Airsense 10 increasing pressure while I'm awake

[Reznik]

Hi everyone,

I'm a brand new CPAP user.  I just got my Airsense 10 today.  It's in Auto-CPAP mode with the default pressure settings (4/20) and ramp is turned off.  I've set the time and date and the mask type is set to pillow.  I'm using the P10 mask, which I like a lot.  

I decided that before trying to go to sleep with the unit, I'd let it run while I'm sitting in my easy chair.  I've been breathing normally for about 30 minutes.  The pressure started off at 4.0 which I was very comfortable with.  As I've been awake the entire time, I haven't snored or had any apneas.  I'm just sitting here watching TV.  My assumption would be that the unit would stay at 4.0 since there's no reason for it to increase.  
But, in the interim, the unit has increased the pressure in small steps to 11.  It now hovers beween 10.x and 11.x.  My lungs feel almost as if they're being filled up like a baloon when I breath in.

Is this normal?  I thought the unit was only supposed to increase the pressure if I was having an apnea, snoring, etc.

Anyone?

Thank you in advance for your thoughts. 

[PaulaO2]

As we sit still, we can breathe irregular. We do it all the time. We can hold our breath, breathe shallow in response to something we are reading or watching, a cough, a grunt, etc.

And a CPAP machine works to prevent apnea events. It will respond if the airway begins to narrow and work to push it open by increasing the pressure until it is. Then it will try to lower it again, to see if the airway stays open. Your machine determined that as you sat there relaxed, your airway needed a pressure of 11 to stay open.

I doubt any of us could put on our masks, turn on the machine, and it stay at the lowest pressure while we are awake.

[Reznik]

Thank you for responding.

The thing is, I didn't need a pressure of 11 to keep my airway open.  My airway was open just fine.  If it needed extra pressure to stay open while I was awake, I'd have trouble breathing without the CPAP and would have sought medical attention.

Your explanation definitely sounds believable, though.  The idea that breathing varies while you're awake and these patterns might fool the machine into believing that I needed an 11 is possible. 

I hope that's it, and that I don't have a bad machine! 

One more thing:  When I was done, the "report" showed that I had not had any apneas while I was using the machine.  So, it wasn't increasing the pressure due to that..

[I_will_never_sleep_again]

Pressure range is too wide

[trish6hundred]

Hi Reznik,
WELCOME! to the forum.!
Hang in there for more responses to your post, good luck with CPAP therapy.

[HalfAsleep]

Hi everyone,

I'm a brand new CPAP user.  I just got my Airsense 10 today.  It's in Auto-CPAP mode with the default pressure settings (4/20) and ramp is turned off.  I've set the time and date and the mask type is set to pillow.  I'm using the P10 mask, which I like a lot.  

I decided that before trying to go to sleep with the unit, I'd let it run while I'm sitting in my easy chair.  I've been breathing normally for about 30 minutes.  The pressure started off at 4.0 which I was very comfortable with.  As I've been awake the entire time, I haven't snored or had any apneas.  I'm just sitting here watching TV.  My assumption would be that the unit would stay at 4.0 since there's no reason for it to increase.  
But, in the interim, the unit has increased the pressure in small steps to 11.  It now hovers beween 10.x and 11.x.  My lungs feel almost as if they're being filled up like a baloon when I breath in.

Is this normal?  I thought the unit was only supposed to increase the pressure if I was having an apnea, snoring, etc.

Anyone?

Thank you in advance for your thoughts. 

I went through this process just last week and would advocate that newbies (I am one myself) spend some time doing exactly what you’ve done.

Some posters suggest using the equipment while awake, reading, surfing the internet, or some such thing, just to get used to the feel of masks, hoses, etc. But I actually found it even more enlightening to watch how the machine responds to you. To see what happens to the numbers when you move, roll over, sit up, plug out, watch politics on TV or a scary movie. You can watch all this in realtime by watching the pressure settings go up and down. The response is very fast too.

There’s another extremely important aspect to this exercise. It gives you a chance to check leaks and learn how to address them. This is a crucial task going forward and will contribute to the success of your treatment.

I am still working on the leaks, but I got the basics down while masked up during the day.

PS I went through a balloon phase when I experimented while awake. Lungs hurt like hell. I still get balloon episodes, but they’re in my cheeks; they wake me up when I’m sleeping. Feels weird. I’ve come to know they’re a prelude to a mouth leak.

[Sleeprider]

Thank you for responding.

The thing is, I didn't need a pressure of 11 to keep my airway open.  My airway was open just fine.  If it needed extra pressure to stay open while I was awake, I'd have trouble breathing without the CPAP and would have sought medical attention.

