Daytime sleepiness returned after 4 months on CPAP

Hello, I'm a newbie on this forum. I was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea after a sleep study in April. I started on the CPAP 2 weeks later. I'm using the REMNstar one and noticed positive results right away. Occassionally I would be slightly tired if I fell asleep on the couch for a few hours before going to bed, but I could always get back to normal in a day or two. However, 5 days ago I woke up tired and have had excessive daytime sleepiness since. I have been sleeping at least 6-8 hours for the last 4 nights. I have not noticed any mask leakage, at least not any more than usual. I always use a full face mask because I have problems with clogged nostrils. I haven't gained any weight since April and I didn't notice any other changes concerning my body. This morning after I woke up, I checked the filters on the CPAP. The foam filter was pretty much clean, but the paper filter was dirty. I put back only the foam filter and started the machine. It was clearly blowing much stronger. I will try sleeping this afternoon or tonight without the paper filter in place. I was just wondering if this has ever happened to anyone else. I'm also looking for some suggestions.

Hi and welcome to the forum.

First would you please go to your User Control Panel and fill out your equipment, text is prefred. This will let other users know your equipment so we can better answer your questions.

There could be many reasons why you are 'sliding back' , this is actually a common problem. My first question to you is to ask you if your machine is data capable and if so do you have the software to cheack your data such as leeks, AHI and Pressure.
I am sure soneone will be by that can better answer your question but my first thought is that you are leeking more then you realise, my second thought is that your pressure might be wrong.

Welcome Chris, do you monitor your data and are you able to post a report or two?

Thank you Jabman, I have updated as much info as I can remember off the top of my head. I will update more when I get home later.

Also, yes, my machine does have a data card. I haven't downloaded the software yet to view. Honestly, up until now, I really haven't had any major issues concerning the sleepiness. I originally thought that I could lose enough body fat to be more controlled. 3 year ago I quit smoking and gained about 50 pounds the first 2 years. After that weight gain is when I started noticing the sleep apnea symptoms. However, it was never bad enough to affect my daily life up until about 6-7 months ago. The CPAP helped me the last few months, but it wasn't perfect. And unfortunately, I really haven't lost more than 3 pounds.

My pressure was 9. I had increased it to 10 myself and noticed an improvement within the first 30 days. Does anyone recommend going back to 9 again?

As soon as I can get home and install the software, I will post some reports.

Chrisf: I quit smoking years back. All the pundants said that quitting smoking had nothing to do with weight gain. I went on a diet while quitting smoking, and still gained weight. As far as your sleep apnea... yes, if you feel better by bumping your pressure up... then by all means... leave it there. You need to educate yourself and look at daily data to be able to adjust your settings sucessfully. Hopefully, your machine can at least show your daily AHI readings to see what progress you make by adjusting your pressure. I believe that if you educate yourself enough to where you feel comfortable to make your own adjustments you are ok. If you feel the need to ask, then you probably haven't studied-up enough.

Best of Luck!

Sheriff

Chrisf wrote:Thank you Jabman, I have updated as much info as I can remember off the top of my head. I will update more when I get home later.

Also, yes, my machine does have a data card. I haven't downloaded the software yet to view. Honestly, up until now, I really haven't had any major issues concerning the sleepiness. I originally thought that I could lose enough body fat to be more controlled. 3 year ago I quit smoking and gained about 50 pounds the first 2 years. After that weight gain is when I started noticing the sleep apnea symptoms. However, it was never bad enough to affect my daily life up until about 6-7 months ago. The CPAP helped me the last few months, but it wasn't perfect. And unfortunately, I really haven't lost more than 3 pounds.

My pressure was 9. I had increased it to 10 myself and noticed an improvement within the first 30 days. Does anyone recommend going back to 9 again?

I hope that you are able to loose weight and get off XPAP, I have heard of this happening. In fact my sleep tech told me she no longer needed to use her CPAP machine cause she lost weight. Un fourtnatly for me this is not the case. I weighter 232lbs when I was Dxed last year and have lost 35-40lbs since then and just recently had to up my pressure to 12. But I also beleave that I had OSA for years (10 or more) before I was Dxed.

I would post your data and look at itand ask questions here before deciding to change your pressure back. Good luck

I'm curious to see what the determination is once the data is posted. I'm having the same problem, but of course have no way to check the data. Sigh.

Chrisf wrote:As soon as I can get home and install the software, I will post some reports.

It would be a good thing to follow for the next few days or until the problem is resolved. Even though you haven't noticed any leaks it is possible that your mask did leak and the software can pick that up. I thought I had a good night last night, but the software revealed a large leak for about 30 minutes and despite an otherwise good AHI last night, I still feel tired.

That would be my first suspicion, but it could be a number of other things as well.

Wow Jabman, I'm sorry to hear that you needed a pressure increase. I was just at my regular doctor for a checkup and he noted how large my tonsils are. I'm sure that is not helping as well.

I actually drove in to work this morning. Once I got here, I realized how tired I really am. I should have never drove in today. I'm thinking about leaving my truck here and getting a ride home. This is part of the reason why I posted today. I wasn't taking this super serious until today. I was tired this weekend, but I was still able to function.

Ameriken, Thats very true. I still can't get over how "out of it" you really are with sleep apnea. There will be nights that I yell at my wife for not waking me up before bed only to find out that she tried like 5 times to get me up. So if I can sleep through that, a mask leak is probably nothing.

Chrisf wrote:Ameriken, Thats very true. I still can't get over how "out of it" you really are with sleep apnea.

I hear ya, I often refer to waking up as being 'resurrected' because I felt like I was dead through the whole night.

OK. I'm checking the results of last nights sleeping readings and I had a 3 hour large air leak, about 35% of the night. My AHI was 29. I don't know enough of what the other numbers represent yet. I'm surfing the net to learn a little bit about those numbers now. However, I was able to go back pretty far in the data and I've always had large air leaks throughout the night. How come I've only been tired the last 5 days. What gives?

Chrisf wrote:This morning after I woke up, I checked the filters on the CPAP. The foam filter was pretty much clean, but the paper filter was dirty.

Forgive me if this has already been asked and answered, but is this the first time (after 4 months) that you've checked the paper filter? Those are supposed to be replaced monthly, I believe. I would imagine that would make a big difference!

On my model, I think you're supposed to change the paper filter every 3 months. You're supposed to wash the foam filter every 2 weeks which I try to do. I just forgot about the paper filter.

SO, I slept without the paper filter last night. Also, I shaved and scrubbed my face before bed. The mask felt much more secure and I never noticed any leaks during the time I was awake. I also went to sleep a little earlier tonight. In the total 11 hours slept, there were no large leaks. There were 50 minutes work of total leaks averaging 7.2%. That number has never been that low before ever. My AHI went down to 16.6 for the night, normally averaging about 26-29. I still can't tell if I'm tired yet as I don't normally feel tired until I have been up for an hour or 2. However, I know that normally it takes 2 or 3 days to play catch up after feeling tired or after missing a few days of good sleep on the cpap. If I'm not not initially, I'll probably be tired in the afternoon.

Looks like you are headed in the right direction. Shoot for a 5.0 AHI or less. Monitor your AHI reading on a daily basis.

Sheriff