Is it bad to have my CPAP air pressure high?

I haven't went to my doctor for roughly 7-8 months, I had my CPAP for about a year. At first, the air pressure was fine and I was getting good rest, but after awhile, I got tired during the day again so I adjusted my CPAP altitude to make it so the air pressure is stronger, it helps a little, but makes me have dry mouth and stuff. Is it bad to have it higher than my requirement? Will it cause anything like make my lungs explode, etc... Should I leave my CPAP at my required air pressure or higher? Someone answer ASAP please.

Also, if the air pressure is too low, I'm afraid that it wouldn't be strong enough to open my airway while I sleep.

Maxman190 wrote:I haven't went to my doctor for roughly 7-8 months, I had my CPAP for about a year. At first, the air pressure was fine and I was getting good rest, but after awhile, I got tired during the day again so I adjusted my CPAP altitude to make it so the air pressure is stronger, it helps a little, but makes me have dry mouth and stuff. Is it bad to have it higher than my requirement? Will it cause anything like make my lungs explode, etc... Should I leave my CPAP at my required air pressure or higher? Someone answer ASAP please.

Also, if the air pressure is too low, I'm afraid that it wouldn't be strong enough to open my airway while I sleep.

If you have a dry mouth you are losing therapy through your mouth being open if you have a nasal only mask. You need to get a full face mask then.

If you have a data capable machine you would be able to see your leaks and your AHI and adjust as required

No your lungs won't explode even at 20 but you might create central apneas. However if you feel better at the higher pressure it is fine

My mouth doesn't feel dry when the altitude setting is at 1 or 2, but my mouth feels dry when its at 3. How can I tell if my setting is too high or too low? Because I have gained a couple more pounds. Is it better to have the setting low or high? Is it bad to put the humidifier setting high, because I use it whenever I have stuffy nose.

I have read about the CPAP being too high can cause CSA or death, so now I am afraid, I put the setting back to 1, from when I got the machine a year ago. I am going to schedule an appointment with my doctor for next week, is it okay if my CPAP doesn't work that well for 1 week, or does every single night have to be perfect sleep?

What type of machine do you have? Your pressure should be high enough to keep your AHI below 5, Dry mouth is an indication that your mouth is open. What I have learned from this forum is to go slow when adjusting your pressure to give yourself time to adjust to the new pressure.

I have ResMed Tango. Also, if I snore when I use my CPAP, does it mean that my setting is too low?

Dry mouth is almost always a sign of mouth breathing and if you are using a nose only feed (pillows, nose mask) chances are that the air coming in through your nose is leaving through your mouth. The second sign of this being the case is the fact that you are tired again. You obviously are not checking data from a data providing CPAP machine or this would be immediately apparent through leak rate, apnea events, etc.

First thing I would do is address the mouth issue by getting a full face mask; the Mirage Quattro works very well for me and there is a special way it needs to be put on in order to get and maintain a very good seal through the night despite rolling around and smooshing your face into your pillow. You can also try various other means of getting that mouth closed including tapings and PAPCAP Plus headgear. Get your leak rate to a low number for starts.

THEN address the pressure being presented. You want just enough pressure so that you have as low a number of apnea and hypopnea events as possible and if using an APAP machine you want to set the upper end of the range, say, 4 or 5 cmH2O above that to address any needs for an increase in pressure to address the same problems. In other words, you want to work to the best pressure or pressure range that you can get. Read the threads to learn.