Your explanation definitely sounds believable, though.  The idea that breathing varies while you're awake and these patterns might fool the machine into believing that I needed an 11 is possible. 

I hope that's it, and that I don't have a bad machine! 

One more thing:  When I was done, the "report" showed that I had not had any apneas while I was using the machine.  So, it wasn't increasing the pressure due to that..

The minimum and maximum pressure settings are there for your use. Don't expect that you can sit there and experience no pressure changes, when there are many different factors in the algorithm that can increase the pressure.  You many not even be aware of respiratory changes that can increase the pressure, but I would bet that if I looked at your details, i could explain it.  For most people, a minimum pressure is recommended to avoid most obstructive events. If 4.0 cm actually floats your boat, that's cool, but unusual.  We suggest a maximum pressure to limit increases, especially in people with persistent flow limitations or other breathing patterns that cause pressure to increase without an additional benefit in therapy.  For the most part, those people end up at or near the set maximum pressure every night.

If you don't need more than 6 cm pressure to avoid events, and you're comfortable with that, set it as the maximum pressure.

[OpalRose]

Thank you for responding.

The thing is, I didn't need a pressure of 11 to keep my airway open.  My airway was open just fine.  If it needed extra pressure to stay open while I was awake, I'd have trouble breathing without the CPAP and would have sought medical attention.

Your explanation definitely sounds believable, though.  The idea that breathing varies while you're awake and these patterns might fool the machine into believing that I needed an 11 is possible. 

I hope that's it, and that I don't have a bad machine! 

One more thing:  When I was done, the "report" showed that I had not had any apneas while I was using the machine.  So, it wasn't increasing the pressure due to that..

Hi Reznik,
I have to echo what PaulaO2 states in her post above.  

When I first started out, I used the same technique of wearing my mask with machine running and watching TV or reading.  I really wasn’t concerned about the pressure rising, I just wanted to get used to the “feel” of it.  

You can be wide awake and the machine may react to your changing breathing patterns.  I’ve noticed that while in bed and not yet asleep, if I turn over, I hold my breath without realizing I do it, and the machine will sometimes flag a Clear Airway.  When I look at my data and see this early on when I know I’m still awake, I discount the event.

May I ask what your titrated pressure was?  When you say you don’t need a pressure of 11 to keep your airway open....how do you know that?  

I’m sure your machine is just find. It is reacting as it should. Apap’s respond to different breathing patterns and will raise pressure due to Flow Limitations and Snores, and these are not flagged as events.

Are you using software to look at your data?  If not, download #SleepyHead.  Take a look at where your 95% pressure reading falls and set your pressure range to surround that.  You are using a wide open range of 4-20, which is not optimal.  Most of us would feel air starved at a pressure of 4.

[Reznik]

Thank you to everyone who responded.

Just to clarify, when I said that I didn't need a pressure of 11 to keep my airway open, I was referring to the conditions under which I was using the unit at the time. I was sitting my easy chair watching TV. I know that I don't need an 11 to keep my airway open under those conditions because I watch TV in my easy chair all the time and my airway never closes, even when I'm not using a CPAP machine at all. I found it odd that the unit would determine that I needed such a high pressure under those circumstances, since I know that I really didn't need any extra pressure at all.

Later that night, I took my CPAP machine into the bedroom, hooked it up, turned it on, and started watching TV. Before long, I felt my ears start to pop. The unit was at 16. Since I knew that I didn't want to get to 16 during the night, I put the maximum down to 7 (with the idea that I'll start out slow and increase the maximum once I get comfortable with it) and slept quite comfortably.

In looked at the data on SleepyHead, there were no recorded events during the time that the pressure went up to 16, but the "Flow Limit" chart indicates that the system detects a relatively high flow limit (.25 to .5) during the times that I'm awake compared to when I'm asleep (usually 0). While I was actually asleep, the unit indicates that the pressure fluctuated between 5.9 and 7, and I experienced about 4 events an hour. So, that tells me that I need to increase the maximum pressure somewhat, which I'm going to do gradually.

For those of you that have tried using the unit while awake, did you have similar experiences, i.e. the unit goes to a much high pressure than is necessary (and than is typical of sleeptime)??

[HalfAsleep]

If I’m hooked up while I’m awake (so I can watch events in real time), I tend to be more curious than analytical. My response to everything for the moment (being a 1 week-ster ‘n’ all) is a comment:”That’s interesting....”

And yes, my pressure has a life of its own..It evidently has its own reasons for doing one thing or another. I’ll maybe figure it all out one day...