newbie question

[TheWerkz]

After TONS of research, especially on this forum, i realized I probably had sleep apnea. His description and use of a Zeo, made it even clearer, and i realized it was probably a mixture of Obstructive and Central.

<SNIP!>

Hi Mermangel,

How did you reach the conclusion that you "probably" have mixed sleep apnea (OSA & CA) based-on your bf's observation and the Zeo?

OSA is easy enough to identify but with Central's you don't get the gasping for air - like with OSA.

Do you have an oximeter too?

I purchased a brand new (previously owned) Resmed S9 Vpap auto- climate line tubing, zest nasal mask.

You've never said what the min/max pressure is set to on your VPAP Auto, can you let us know, especially the minimum pressure.

You can attach the pdf report from ResScan to a message for anyone to be able to take a look to try and help you.

Ren

[mermangel]

Thanks again. I feel much better reading all your input! Didn't have much luck last night. Got a few hours on machine. One of my biggest problems has always been falling asleep. It takes hours no matter how tired I am. So it's not really the machine, but it doesn't help me in falling asleep. The night I did get 7 hours, I was still tired though. I will keep trying. I am desperate to get a decent nights sleep, and not be tired everyday of my life.

[zonk]

One of my biggest problems has always been falling asleep.

did you had a sleep study and followup with your sleep doctor

problem with falling sleep can mess up with the data as the machine cannot tell if you,re awake or asleep but would score events
events scored while wake are meaningless

[archangle]

Sleep apnea is a serious, life threatening condition. If you try to do it yourself, and don't get it right, you could still suffer the serious health effects of sleep apnea.

CPAP of any kind may cause or increase your central apneas. The VPAP Auto is what's referred to as "bilevel." Bilevel is a little less likely to increase your central apneas than CPAP.

However, sometimes, a CPAP or bilevel may work OK even if you have some central apnea. Tinkering with the settings, such as the difference between inhale and exhale may affect central apnea.

If you really have significant central apnea, and you can't solve it with your CPAP/bilevel machine, you may need an ASV machine such as a VPAP Adapt or one of the other ASV machines. However, ASV machines can be a REAL pain to adapt to.

That's why it's important to look at the data and see what happens.

Everyone gets panicked about central apnea. That's simply wrong. What matters is having apneas. Your body doesn't care whether it's central or obstructive. Your body cares that you've stopped breathing x times for y seconds. Centrals are harder to treat, not necessarily more harmful.

However, central apnea will harm or kill you just like obstructive apnea will.

You need to look at the level of apnea you have. Look at the AHI, and also look at the airflow waveforms and see if you completely stop breathing and for how long. You may find that the things your machine calls an apnea isn't really that serious. Or you may find you have a low AHI, but you stop breathing so long that even a small number of apneas is a problem.

You may find your central apnea level will go away or get worse with different adjustments to your current bilevel machine. Lower pressure may give you better results. Reducing or increasing the difference between inhale and exhale pressure may also change your results.