Then you want to ensure that even with an open airway you are getting sufficient air and thence oxygen into your bloodstream to ensure that you are maintaining REM sleep and good bodily function. A pulse oximeter (recording) is a good investment and many of us use the Contec CMS-50E which is available directly from Contec or from any number of distributors and should cost in the $130 range, USF. You will want to record your SpO2 all night (use a little blue masking tape to ensure the thing does not fall off your finger) and then read the data with the software provided... it should remain above 90% at worst and hover in the 95% range at best.... anything dipping below 90% is probably an indicator of REM sleep and resultant shallow breathing and hypopnea event which will cut your REM sleep off and awaken you out of it. Perhaps not fully awake but enough so that you are not getting REM sleep. If your leak rates are low and your events are minimal or none.... you may require (as I do) supplemental oxygen to be infused into your CPAP airline to bring your SpO2 up into the proper range. An oxygen concentrator and all of the bells and whistles that you are going to want to ensure good therapy are about $750. An oxygen quality meter is about $600-700 new but I would look for a used one. If it reads 20.8% for room air then you can likely trust it to be fairly accurate in telling you what your oxygen content is coming out of the concentrator (should be 90%+) and what your mask oxygen content is (I started at 24.8% and am dropping it gradually to get myself into the 95% range of SpO2). My gosh that small increase from 20.8% oxygen to 24.8% oxygen content pushed my SpO2 all the way up to 99% constant during the night).

Your CPAP will only go up to about 20 cm H2O so I wouldn't worry about blowing up your lungs but then again I would not keep upping the pressure without knowing why you are doing so. Read and learn! You are amongst friends and many of us have the T shirt.....

I am new to cpap and I have never heard of lungs blowing up and that scares the crap out of me. My pressures are 17/30 and I use the vpap st machine with an oxygen concentrator. Can high pressures really cause lungs to blow up or even cause death??

Maxman190 wrote:My mouth doesn't feel dry when the altitude setting is at 1 or 2, but my mouth feels dry when its at 3. How can I tell if my setting is too high or too low? Because I have gained a couple more pounds. Is it better to have the setting low or high? Is it bad to put the humidifier setting high, because I use it whenever I have stuffy nose.

I have read about the CPAP being too high can cause CSA or death, so now I am afraid, I put the setting back to 1, from when I got the machine a year ago. I am going to schedule an appointment with my doctor for next week, is it okay if my CPAP doesn't work that well for 1 week, or does every single night have to be perfect sleep?

I think you need to start researching your machine because a setting of 1 - 3 is not how pressure on most machine are controlled. Pressure is usually referred to as 4 cm H2O to 20 cm H2O . The altitude setting is something different.
It sounds like you were sold an antique, a Resmed tango is like the bottom of the line brick that won't let you find out if you have any issues.

You are more likely to die crossing the street them adjusting your pressure.

BlackSpinner wrote:

Maxman190 wrote:My mouth doesn't feel dry when the altitude setting is at 1 or 2, but my mouth feels dry when its at 3. How can I tell if my setting is too high or too low? Because I have gained a couple more pounds. Is it better to have the setting low or high? Is it bad to put the humidifier setting high, because I use it whenever I have stuffy nose.

I have read about the CPAP being too high can cause CSA or death, so now I am afraid, I put the setting back to 1, from when I got the machine a year ago. I am going to schedule an appointment with my doctor for next week, is it okay if my CPAP doesn't work that well for 1 week, or does every single night have to be perfect sleep?

I think you need to start researching your machine because a setting of 1 - 3 is not how pressure on most machine are controlled. Pressure is usually referred to as 4 cm H2O to 20 cm H2O . The altitude setting is something different.
It sounds like you were sold an antique, a Resmed tango is like the bottom of the line brick that won't let you find out if you have any issues.

You are more likely to die crossing the street them adjusting your pressure.

So, what should I do? I got the machine from my doctor, I check the prices of machines online and its very expensive.

Also, how can I tell if my setting is on too high? Does it cause me pain or something? If my setting is too low, I snore right?

If you lose therapy air out of your mouth, you feel worse and the knee-jerk reaction is to raise your pressure, but that only makes it worse because more pressure causes your mouth to open more (while sleeping... you can't control it). You NEED to investigate a full face mask that allows your mouth to be open when sleeping but still keeps the Cpap air in your body. That way you won't have to have your pressure so high and you'll feel a lot better because you're not losing the air. It's not rocket science, just common sense.

So, how can I tell if my setting is too high? I don't want to develop Central Sleep Apnea.

