Perfect night without CPAP !!!

I've been on CPAP for just over 3 months and have been getting around zero leaks and AIs for just over a month.

Last night was my most unusual night

I woke in the morning with my PapCap chin strap on and my Swift LT mask on but the nasal pillows were completely out and the machine was turned off The usage showed 1 hour 34 mins all other stats were zero.
I cannot recall turning the machine either on or off which frustrates me, i had 3 glasses of red wine watching a movie last night and went to bed very tired.

Normally I'm a culprit of letting the data tell me how I'm going to feel for the rest of the day i.e if i see bad data i assume that i must feel tired. However i woke at 5.30 feeling very refreshed and even rode my bike 12 miles into work, this was the earliest I've got on my bike since starting CPAP

The key point for me is that i wore my oximeter the whole night and showed an average SpO of 94.6%

If i dint get proper therapy, how can i feel so good and get the higher SpO ????

Could it be all i need to do is wear a chinstrap ?

UB,

Have you considered Positional Sleep Apnea?

What are the lows and highs of your SpO2 data? Averages can be tricky.

I'd be curious to see the whole oximetry report for the night. Was there any change at all after 1 hr 34 minutes?

here is some more from the oximeter report for last night

Time in events (min) 0.5
Average event duration (secs) 29.0
Percentage in artifacts 10.5
Min SpO = 89

looking at the Spo line it drops below 90 once for a brief period of time.
I don't see any pattern to associate with the 90 mins of machine usage.

i'm going to look into positional sleep apnea.

sepool wrote:I'd be curious to see the whole oximetry report for the night. Was there any change at all after 1 hr 34 minutes?

I'll try and post it tonight when i get home from work.

I know my apnea is positional. The pressure on my auto noticeably rises when I sleep on my back.

I never slept on my back before I used the CPAP machine - I guess I strangled myself when I tried.

On my pulse curve, I can see where I turned over, etc - the pulse would rise, fluctuate when I was dreaming, etc. Interesting stuff.

Hi Uncle_Bob -

In regard to feeling good after a night without CPAP, I hope you don't mind me sharing that I have observed a lot of lag time in how sleep deprivation works. Maybe having a good day was related to all the previous nights of good statistics, not that particular night? Even though we all talk about taking our therapy one day at a time, you really have to look at patterns of use, outcomes, etc. Otherwise, you'll go crazy with theories that fit one day and not the next.

Sleep position (as Rooster notes) comes to mind. Many people have less trouble when sleeping prone (I know I do, but then again, I have UARS). Do you by any chance sleep with your head thrown back, which is known to increase the size of the airway and reduce collapsibility? There's also the possibility that if nasal problems/allergies are contributing heavily, a crisp cool night without so darn many allergens could also reduce the number of apneas, hyps or flow limitations.

I am sure everyone will tell you that if you have any substantial amount of obstructive events, you have to use your therapy consistently. OSA doesn't fix itself. Still, your story makes me curious.

'twas brillig

Uncle_Bob wrote: ..
i'm going to look into positional sleep apnea.

viewtopic/t40307/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=40 ... 94#p352594

twasbrillig wrote:Hi Uncle_Bob -

In regard to feeling good after a night without CPAP, I hope you don't mind me sharing that I have observed a lot of lag time in how sleep deprivation works. Maybe having a good day was related to all the previous nights of good statistics, not that particular night? Even though we all talk about taking our therapy one day at a time, you really have to look at patterns of use, outcomes, etc. Otherwise, you'll go crazy with theories that fit one day and not the next.

Sleep position (as Rooster notes) comes to mind. Many people have less trouble when sleeping prone (I know I do, but then again, I have UARS). Do you by any chance sleep with your head thrown back, which is known to increase the size of the airway and reduce collapsibility? There's also the possibility that if nasal problems/allergies are contributing heavily, a crisp cool night without so darn many allergens could also reduce the number of apneas, hyps or flow limitations.

I am sure everyone will tell you that if you have any substantial amount of obstructive events, you have to use your therapy consistently. OSA doesn't fix itself. Still, your story makes me curious.

'twas brillig

Good point about the lag time. I sleep on a memory foam mattress which encourages back sleeping as the foam creates a kind of crater to sleep in. I have one of those neck pillows which is concave shaped.

So ......... The way i see it I have 2 choices

1) Continue to CPAP and accept there may be some non complaint type nights
2) Stop CPAP and start looking into positional apnea. Try sleeping on my side with the tennis ball taped to my back trick.

Or does it make sense to do both ?

Oh and i forgot to mention in my original post that i had my mouth taped last night also.

My brother lost 40 pounds and seems to have moved beyond his sleep apnea (though I remain skeptical).

I've lost 40 pounds and there's no way it's resolved. And I wish I had positional sleep apnea!

The oxymeter doesn't lie--it sounds to me like you might be onto something here Bob....

As for the papCAP playing a role in curing apnea, if that's true and I could prove it, then I could retire.... I'm happy that it seems to work well as a chinstrap.

SG

Uncle_Bob wrote:.........

1) Continue to CPAP and accept there may be some non complaint type nights
2) Stop CPAP and start looking into positional apnea. Try sleeping on my side with the tennis ball taped to my back trick.

Or does it make sense to do both ?

Oh and i forgot to mention in my original post that i had my mouth taped last night also.

Assuming you had a PSG, why don't you call the sleep lab and ask for a review of your AHI and oxy levels in the different positions you slept in?

Uncle_Bob wrote:.........

1) Continue to CPAP and accept there may be some non complaint type nights
2) Stop CPAP and start looking into positional apnea. Try sleeping on my side with the tennis ball taped to my back trick.

Or does it make sense to do both ?

Oh and i forgot to mention in my original post that i had my mouth taped last night also.

Assuming you had a PSG, why don't you call the sleep lab and ask for a review of your AHI and oxy levels in the different positions you slept in?