your next breath by a little. Then after the pause, you do some recovery breathing, which is deeper and again washes out a bit of CO2. Rinse and repeat. These periods of unstable breathing will correct themselves, and you will probably have fewer and fewer episodes as time goes by.

CAs are "consistently inconsistent," as some people put it. So my advice is to stick to your current settings for a few more days and see how things go.

About the large leaks: do you think you'd be willing to give tape a try? Although it's a bit pricey, you might buy a box of Somnifix strips. They're very gentle on the skin. If you get along well with tape, you can switch to something cheaper down the road.

Thank you for the information about periodic breathing, I won't worry about that for now!

I am not opposed to mouth tape, I did try it for a couple of nights last week. The only issue I had was my mouth would still fill with air, and I think I was swallowing it and had quite an upset stomach in the morning. But maybe now that I am a little more used to the CPAP, along with the chin strap, I can give the tape a try again and see if it helps.

Hoping to get a good night tonight! Thanks again

After a couple nights with the chin strap and mouth tape, which did help when used together. I got my Phillips Dreamware full face mask yesterday. I had the best AHI yet, and was able to stay asleep almost the entire night.

Hoping for another good night tonight!

Excellent news -- thanks for letting us know!

Miss Emerita wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 23, 2025 11:52 am

Excellent news -- thanks for letting us know!

The FFM was going well for a few days, but the past two nights were not great. I had a 3 night long work trip, so 3 nights in hotels. 2 of the nights were ok, the last night my AHI was 4.9.

It seems looking at my sleep data that there are more OA events the past 3-4 nights than I was having previously. I did increase my pressure as you recommended to a minimum of 7, and with an EPR of 3. I have been sleeping through the night better, not waking up at 2-3 AM for an hour has been great!

https://sleephq.com/account/teams/vWdQdZ/shareables

Well, travel is always unpredictable. I've had amazingly good nights in hotels and amazingly bad ones. I'm glad that on the whole you're doing well.

For some reason the link isn't working; it just takes me to a request that I sign in.

Miss Emerita wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 29, 2025 11:13 am

Well, travel is always unpredictable. I've had amazingly good nights in hotels and amazingly bad ones. I'm glad that on the whole you're doing well.

For some reason the link isn't working; it just takes me to a request that I sign in.

https://sleephq.com/public/teams/share_ ... c92d186064

I think that is the better link there.. unfortunately I travel weekly for work! hopefully I can get used to using the CPAP in the hotel and at home!

Yes, that link works; thanks.

I'm not convinced you're fully asleep during all those OAs; many of them are preceded by what looks like arousal breathing. Be that as it may, I have two thoughts about what you might try.

First, there's some clustering of OAs, which suggests you may be tucking your chin down toward your chest. This is a bit like putting a kink in a hose. Chin-tucking in turn may be a function of using hotel pillows. Do your best to use a relatively flat and firm pillow. You might also try tucking a second pillow under your chin to keep your head and neck well aligned. Some people benefit from using a soft cervical collar.

Second, you may need a slightly higher minimum pressure. If you feel like experimenting, see how you do with a min of 8.

Thank you for the advice. I changed my min pressure to 8 last night. I also tried using a flatter pillow and kept my second pillow tucked under my chin. I had a lower AHI of 4 last night so I think it helped.

It's hard for me to say if I'm waking through the night, I have had better luck not getting up to use the bathroom, but I have always been a pretty restless sleeper moving around a lot during the night.

At this point, is a goal of close to zero AHI realistic? Or what do most people shoot for? I still feel the same during the day, not much improvement to grogginess throughout the day.

Thanks again for all your help!

coleman3 wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 02, 2025 6:39 am

At this point, is a goal of close to zero AHI realistic? Or what do most people shoot for? I still feel the same during the day, not much improvement to grogginess throughout the day.

Thanks again for all your help!

in a word, no. chasing zero can be a mugs game. and I say this as someone who chased that pesky zero for at least six years of my therapy. then I realized that just wasn't going to happen for me for many reasons that I won't go into here.

the forum has an unofficial goal of 2 or under. and even that isn't the be all and end all of CPAP therapy. you want to get your ahi down to the point where you are waking up refreshed and rejuvenated.

now i'm happy to say that i'm under 2 and am very satisfied with that. a couple of years ago, I decided to concentrate on my comfort.

that has worked best for me.

good luck!

oh! and let the therapy ride for a bit. it can take some folks time for their body to react to the therapy.

Thanks for the reply. I guess at this point I'm not shooting for zero, but under 2 would be nice. I uploaded my sleep data for the past 5 nights today, I had AHI around 5 most nights. I tried using a flatter pillow and tucking a second under my chin, it doesn't seem like I wake up with my chin tucked at all.

I have had better luck with large leaks since I started using my FFM, but I am feeling discouraged because my numbers aren't getting any better. It actually feels like I am more fatigued throughout the day than I was before I started therapy, with a few days as the exception.

Your OAs still look as though a number of them come after arousal breathing. I'm not sure quite what to make of this, especially in relation to advice about your settings. Does anyone else have thoughts about this?

More generally, last night your first couple of hours look pretty peaceful, but then you seem to have had arousal after arousal for pretty much the rest of the night. This is certainly not restful for you.

Can you correlate your good and bad nights with anything else? Stress, travel, room temperature, bedding, sleep positions, or ...?

If you''re willing to experiment, you might try raising your min pressure to 9 or 10 to see whether that helps at all.

Miss Emerita wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 07, 2025 12:01 pm

Your OAs still look as though a number of them come after arousal breathing. I'm not sure quite what to make of this, especially in relation to advice about your settings. Does anyone else have thoughts about this?

More generally, last night your first couple of hours look pretty peaceful, but then you seem to have had arousal after arousal for pretty much the rest of the night. This is certainly not restful for you.

Can you correlate your good and bad nights with anything else? Stress, travel, room temperature, bedding, sleep positions, or ...?

If you''re willing to experiment, you might try raising your min pressure to 9 or 10 to see whether that helps at all.

The last three nights are spent in hotels, so different environment each night. I try to keep the rooms cool for sleeping, and use the thinnest pillow available. The three nights before were at home. I suppose the stress level would be slightly elevated knowing I have an alarm set at 4 AM or 3 AM to make it to work.

Thursday night I had a better AHI, 2.14, I had a couple drinks that evening and was surprised to see that when I woke up. All the other nights are as close as I can get to the same, and had a similar experience. Oddly last night and the night before it seemed to me that I slept through the night until early morning, but looking at the data it doesn't seem to match up.

I've been trying to stay sleeping on my side, not on my back, and keep my chin up. I don't have any recollection of waking up with my chin tucked, but I could be doing that throughout the night and not know.

Something I thought I would add... Since I started therapy I have had significantly more congestion issues than I typically have. I have been using Flonase every night, and taking Claritin every morning as I thought it was allergy related. I have been having some chest congestion, and it almost feels like my right nostril is closed up once I put my CPAP on every night. Not sure what all this means but I thought I would give all info I have available.

Thank you all again for the help! Hoping to get this solved