What is your CPAP pressure?

Not offended. Just thoughts on the poll.

Just statistics; they are kind of fun.
--not necessarily useful unless they disprove commonly held misconceptions which impact treatment.
Is anybody ready to poll mouth-breathing?

How come some of us need higher pressure like 16? what is it like with lower pressure?

Mary T wrote:How come some of us need higher pressure like 16? what is it like with lower pressure?

I think this is like asking me to explain to my 6 foot tall, 25 year-old nephew how it feels to be a 5' 1" tall, 52 year-old woman.

What can I say? My 8/6 pressure feels "normal" to me---or as "normal" as having excess air shoved down my throat all night can possibly feel. And it's enough pressure to keep my upper airway from collapsing most of time since my AHIs are consistently between 0.5 and 2.0. (Sound familiar?)

It tickles the back of my throat. (I bet your pressure does that too?)

In spite of the heated humidifier, it sometimes dries out my sinuses, the insides of my nose, my mouth, my throat, and even occasionally my eyes from inside my head. (You can say that too, can't you?)

It sometimes makes my ears feel like they need to pop really, really badly. (Happen to you too?)

The exhaust flow bounces off my covers or my pillow and hits me in the eyes and wakes me up and I have to fiddle with the cover, the pillow, or the dang FX to redirect the exhaust flow. (And since you use an FX, I know you know what I mean.)

And that same exhaust flow combined with the tiniest bit of rainout has badly chapped my lips yet again. (Not new to you?)

But at least the switch to 8/6 seems to have relieved the aereophagia, particularly since I can turn Bi-Flex off and use Rise Time = 3 with the BiPAP. This is much more comfortable than the S9 AutoSet was at 7--8cm with EPR turned onto 2 (or 1 or 3). With EPR turned on, I could feel the S9 increase the pressure back up before I was done exhaling and it would always make me feel like a stuffed goose. But I really couldn't take 7--8cm with EPR turned off---it was just too hard to breath out against the pressure; experimenting is what led me to use EPR = 2---that was where I was least uncomfortable. (Ok, you probably have a whole lot more problems breathing out against 16cm that I did at 8cm regardless of your C-Flex setting. But I'd wake up every morning feeling like I'd been running a marathon even with EPR set to 2. And you may have more problems with air in your tummy at your pressure than I did at 7--8cm; but I'm tiny---I only weigh 106 lbs and this was a real toleration issue. I would wake up crying in pain several times a week and it was exhausting to both me and my husband. The aereophagia, the air-in-the-eyes-from-inside-my-head, and my continuing to feel exhausted and sleepy in the daytime are all reasons why I was switched to BiPAP by my sleep doctor.)

I read once, somewhere, that someone (ResMed, I think) wrote that statistically a CPAP pressure of 10 was sufficient to keep most ( not all... most ) people's airway open.

Looks like the poll is going that way. For people using CPAP anyway.

I think this is like asking me to explain to my 6 foot tall, 25 year-old nephew how it feels to be a 5' 1" tall, 52 year-old woman.

What can I say? My 8/6 pressure feels "normal" to me---or as "normal" as having excess air shoved down my throat all night can possibly feel. And it's enough pressure to keep my upper airway from collapsing most of time since my AHIs are consistently between 0.5 and 2.0. (Sound familiar?)
No.

It tickles the back of my throat. (I bet your pressure does that too?)
No it doesn't.

In spite of the heated humidifier, it sometimes dries out my sinuses, the insides of my nose, my mouth, my throat, and even occasionally my eyes from inside my head. (You can say that too, can't you?)
No, S9 Auto+H5i with climateline. Never dried anything out.

It sometimes makes my ears feel like they need to pop really, really badly. (Happen to you too?)
No. I wear earplugs and put them in before CPAP. It seems to reduce this effect.

The exhaust flow bounces off my covers or my pillow and hits me in the eyes and wakes me up and I have to fiddle with the cover, the pillow, or the dang FX to redirect the exhaust flow. (And since you use an FX, I know you know what I mean.)
No. FFM. Still has air coming out, but never has woken me.

And that same exhaust flow combined with the tiniest bit of rainout has badly chapped my lips yet again. (Not new to you?)
Again, climateline, not sure what you're referring to.

