I'm new. Dying of exhaustion. Just got a machine - here's my story.

[michaelba72]

Sleeprider - yeah it's looking more like central sleep apnea but I will keep collecting data, thanks for your wisdom.

cate - Thank you, that is encouraging.

kw - The reason I don't think I have bad obstructive sleep apnea is because I don't snore, and my machine says I have 4-5 obstruction events during the night, and 90 clear and hypopnea events a night, and also I have recorded myself with audio throughout the night many times and listened back (visually looking at the waveform) and I hear about 4-5 choking/wheezing events indicative of obstructive sleep apnea which matches up with what the machine says.

So maybe I have central sleep apnea. Which would mean I have the wrong machine as I understand it. Last night my pressure went from 7-15 throughout the night, yielding 29 clear apneas, 4 obstr, and 57 Hypopneas. AHI of 12. So Hypopneas increased and clears went down as I raised the pressure the second night. Which is weird. Anyway, will keep collecting data until I can see the specialist.

[sonicboom]

You mention the obstructive apneas as closing your airway but you don't mention the fact of 57 partial airway obstructions (hypopneas). These add up too and you would need an oximeter to see what your oxygen level are during these events. If it were me I would ask for a sleep study. You can feel better. Keep at it and welcome to the forum.

[NorthernGuy]

My experience is that CAs got better after a couple weeks (or a month) of treatment, then I raised my starting pressure and my hypopneas got better.

One thing to check is if the CAs are real (I mean - while actually sleeping). I was having (and still have) a lot of trouble of "junk" recorded if I tossed and turned at night due to sleeping issues unrelated to apnea (room uncomfortable, bed uncomfortable, anxious about work). The machine records these awake events as CAs and sometimes hypopneas.

People naturally hold their breath several seconds while rolling over and adjusting to get comfortable - Ding! The machine records a clear airway event (or hypopnea if you breath just a little). Try it sometime.

(Not medical advice - just relaying my experience).

[michaelba72]

Sonic - Yes that is a good point and I may have to get another sleep study. The one I had in January before I got better did show that I had some events that took my pulse ox under 90% but not a lot.

Northern - That is good to know. I will experiment and I'm definitely in this for the long term because I can't live like this.

My overall confusion is mainly wondering why my exhaustion went away within 2 days of getting off of sleeping pills BOTH times I did it. Now I'm on no pills and it came back so there's nothing to get off of. I know pills can sometimes make apnea worse but this was a major difference.