Chronic Insomnia

[Sleeprider]

The signature of positional apnea is grouped apnea. Most of yours happened as pairs so while the problem is not worth chasing, there is a suggestion of positional involvement.

[mawaw1992]

        My AHI has been in the 1's and 2's here lately but last night jumped up to 4.8 showing 34 OA's during the night. I am posting a screenshot to find out if this is classic chin tucking apneas since they are in clusters. When I go to bed and put on my collar I think sometimes I might not adjust it tight enough. It has been hard getting use to it at night sleeping because it feels like someone is strangling me. I do see the advantage of wearing it as it has helped not only my OA's in previous nights but also my Large Leaks are way down since I started using it. The first screenshot is from a week ago when my AHI was 0.79 and I had 2 OA's and the second screenshot is from last night.

[Sleeprider]

You have very good therapy when you keep your chin up. Don't hesitate to experiment with other makes or sizes of collar to be more comfortable and effective.

[mawaw1992]

    Please take a look at the screenshot I posted from last night and tell me what the breaths it shows signifies. This is a section that lasted around 14 minutes and started after 1 OA and lasted till another OA and then I seemed to go back to normal breathing. I know when my breaths are rounded on top normally means normal breathing while I am a sleep. This section of breathing looks erratic. I am just wanting to know as to educate myself and learn how to read my charts.

Thanks,
Mark

[Sleeprider]

Oral expiration. Although you don't have a leak showing, you are exhaling through your mouth and at least partially inhaling nasally. It's very common and I see it from time to time in my own results. From the Beginner's Guide to Sleepyhead wiki
Section 9.2 http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php...oring_Data

[mawaw1992]

        Last night I had a AHI of 3.9 and all my events were OA's and most of them look like positional apneas. I wear the collar every night and last night I tightened it a little tighter. So I don't understand how I could be chin tucking. At first my biggest problem was leaks due to me mouth breathing but I seemed to have conquered that problem but now I am fighting this problem. I am using the Caldera Releaf collar in the Large which seems to be a well made and designed collar that is comfortable. Any suggestions? I am posting a couple of screenshots.

[mawaw1992]

        Last night I had a longer than normal OA that woke me up not being able to catch my breath and had to sit up and take my mask off to get oxygen. It showed it lasted about 1 minute. I thought the Resmed machines had something built into them that would not allow a apnea to last that long.

[sheepless]

I'm not sure these machines can overcome apnea so much as prevent them. we know pressure won't resolve a chin tucking obstruction, for example, and in my experience it won't overcome plm induced flow limitations. afaik, only asv & maybe some of the other higher level machines will actively try to trigger a breath, and that would be in the presence of ca. even if the machine has such a capability, your pressure was already at the set max so it had no where to go. as I recall, that was to help reduce ca. if that's the case, you may be back to looking for settings that most favorably balance your oa and ca.

[mawaw1992]

Since I started taping my mouth and using a collar I haven't seem to be having problems with CA's anymore until last night. I am still trying to figure out how I keep having clusters of OA's when I am wearing the collar pretty tight around my neck. But last night was the first time I had an OA that lasted about one minute. It is scary when you come out of a dead sleep and can't breathe, especially with my mouth taped up.

[mawaw1992]

I was noticing on most nights when I am having OA's that my machine was hitting the max. pressure. I increased the pressure from 14 to 14.6 two nights ago to see what happened and I was able to sleep till 5:30a.m. for the first time in a while. Then last night I raised it to 15.0 but woke up several times with pressure getting to 14.9 at times. I think I remember reading on here that you treat OA's with higher pressure until you start to have CA's or large leaks. Is this correct?  I am just trying to get to a point to where my OA's do not wake me up all the time.