New APAP user, help?

[Darkpunchedstars]

Hey everyone, I hope you are all doing well.

I have just had my first night with my APAP machine  ( F&P Sleepstyle) and have a few questions.


1. My mask seems to be losing air pressure  ( it's the dreamwear full face one) just below where the breathing tubes meets the top of the mask is this normal? I thought perhaps it could be ventilation?

2. Everytime I fell asleep I kept waking up very quickly. Is this normal at first? It kinda felt like I couldn't breathe. I had to stop using the mask eventually as I wasn't getting any sleep.

3. I'm using the sleepstyle app but the AHI seems very inaccurate. It was saying it was 18 but I hadn't even been to sleep? Is there any better sleep tracking  software I can use? 

Thanks for all your help.

[Deborah K.]

Welcome to the board!

1.  You are correct that the air coming out of the top of your mask is ventilation, and nothing to worry about.

2.  It's normal to have a period of adjustment, and sometimes to sleep poorly when new to using a pap machine.  Given time, your body and mind will adjust to having this foreign object on your face blowing air up your nose.

3.  OSCAR is the best way to track your pap use.  It gives much information that the experts here can interpret for you.  There are instructions in the information at the top of the forum page for downloading and using OSCAR.

Best of luck with your new journey to better health!  

[OpalRose]

Hi Dardpunchedstar,

The F&P SleepStyle is not currently supported by OSCAR.  

http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php....26_Paykel

[Ratchick]

There's not a lot I can suggest without any data etc, but two things come to mind.

1) I don't know if you can do so, but often if people are feeling like they're not getting enough air, then they need to have the minimum pressure raised. If you aren't able to alter that yourself, you might need to ask to have it raised.

2) All machines can mark apneas while you're awake - it doesn't know for sure when/if you are sleeping so it always scores them, even if they're normal pauses in breathing that you do when awake. That is especially true around the time where you're starting to fall asleep and your body is swapping from awake breathing control to asleep breathing control.

[Darkpunchedstars]

Thanks for your help ?

 Apparently I can't get OSCAR with my machine - I can only use the sleepstyle app?

[Darkpunchedstars]

Hey everyone.

I've had three nights with the APAP machine now and whilst I am managing to fall asleep eventually, I keep waking up within about a minute and feel like I can't breathe. 

I feel like the pressure could be the reason for this. It seems to increase a lot as I fall asleep and this shift causes me to wake up in panic? 

Are there any settings I can change? 

Thanks!

[Crimson Nape]

A word about AHI.  This is an average number of events reported on a per hour of use basis.  If you only used the CPAP for 30 minutes and had 9 reported events, then your AHI would be listed as 18.  Likewise, if you used the CPAP for 8 hours and had a total of 8 events, then your AHI would be 1.  CPAP's can not ascertain if you are awake or asleep, they only look at the flow patterns for analysis.

Edit: I see you have 2 different thread pertaining to the same topic. For continuity, we prefer that a member keep their posts in one thread, unless it is a totally different subject. For this reason, I have merged your 2 threads.

[Ratchick]

So you feel like it's hard to breathe out against the air? Or you feel like you're just not getting enough air?

It's very normal for it to feel like a struggle at first, because of how new and invasive it all is, and that does tend to improve with continued use. You don't list what your pressure settings are, so I can't tell you if they're too high or too low. It sounds like you may have ramp (or something similar on) that reduces the pressure while it thinks you are awake and then boosts it once asleep.

You might want to go up to the black bar at the top of the forum and click "CPAP setup manuals" and find the instructions for your machine as well as check how to get into the clinical menu. There's a link to the instructions and a video to show the process under the "Setup Instructions for common CPAP Machines" link. Once you know how to do that, write down your settings and come back to us.

[Darkpunchedstars]

Thanks. The pressure range seems to be 4-20cm H2O. It usually is 3-5 when I'm awake. I've found a video on how to change the settings. 

It feels like I'm suffocating on air if you get what I mean? 
The problem might be that my mouth is opening just after falling asleep and that causes the sensation of pressure. It's really disorienting at the time so hard to remember many details

I have ramp off and EPR on 2/3

[SarcasticDave94]

4-20 for lots of these PAPs is default, meaning no edits were done to make it your personal therapy. I think you may want to try moving 4 to 6. See if it feels more comfortable. Report back how it felt. We can suggest another change if it didn't help enough or if it is too much.