But at least the switch to 8/6 seems to have relieved the aereophagia, particularly since I can turn Bi-Flex off and use Rise Time = 3 with the BiPAP. This is much more comfortable than the S9 AutoSet was at 7--8cm with EPR turned onto 2 (or 1 or 3). With EPR turned on, I could feel the S9 increase the pressure back up before I was done exhaling and it would always make me feel like a stuffed goose. But I really couldn't take 7--8cm with EPR turned off---it was just too hard to breath out against the pressure; experimenting is what led me to use EPR = 2---that was where I was least uncomfortable. (Ok, you probably have a whole lot more problems breathing out against 16cm that I did at 8cm regardless of your C-Flex setting. But I'd wake up every morning feeling like I'd been running a marathon even with EPR set to 2. And you may have more problems with air in your tummy at your pressure than I did at 7--8cm; but I'm tiny---I only weigh 106 lbs and this was a real toleration issue. I would wake up crying in pain several times a week and it was exhausting to both me and my husband. The aereophagia, the air-in-the-eyes-from-inside-my-head, and my continuing to feel exhausted and sleepy in the daytime are all reasons why I was switched to BiPAP by my sleep doctor)

Why not buy an S9 elite APAP from CPAP.com and let it's patented pressure detection system decide your pressure.

Hi - yeah I was wondering since I have a high number what would it feel like to have a low number, and why did i get stuck with a high pressure? Guess those seem like rhetorical questions that I wonder about.

thanks to cpap therapy, I really miss the days when I could just lay my head down on a nice soft warm pillow and go to sleep. Now i have to find a way to cover my arm so thta the air from the machine doesn't constantly make me cold... thats why I'm feeling colder at night - instant air conditioning! haha nice in the summer, but bad in the winter when I started this fall. And then I have to adjust the blankets so that the air doesn't keep hitting the blanket if its too close to my chin and not laying totally flat against my chest, because I hear that air flow sound all night and drives me nuts! so if i fix the blanket really flat, i get total quiet!

then when I wake up, my tight chin strap and mask gets off, and I lay there for a bout a half hour because I've had all the sleep I need, and so I kinda lay there waiting to get up and I have to rub my head for all the constriction that is there from my mask and chin strap squeezing my head all night. Again, gone are the days when I could just lay down and go to sleep.

Lately, I've been waking up and forgetting to empty the water and so I have to slap myself now and then becuase I forgot!

yours truly,
me

Seems like an innocent enough question. 7 for me.

Mary T wrote: thanks to cpap therapy, I really miss the days when I could just lay my head down on a nice soft warm pillow and go to sleep.

Agreed. I miss naps on the beach.

Naps
Not on the beach,
Not in the car,
Not in the office,
Not on the train,
Not under the shade tree,
Not on the plane,
Not in church,
Not in the lounge,
Not by the pool,
Not in the grass,
Not under the desk,
Not on the desk,
Not on the beanbag,
Not on the john,
Not on a bench,
Not in Borders,
Not in your lover's arms,
Not in the hotel lobby,
Not on the subway,
Not in class,
Not on a steam grate,
Not on a calf,
Not in the park,
Not on the roof,
Not in the boiler room,
Not under the bridge,
Not at a friend's,
Not at a party,
Not on the beach,
Not on the beach,
Not on the beach.

-Rooster

Mary--

Obstructive Apnea occurs when your muscles relax during sleep and your airway "collapses" to the point no air gets thru. CPAP keeps the airway open by increasing the pressure during inhale. Keep in mind that your lungs expand, pulling a slight vacuum which draws air in. That vacuum at the onset allows the airway to close unless CPAP keeps the flow positive.

The necessary additional pressure depends on how your airway is built and how much "sag" there is. The pressure is not an indication of how severe your OSA is--or anything else--it's just the optimal pressure to keep the windpipe open.

Sometimes a change in weight will change the pressure needed, but not always. You can't predict how much or how little it will take.

To someone used to higher pressures, trying a lower one will feel like you can't get enough air thru your mask. And, of course, the number of apneas will rise, disturbing your sleep more.

Well, I can't speak for my range because my exhalation pressure is 6 and my inhalation pressure ranges from 10-14. So none of the choices work.

linagee wrote:

robysue wrote:[What can I say? My 8/6 pressure feels "normal" to me---or as "normal" as having excess air shoved down my throat all night can possibly feel. And it's enough pressure to keep my upper airway from collapsing most of time since my AHIs are consistently between 0.5 and 2.0. (Sound familiar?)

No.

Well, I'm happy you don't feel like the CPAP is force feeding you air every night. But that is, in a nutshell how I have to describe this long, not so pleasant adventure I've been on these last 13 weeks. I feel that air being shoved down when I'm lying there awake while I'm trying to get to sleep and I dream about it at night. I do everything I can to NOT think about it. But it is VERY difficult.

It tickles the back of my throat. (I bet your pressure does that too?)

No it doesn't.

Am I the ONLY one here who gets a nasty tickle in the back of my throat? It wakes me up at times it's so bad. Maybe my ENT is right: Maybe I just have a very, very sensitive back of the throat. He made this comment when he was doing a nasolaryngoscopy as part of my initial visit for a consult on some dizziness symptoms and sinus symptoms.

