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Thanks to input from Gideon (and others) in this forum, I have been very pleased with my therapy and for the most part, have reduced my AHI to less than 1 for the past month. I'm using a small nasal pillow for best results with a chin strap to eliminate my mouth opening when in deep sleep. My focus this month is to keep my AHI in a normal range, while improving my comfort while sleeping. I started reducing pressure two nights ago to 13 and again last night to 12.2 (from 14). I also reduced my EPR from 3 to 2 last night to control CA's. My results at 13 were great and the first five hours of sleep last night were also great, but things changed dramatically after five hours of sleep when I got up to use the bathroom. I've included the graphs from each of these sessions. First a full night at 13, Next, the first five hours of last night's sleep and finally the last three hours. I noticed that I am having increased #CAs after a bathroom break during the night and just before the end of the sleep in morning. I am thinking these CAs are not valid as I am awake in these periods. Is that true? I'd appreciate your expert opinions before trying the same settings tonight.
IF you are absolutely, positively 100% CERTAIN that you were awake during the last session, then the centrals don't count because we are dealing with SLEEP apnea; if not sleeping, not relevant. Most people have periods of not breathing when they are awake. Think of reading a suspenseful book, concentrating on a project, watching a suspenseful movie. That said, you recorded a lot of centrals -- whether or not you were awake. If it were me, I would show that to my sleep doc ( or better yet, a pulmonologist) and ask for feedback. There is a machine called ASV specifically designed to treat centrals, though I doubt it is appropriate given that you were not asleep.
Hopefully Gideon or another expert will come along with a better answer. I'm just a garden variety user.
Thanks for responding to my question Clownbell! If I wasn't fully awake for the second session I posted, I certainly wasn't in a deep sleep as I can remember changing positions and checking the time on my watch several times. In addition, I repeated the same settings on my CPAP machine last night, with very similar results (attached below). Once again, the first six and half hours of my sleep showed excellent results with AHI about 1 and the last three and half hours, after getting up to use the bathroom, showed poor results with AHI over 9, reducing my total score to about 3. I'm still hoping Gideon will chime in, especially with two nights of similar data now. I'd like to know if I should change machine settings, or nasal pillow mask size further??
