Need to Sleep On My Back, Jack Up The Pressure?

[player]

I am having a real problem with my shoulder/neck muscles and I sept on my back for a few hours today. When I woke up I had relief that I have not felt for some time. So when I sleep on my back, I know I am more susceptible to AHI's. Would it be advisable to go from 9 to 11?

[trailrider]

If you could prop the pillow a bit, that might help. Maybe go up 1 to start and see what happens over a few days. You may not want to jump it up so much, as you might not be used to it, and it could disrupt your sleep on its own. My 2 cents worth.

[archangle]

I am having a real problem with my shoulder/neck muscles and I sept on my back for a few hours today. When I woke up I had relief that I have not felt for some time. So when I sleep on my back, I know I am more susceptible to AHI's. Would it be advisable to go from 9 to 11?

What was your AHI on your back last night vs. previous nights?

Not everyone has problems when back sleeping.

[retired_guy]

Yes, raise it just a little and try it. In my case the pressure does rise a bit when I'm on my back, but not a lot. A point or so.

[storywizard]

so, are you folks saying its OK to sleep on our backs? I also have major pain in my shoulders, and force myself mostly to sleep on my side, I am encouraged and pleasantly surprised by this post...

Storywizard

[OpalRose]

I usually start out sleeping on one side or the other, but sometime during the night I roll over onto my back, simply because I have pain in my hips if sleep too long on my sides.
My pressure goes up a slight bit during the times on my back, but really doesn't affect my AHI number. I also sleep slightly elevated.

[OMyMyOHellYes]

Leave it where it is at. You don't know if you need to go there. If it was an Autoset, then yeah, it wouldn't go any higher than you need it. Stay where you are for now, and look at the data in a few days to see if there's a pattern. Then if your AHIs are going up consistently, bump it up a half cm.

For what it's worth, my numbers don't change appreciably in going from sleeping prostrate, supine or on my side.

But anticipating problems absent data is kind of uncalled for. You need a baseline from which to make an educated decision.

OMMOHY

[worn_out_in_lebanon]

so, are you folks saying its OK to sleep on our backs? I also have major pain in my shoulders, and force myself mostly to sleep on my side, I am encouraged and pleasantly surprised by this post...

Storywizard

Yes!

(with the positive pressure to compensate...)

[OMyMyOHellYes]

so, are you folks saying its OK to sleep on our backs? I also have major pain in my shoulders, and force myself mostly to sleep on my side, I am encouraged and pleasantly surprised by this post...

Storywizard

Absofreakinloutely!

That's what the CPAP machine is for. To keep your airway open however you sleep. It is the CPAP's job to keep up with you, not your job to sacrifice restful sleep to make the CPAP's job easier.

**Editorial follows**
It is a downside of having data so readily available. Don't take that to think I mean data reporting is bad.

Sometimes on this forum, I get the sense that folks are chasing statistics in a data dump or graph to let that be the determining factor as to whether they got a good night's sleep - not how they remember sleeping or how they feel when they get up. If you're feeling bad, know you're waking up all night long gasping, then the data is a good place to start looking to see where the choo-choo is leaving the tracks. But the numbers, by themselves, don't tell the whole story.

So if I have a couple apneic episodes and my number goes up form 0.1 to 2.0, but the machine does what it supposed to do (blow harder to open my airway), and I wake up with a relaxed, pain-free back as opposed to having 0.1 AHI but a kinked back, give me the higher AHI number.

OMMOHY

[GeoffD]

So if I have a couple apneic episodes and my number goes up form 0.1 to 2.0, but the machine does what it supposed to do (blow harder to open my airway), and I wake up with a relaxed, pain-free back as opposed to having 0.1 AHI but a kinked back, give me the higher AHI number.

The original post in this thread was somebody with a ResMed Airsense 10 Elite. That is a fixed pressure CPAP machine, not a variable pressure AutoSet machine. If they have a much higher AHI sleeping on their back, bumping up the pressure might help.

My only advice is to make changes very slowly. I'd bump by 1 cm-h2o and collect data for a week.