Hello from a new user!

I did a sleep study in a lab many years ago at my wife's prompting, and was told I had positional sleep apnea, but didn't need a CPAP if I slept on my side. I had been fine since then by putting a really big binder clip on the back of my underwear when I go to bed. If I rolled over on my back while sleeping, it woke me enough to get back on my side. Very effective and cheap!

I had a very minor stroke in August of 2024 though, and that scared me enough to get serious about my T2D and my diet. I've been pretty much low-carb and sugar-free since then, and I lost 30 pounds without really trying. The best part though is that I can now sleep on my back without snoring or having apnea breathing stops as long as my pillow is relatively flat.

I mentioned to my doctor in December that I didn't think I had sleep apnea anymore, and he wanted another sleep study to confirm. This one took place at home with a ring that I wore while sleeping for two nights and that worked with an app I had to put on my phone. I couldn't get to sleep until about 3:30 AM the first night, then found out in the morning that the app had shut the study down at 3:47 AM. I slept much better the second night, but again the app shut the study down at 3:47 AM.

The sleep study reported to my doctor that I had "minor sleep apnea". I told my doctor that the sleep study and its results were both BS. Two weeks later an APAP machine showed up on my front porch.

Well, since I've got the machine, I might as well try it out. I've always heard that they can greatly improve your sleep quality. I'm very adaptable, and after fiddling with the mask fit for an hour or so, I slept like a baby the first night. I've had just one bad night with it since then that I solved by just taking it off, but other than that, we're getting along just fine going into my second week with it.

Thoughts and comments? I hope to be a regular contributor to your forum, and I'm happy that I found y'all.

Welcome! It sounds to me as though your sleep test did not have an adequate number of channels. More here:

https://www.acc.org/latest-in-cardiolog ... ep-testing

Did you get a copy of the sleep study report? If so, could you post a scan of it? You might want to blank out your personal information.

It'd be useful to see some data from you machine. Can you download Oscar (free software)? More here:

https://www.sleepfiles.com/OSCAR/

What are your minimum and maximum pressures on your machine?

If you want to press further, I'd suggest you ask your doctor for another in-lab sleep test; failing that, ask for a better home sleep test.

Thank you for your interest and questions. Here are a few answers that I can provide today. .

"It sounds to me as though your sleep test did not have an adequate number of of channels. "

I read the article at the link you posted. Very interesting! As best I could tell, the ring that was furnished for the sleep test that diagnosed me with "mild sleep apnea" could only monitor my pulse and blood oxygen. I seriously doubt that it could monitor my breathing.

"Did you get a copy of the sleep study report?"

I'll have to check my portal ot my doctor's office to see if they posted it there. I don't have access to it right now.

"It'd be useful to see some data from you machine."

I'll have to check into Oscar. The software that my machine is linked to on my phone is React Health Plus. Here are some results from last night, followed by my Monthly Average so far. Note that I've only had the machine for the last 10 nights, which I'm pretty sure is skewing some of the averages.
Usage Time - 8:47, 5:54
Average Leak - 1.2, 1.6
AHI - 3.1, 3.7
Pressure - 6.4, 6.8
P95 - 11.5, 11.9
CAI - 0.3, 0.6
The machine is on Auto Mode.
It has a heated reservoir, but not a heated hose.

"What are your minimum and maximum pressures on your machine?"

I don't know these figures yet, but will let you know if I can find them.

It'd be great if you could use Oscar. I'm reluctant to suggest changes to your settings without more data.

Your AHI isn't horrible, but with PAP treatment a good goal is below 2, and a very good goal is below 1. Then again, if you're sleeping soundly and feeling rested during the day, I'd say you're doing pretty well!

I downloaded Oscar on my laptop, but couldn't get it to read the data on the chip from my machine. I downloaded the data to my laptop, but Oscar couldn't read it from there either.

I am becoming disenchanted with the nasal mask that came with my headgear. It covers my entire nose. Some nights it works fine, but other nights it somehow blocks both inhaling and exhaling unless I pull it down to my upper lip. I also have to use a mouth-closing strap with it to keep me from breathing through my mouth, but that isn't working very well either.

I'm thinking about seeing if I can get a full face mask for this headgear that covers both my nose and mouth, but I'm not sure how that would work with my mustache and short beard. I can't be the only user with this problem.

Miss Emerita wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 20, 2026 12:59 pm

...........Your AHI isn't horrible, but with PAP treatment a good goal is below 2, and a very good goal is below 1........

I have finally gotten the lab report, and need to scan it in. It pretty much confirms my thinking that it was a bunch of BS. I'll point out a couple of major reasons for that opinion when I post it.

As to my AHI numbers, I think I can tell you what's going on there, and I think I've got proof. My allergies have really gotten worse as I've gotten older, and my doctor has me taking a daily 24 hr. allergy pill. In spite of this, my nose frequently gets stopped up and I can't breathe through my nose, hence my earlier post about my frustrations with my nasal mask.

I'm pretty sure that my APAP is interpreting my intermittant mouth breathing and holding my breath as I'm trying to adjust the mask or clear my nose as apneas, and this is reflected in the AHI scores it's been giving me. For the last four nights I've taken a single Benedryl before I go to bed, and my AHI scores for those nights were 0.7, 0.4, 0.5, and 0.7. The night before before starting that, my ability to breathe was so bad that I gave up and took the mask off after less than two hours. I mouth breathed the rest of the night, and got a decent night's sleep, but the machine gave me an AHI score of 16.7.

Thoughts?

I think you probably have figured out your problem but it's not so much the mouth breathing that is the problem.
The problem is the nasal congestion itself causing the breathing issues that end up causing you to have to mouth breathe.
So the fix is more to fix the cause of the congestion than trying to stop the mouth breathing without addressing the congestion part of the problem.

These machines can and will interpret nasal congestion as some sort of apnea or some sort of flow limitation and either flag some sort of event or respond (if using auto adjusting pressure mode) to the nasal congestion flow limitations it senses.
It will do it when either awake or asleep because that's all it can do.....the machine doesn't know the air flow reduction is from the nasal congestion. All it knows is the air flow was reduced to the point of earning some sort of flag. A lot of the time this gets flagged as a central apnea but not always. It can also be flagged as an OA or hyponea.

Pugsy wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 16, 2026 6:03 pm

...........So the fix is more to fix the cause of the congestion than trying to stop the mouth breathing without addressing the congestion part of the problem.............

Exactly, and that's what I have done, at least temporarily, by taking a Benedryl before going to bed. I really don't like that as a permanent solution though. I don't need to be adding another pill to my daily regimen. That's why I'm interested in maybe switching to a full face mask for my APAP. With that I could breathe whichever way is the easiest without causing the APAP to go into panic mode. LOL!

I can't help much with a full face mask idea because I really have never used one. Tried a handful over the years but never really found one that I liked or would use.

If I did want to try again I would look at the hybrid types that don't really cover the nose. I just can't stand anything touching anywhere on my nose except the nostrils.
Something like the ResMed Airfit F40
https://www.cpap.com/products/resmed-ai ... 0759882044
or ResMed AirFit X30i but it is awfully expensive but it is the latest
https://www.cpap.com/products/resmed-ai ... 5689979196

I have not even seen these 2 so haven't tried them.
Not real keen on the X30i due to cost and I can't afford that much right now.