Apnea Board Forum - CPAP | Sleep Apnea
Still waking up tired - Printable Version

+- Apnea Board Forum - CPAP | Sleep Apnea (https://www.apneaboard.com/forums)
+-- Forum: Public Area (https://www.apneaboard.com/forums/Forum-Public-Area)
+--- Forum: Main Apnea Board Forum (https://www.apneaboard.com/forums/Forum-Main-Apnea-Board-Forum)
+--- Thread: Still waking up tired (/Thread-Still-waking-up-tired)



Still waking up tired - kumar209 - 05-01-2021

Hi,

   I have mild sleep apnea(~10 AHI) and have been using CPAP for close to 5 years. I still wake up feeling tired. I noticed considerable number of RERA and variable breathing events in my OSCAR data. I am using P10 mask with chin strap. I am looking for suggestions on how to improve my sleep. Thanks!

Kumar

[attachment=31895]
[attachment=31896]


RE: Still waking up tired - Crimson Nape - 05-01-2021

Hi kumar209! - Welcome

Your screenshots have clipped a lot of useful information. Please use the F12 key to take the screenshot, without having the graphs zoomed in.


RE: Still waking up tired - kumar209 - 05-01-2021

Hi,

   Here are some more screenshots from Oscar. Thanks!

[attachment=31902]
[attachment=31903]
[attachment=31904]


RE: Still waking up tired - CorruptAlligator - 05-01-2021

If you are sleep the whole time (7hrs is good amount of sleep) and not exercising, you should start. Being active will help from feeling lathergic. No free lunch. CPAP therapy will be a big step for those with other than mild apnea.


RE: Still waking up tired - staceyburke - 05-01-2021

If you are nearing a full 5 years on the same machine it may getting time for a new one. Medicare could allow a new one after 5 years. The Phillips dreamstation is not nearly as responsive as the ResMed. I owned a dreamstation for 6+ years and NEVER had good therapy- got a ResMed s10 and I feel much better and my events are a lot lower. 

There is not much you can do with a dreamstation except raise the pressure to try to combat events.


RE: Still waking up tired - Dormeo - 05-01-2021

I'm curious why you're using a fixed pressure with no flex. It'd be helpful to see what went on before one of those RERAs. See if you can center the RERA in the middle of of a 4-5 minute zoomed-in view.

I agree with staceyburke that you might want to think about a new machine, most especially a ResMed Airsense 10 Autoset. If you get the "For Her" version, it will have one extra mode of operation, which is helpful to some men as well as to some women.


RE: Still waking up tired - kumar209 - 05-01-2021

Hi,

   I have zoomed in my RERA events per your request. Let me know what you think.

Kumar

[attachment=31908]


RE: Still waking up tired - Dormeo - 05-01-2021

Thanks. There's some information about RERAs here:

http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php/Respiratory_disturbance_index_(RDI)

As that entry says, the data from the machine can only make educated guesses about whether an arousal is related to respiratory effort or not. Also, the placement of the flags is not very meaningful.

In the zoom, what's going on on the left hand side is a little less clear, but middle to right you can see several breaths with a smaller flow rate followed by breaths with wider flow rates. The wider bit in the middle, along with the last wider bit on the right both look like awake, or semi-awake breathing.

It's possible that these really are RERAs, but a different interpretation would be that the deeper breathing washes out enough CO2 to reduce your drive to breathe. The smaller flow rates would then not reflect some kind of respiratory problem but just your body figuring you don't need to breathe deeply right away.

But either way, that is not a pattern reflecting good sleep.

It would be helpful if you would explain your settings, per my earlier post.


RE: Still waking up tired - kumar209 - 05-02-2021

The DME had the FLEX setting off. Now I found a way to get to the clinical settings and changed it to 2. Any other settings I need to look for?


RE: Still waking up tired - Dormeo - 05-02-2021

Kumar, your numbers overall are good, so I would just see what happens if you make just the one change, adding flex of 2. (Sometimes when adding flex, people might want to raise their minimum a little, or in your case, your fixed pressure, but let's see what happens when you leave your pressure at 10 and just start flex at 2.)