Maxman190 wrote:So, how can I tell if my setting is too high? I don't want to develop Central Sleep Apnea.

Because you will feel like shit because you have more events.

Your focus should be on stopping the leaks from your mouth first. Then you increase the pressure a sliver at the time (NOT the altitude) for one week and see how you feel physically, how tired you are how confused you feel.

TmjTerri wrote:I am new to cpap and I have never heard of lungs blowing up and that scares the crap out of me.

It's an unfounded fear... there is simply no way that your lungs can blow up from using xPAP.

To put it simply...... with any Sleep Disordered Breathing condition that responds to xPAP treatment, the health risks arising from NOT USING xPAP treatment are much, much higher than any risks that could possibly arise from using it

Cheers,

Bill

Y'know, I'm not sure if I should be taking this thread seriously or if this is simply trolling for fish.

If your doctor gave you the CPAP machine, he must have (a) set the altitude calibration to the correct number and that should not be changed; (b) he must have done a sleep study of some sort and come up with a pressure or pressure range that is effective for you; and (c) he will slap your wrists if you are messing with a machine and have no clue as to what you are doing. And so will we.

If you have been given a machine it should have been set to an effective pressure or pressure range and you should not NOT be snoring any longer as this is a sign of OSA obstructions. Likely the pressure needs to be raised but it sounds to me like you should not be playing with this and should be going back to your doctor and telling him that you snore at this point.

I highly recommend to your reading, in the first part, my earlier posting on this thread, and in the second part, all of the postings of the other members who remain on here to repay the kindness of those that already 'have the T shirt' and have found their solution. Read the threads and learn. Before you start playing with things that you know little about. It will not improve your health.

I am sorry to be so very blunt, but you need to learn before playing with pressures and so on. And your doctor should be involved at this point I believe as you have not taken the time to educate yourself in the least. You are not reading the threads on here nor are you hearing what the members of this forum are trying to tell you.

You will not blow up your lungs but I have a feeling that you are going to get a huge case of flatulence if you keep this up.

One further thing just to make things really clear for you (and I expect a 'poor me' comeback in any event). I take offense to nebies wasting everyone's time versus coming on here to learn and help themselves.

CPAP stands for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure. Get it? CPAP means that your AIRWAY remains OPEN all the time on inhaling so that air gets into your lungs. It is NOT intending to blow up your lungs like party balloons - only to maintain an open airway so that you can inhale the air you need.

Once your pressure has been adjusted to do just that (and that is something that your doctor should have done from day one) then your job begins. Get your input device squared away so that there is nominal leakage. Sounds to me like you are a candidate for a full face mask like the Mirage Quattro. It is NOT simple and may take some experimenting, but you need to have a base pressure setting to begin with.

Then you play with your pressure or pressure range for optimum results using minimum pressure. Why? Because CPAP means Continuous Positive Airway Pressure.... it is meant only to keep your airway open. If you need a ventilator or respirator then that is what your doctor would have prescribed for you.

Then you need to ensure that you are indeed getting sufficient air and oxygen into your body. For that you will need a pulse oximeter like the Contec CMS-50E recording oximeter and it comes with the software that will show you the SpO2 or the amount of oxygen in your blood... should be around 95% through the night, looks like this:



I have just started playing with infusion of oxygen into my CPAP line as my lungs are compromised... you probably don't have this issue but in any event, you want your oximetry data to look pretty much like this... at around 95% all night long. I am cutting back my oxygen tonight to see what happens and reducing my pressure as my ResScan data shows that I rarely go above 12 cm H2O which is where my bottom end pressure range is set. I am going to try 11 - 16 cm H2O.

Now stop yanking our chains here and start reading the threads and CPAP Wiki and learn about your affliction. We do welcome you if you are going to work towards a goal with the rest of us. If you are going to pull our chains all night we don't have the time for that. You need to be an advocate for yourself and you need to be tenacious like a pit bull about it. You have to be prepared to roll up your sleeves, no matter how poorly you feel, and get to work on this. The sooner you do the sooner you are going to start feeling better.

Good luck.