[Treatment] Clear Airway Episodes Creeping Up

[Sheepish]

Not to be too alarmist, but as of recent weeks I've noticed the number of Clear Airway episodes (AKA Central Apnea events), as reported by SleepyHead, has been creeping up. Apneas and hypopneas have remained rather steady and my AHI is always well below 5. So why this gradual increase in central apnea events? Nothing to worry about, eh?

[...] If I figure out anything more I will post back. Once I understand a bit more about it, I will start my own thread. Don't want to hijack yours. 

In any case I like your references about not worrying. My favourite is this one by Hans Solo from the original Star Wars:

" Han Solo: [flustered] Uh, had a slight weapons malfunction. But, uh, everything's perfectly all right now. We're fine. We're all fine here, now, thank you. How are you?"

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3945285/

I appreciate the input based on your recent experience and research, the great article link (though as you say not sure I qualify as Centrals are <5; no drugs except for proton pump inhibitors, an asthma corticosteroid/bronchodilator inhaler and the daily mugalicious high octane wakey juice ); and the Star Wars reference that immediately brought Han Solo's facial expression to my mind's eye.

[sonicboom]

The other thing that stands out on the image you posted are that the CAs are all in the last 3 hours.  It would be helpful to know if that is a pattern or are they usually more spread out during the night.  If the former maybe just light sleep “wake junk”.

Good eye, .

I went and looked back at previous data and though there's a general spread of CAs throughout the night, more often than not they tend to be in the second half of the night. I didn't know "sleep/wake/junk" could could be spread over a few hours, though; I thought it was more or less during however-long the snoozing process of waking up (or dozing process of falling asleep) takes. In my case I usually fall asleep within minutes of my head hitting the pillow, and I hardly ever snooze at all. Wake up, get up.

Well the next possibility may be positional related.  Do you toss and turn a lot in the last 3 hours of sleep?  I have seen situations where CAs were caused by positional changes.  To test this mask up while awake.  After a minute or so, while still awake, move around a bit, toss and turn like you would at night.  Do this a few times then look at your data.  If you record some CAs you may have your answer.

[Sheepish]

I do flip and turn from one side to another, especially in the latter half of the night. As I turn and reposition, would I stop breathing? Maybe I'll try to record some waking repositioning, as you suggest.

Another variable that has gradually increased in tandem with this trend is that I've been growing out my beard for the past few months and at this point I'm well on my way to some serious Civil War era whiskers. OK, correlation is not causation, but the correlation in the timeline is there.

It happened again last night. Exhibit C:

[attachment=5108]

[Ron AKA]

Since a CA event is a non obstruction event (in the evaluation of your machine), sleeping position should not be an influencing factor. For sure for most people sleeping on their back tends to increase OA events, because that position tends to promote blockage more than the side position. 

It looks like you are using EPR or perhaps A-Flex is what Phillips call it, and the setting is at 2 cm? If so you may want to try reducing or shutting it off to see if that reduces CA events. One theory is that EPR enhances breathing efficiency and as a result may reduce the CO2 levels in the blood, which in turn is a factor in how the brain controls frequency and depth of breathing. 

That said, I tried it last night and it didn't seem to work for me.