In spite of the heated humidifier, it sometimes dries out my sinuses, the insides of my nose, my mouth, my throat, and even occasionally my eyes from inside my head. (You can say that too, can't you?)

No, S9 Auto+H5i with climateline. Never dried anything out.

Some of us are not so lucky as to be able to afford the climateline. At this point, I also have had to switch machines. The PR System One climate control system is better than the S9 without the climateline hose, but it's not flawless, and I have not yet sorted out which setting the inside of my nose wants. Too much humidity and I get congestion and can't breathe. Too little, and I get dried out. Again, I'm glad that you're not having my problem. But I know from reading others' posts that I'm not alone in my problems of fine tuning humidity settings.

It sometimes makes my ears feel like they need to pop really, really badly. (Happen to you too?)

No. I wear earplugs and put them in before CPAP. It seems to reduce this effect.

Earplugs make MY ears feel WORSE. As well as increasing my already almost overwhelming sense of intense isolation from my dear beloved husband whom I can no longer talk to while lying in bed with this infernal mask on because if I try it blows an intense blast of air down my already irritated gullet.

The exhaust flow bounces off my covers or my pillow and hits me in the eyes and wakes me up and I have to fiddle with the cover, the pillow, or the dang FX to redirect the exhaust flow. (And since you use an FX, I know you know what I mean.)

No. FFM. Still has air coming out, but never has woken me.

Both I and the poster who originally asked how it feels to be at low pressure use an FX. I'm glad that your FFM works for you. Personally, I could not tolerate a FFM: During my first titration study every time the tech tried to put a nasal mask on my nose, I started to sneeze uncontrollably. I'm sure the same thing would happen with a FFM. And I'm sure that the air blowing at my nose and lips in a FFM would chap them badly---after all that's what's happening with the reflected air right now. And even before CPAP, whenever I slept in the direct path of a fan in the summer, I'd wake up with a badly chapped face. If I sleep under an airconditioning vent in a hotel or at a relatives' house, same thing: Restless night and a badly chapped face in the morning. At least with the nasal pillows, once they are sealed and once I'm lucky enough to get the covers and my bed pillow arranged just so and the exhaust vent arranged just so, the only moving air is inside my nostrils where it doesn't bother me and in the back of my throat where it tickles, but I can't do anything about it.

I'm sorry if I'm coming across as snarly. But last night was a nasty night of dealing with a head cold and its congestion along with not being able to figure out which way to turn the setting on the humidifier to make the nose more comfortable. And the nasal pillows needed to be replaced (the replacement pair came in today's mail Hooray!) and so there was more leaking to deal with than I'm used to. And another night-time migraine. Any wonder that my AHI was above 4 this morning?

roster wrote:

Mary T wrote: thanks to cpap therapy, I really miss the days when I could just lay my head down on a nice soft warm pillow and go to sleep.

Agreed. I miss naps on the beach.

Naps
Not on the beach,
Not in the car,
Not in the office,
Not on the train,
Not under the shade tree,
Not on the plane,
Not in church,
Not in the lounge,
Not by the pool,
Not in the grass,
Not under the desk,
Not on the desk,
Not on the beanbag,
Not on the john,
Not on a bench,
Not in Borders,
Not in your lover's arms,
Not in the hotel lobby,
Not on the subway,
Not in class,
Not on a steam grate,
Not on a calf,
Not in the park,
Not on the roof,
Not in the boiler room,
Not under the bridge,
Not at a friend's,
Not at a party,
Not on the beach,
Not on the beach,
Not on the beach.

-Rooster

Rooster,
Your list makes me incredibly sad. I absolutely hate this disease and this therapy.

Mary T wrote: thanks to cpap therapy, I really miss the days when I could just lay my head down on a nice soft warm pillow and go to sleep.

Me too. God how I miss just falling in bed and talking with my husband until I fell asleep in his arms.

Now i have to find a way to cover my arm so thta the air from the machine doesn't constantly make me cold... thats why I'm feeling colder at night - instant air conditioning! haha nice in the summer, but bad in the winter when I started this fall. And then I have to adjust the blankets so that the air doesn't keep hitting the blanket if its too close to my chin and not laying totally flat against my chest, because I hear that air flow sound all night and drives me nuts! so if i fix the blanket really flat, i get total quiet!

I hear you loud and clear. It's the same with me. And just when I think I get everything all set, the cat jumps on my head. Or my nose starts to itch right where the nasal pillow rests against it. Or I start to hear the PR S1 rhythmic noise as it increases and decreases as I breathe and that's really annoying because that makes me focus way to much on my own breathing. ...