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02-20-2024, 04:13 PM (This post was last modified: 02-20-2024, 04:15 PM by urachan.)
Still wake up using CPAP
Hi,
I've been on a CPAP for 7 months now and have yet to experience a full night's sleep. Although I can fall asleep pretty fast (less than 5 minutes), I always inevitably wake up 1 to 2 hours later and it's very hard to go back to sleep with the CPAP then, as my body feels wide awake.
Any idea what's going on? I assume this shouldn't happen if my apnea was under control.
To give you some quick context, I was diagnosed with OSA with a 33 AHI, and the physical act of lying down (not even sleeping) makes it hard for me to breathe and makes me wheeze. CPAP suppresses that feeling, though, yet I can not comprehend why I can't stay asleep with the CPAP if SA is all there is to it. As you'll see in the screenshots below, it doesn't even look like the CPAP flags any event.. yet I always wake up after 1-2 hours of sleep.
Attached to this post is today's sleep data (I gave up on the CPAP after waking up the first time, then eventually put it back on which is why there's a huge gap in the middle). Thank you in advance for your guidance!
I don't know if would cause you to wake up, but your flow limits are high and your pressure is very limited. I suggest that you raise your lower-pressure limit to 7 and use apap instead of cpap, setting your higher-pressure limit to 11. Also change your EPR setting to 3. Allowing more pressure and changing your EPR should help you sleep more comfortably and improve your therapy. Can't hurt to try it. Good luck!
02-20-2024, 06:36 PM (This post was last modified: 02-20-2024, 06:38 PM by urachan.)
RE: Still wake up using CPAP
Thank you Deborah! Can't hurt to try indeed.
I initially had set the pressure to a fixed 4 or 5 (sometimes more as I try different settings) because of aerophagia issues, but since I don't have this problem anymore it could be worth a try. I'm struggling to understand what Flow Limit is though, any chance someone could help me understand?
02-21-2024, 08:58 PM (This post was last modified: 02-21-2024, 08:59 PM by urachan.
Edit Reason: more info
)
RE: Still wake up using CPAP
So I tried upping the minimum pressure to 7 and EPR to 3, but it looks like more pressure (or EPR?) seems to create more apneas, and I wasn't able to sleep more than 1 hour. It's consistent with what happened in the past when I tried to do the same thing (which is why I haven't bumped the pressure range to more than that as per recommended - I was afraid this would cause this scenario.) I tried to go back to sleep at around 6am but couldn't.. my body was "wide awake", although I managed to fall back asleep after taking off the CPAP..
Here is today's chart, along with a zoomed in picture of the events: