New to CPAP

Hello! My name is Joe, and I'm new to CPAP. I've had some sleep apnea for most of my adult life as I've been on the bigger side but recently it has gotten almost unbearable. I wake up many times a night, sweating and out of breath. I was given a System One 60 Series by a friend (I know the were recalled but I opened it up and the foam is not deteriorated and at the time of hand off the machine had only 11 hours of use).

The first night I used it I left it on the default APAP settings and I did not get much rest. I've been dialing in the APAP settings a little every night and now it looks like I can get a few hours of decent sleep, usually from around 2 am to 7am, but no deep sleep. I've been waking up feeling light headed and it doesn't seem to be going away throughout the day.

I have an appointment with my PCP to discuss a sleep study but I do not have good insurance and its looking like that might wind up costing me some $1200 out of pocket, which I don't have .

Anyways, long story short, I've attached my last few nights of data and I'm hoping anyone here can help me interpret it, and maybe offer any suggestions. I made sure to put my equipment in my bio after reading the advice posts for new users.

Any help or advise is really appreciated!

I don't know why my imgur link is broken but I'll try and attach it again here. If anybody needs more specific screenshots, let me know and I'll upload them.

https://imgur.com/a/initial-cpap-usage-IelEZAN

Why did you cut off the data reported on the left side of the graphs? It's kinda important.
See examples here.
http://www.cpaptalk.com/viewtopic/t1585 ... eview.html
and that damn bar thing is in the way big time.

Exactly what are all your settings?
Do you take any medications of any kind? If so...what"
Any idea why you are waking so many times during the night?

Hi! Sorry, I thought I read on the guide to cut those and leave as much of the graphs as possible. As for the waking so much, part of it is the apnea and another part is that I have some overactive bladder. I'm on 500mg of metformin x2 a day. The first night I had the APAP pressures set from 4-12, since then I have been narrowing it down to 6-11. Is this not a good move?

I really appreciate those of you who have taken a look already. I've taken new screenshots, including the data from the left tables.

https://imgur.com/a/full-cpap-image-shtgCy3

Your minimum pressure is your most critical setting and I think you probably should increase it to 8 cm especially with the Flex setting being used to reduce the pressure a little upon exhale. The maximum pressure setting isn't all that important unless you start seeing where you spend a lot of time at the max and then if you do we need to increase the max a bit.

Thanks! I'll try that right away!

I suggest waiting until you've met with your PCP before continuing with DIY treatment. I tried very hard to avoid a sleep study but thankfully my Doctor and wife didn't tolerate my avoidance strategies for too long! The sleep study centers are staffed with professionals who are adept at making this a painless experience and are equipped to prescribe a treatment plan catered to your specific needs. Your PCP may be helpful in identifying resources that will assist you in receiving this potentially life saving service.

Don C. Pap wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 31, 2025 4:42 am

I suggest waiting until you've met with your PCP before continuing with DIY treatment.

i'm glad that you have had a good and solid experience with your doctor. believe me, the bulk of us have not and have gone on our own without the help of a doc. (save to write a prescription for the machine.) with the help of the good folk on this board, I have my therapy dialed in.

not being a scold; just saying.

Alright! So, I used the same settings as my best night. It looks slightly worse that my best night and while I am sleeping longer I'm not feeling very rested. I'm waking up a couple of times a night to pee, but that isn't anything new.

I included a zoomed in look of a few of my hypopnea events and was hoping someone could give me some insight into these events.

I spoke with my doctor yesterday and they gave me a referral to a cardiologist and a pulmonologist and she implied that one of them would give me my referall for a sleep study. Unfortunately, the wait to get into see either of these specialists is longer than I would like.

And, I want to say thank you so much! To everyone who has taken a look so far.

https://imgur.com/a/cpap-usage-12-31-25 ... 26-b2lDnfT

The bulk of those flagged events look like post arousal breathing or simply....you weren't asleep.

In other words looks like more of a sleep problem (for whatever reason) more than untreated sleep apnea problem.
Problems sleeping is listed as a rare side effect to Metformin.

According to my wife, my breathing will get shallower and shallower until it stops and then I take a deeeeep breath. That deep breath is when I wake. I notice when I wake from these events I start to sweat, my heart beats fast and I usually have some kind of thought in my head like I was just talking or dreaming.

So, my wife is on acetazolamide and I had read that it has a decent chance of eliciting a positive response in the with central sleep apnea, so I took one. I don't think it helped . Although, I had 0 obstructive events, according to the data. I have uploaded last nights screenshots along with a couple of instances of my hypopneas. Do these look like central apneas?

I would like to mention a weird detail that I don't know is relevant or not but these apnea events get worse in the winter. I can't sleep on my back at all during the rest of the year but I can get to sleep on my left side. During the winter, however, I get these shortening of breath followed by the start awake, the sweating, etc. It almost always goes back to my standard sleep after the winter is over.

Anyways, here's the screenshots. Even if nobody has any new insights, this process of writing things out journal style has been helpful and look forward all day to hearing from you all!

Have a great day, and Happy New Year!

https://imgur.com/a/cpap-usage-1-1-26-to-1-2-26-VGLvFLP

Another thing to note. It seems like I'm only getting around 5 hours of sleep a night before I'm unable to continue fighting through it and the arousal events just become too much. Is it possible that these events are tied to certain stages of sleep?

Rhinu wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 02, 2026 11:13 am

Do these look like central apneas?

No., not at all and no where even close or iffy...they look like you weren't sound asleep. Now why the sleep problem...million dollar question.