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Hello all. I'm a first time poster, so my apologies if I do something wrong. :-). I've been using an APAP for about a year. The first couple of months were great. However, ever since I have been waking up after about 5 hours on the APAP and can't get back to sleep. I have all the usual symptoms - brain fog, short-term memory problems, etc. Any assistance that anyone can provide would be appreciated. I have attached my OSCAR data from last night. It doesn't change much from night to night.
Are you on any medications that affect your breathing or sleep? Do you have any health issues that affect your breathing or sleep?
Can you post a copy of your sleep report with your personal info redacted?
Your pressure is too low for an adult, set it to at least 7 or 8 cm. Raise your ramp pressure to at least 7 cm. If your Flow Limitations stay high, you will need to increase your minimum pressure.
Flow Limitation Is Associated with Excessive Daytime Sleepiness in Individuals without Moderate or Severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea.
Agreed, your minimum pressure of 4 is too low. There's likely little therapy along with preventing EPR 3 from working until events force pressure to 7 plus.
INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEBSITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
Thank you for the responses. I'm a very healthy 50 year old male and I'm not obese. My only health issue is the sleep apnea and the side effects that come from it. I'm not on any medications. My home sleep test overall AHI was 18 with no signs of CSA. I'm not sure what you were referring to regarding a sleep report beyond what I already attached. Please advise.
It is very curious that with the default pressure settings, the APAP machine does not even rise to typical therapy pressure.
I find it interesting that with such a wide range of the two pressure settings, one with lack of therapy 4 and the other with the highest setting the machine will go 20, in APAP mode, the machine barely reaches therapy level intermittently, and yet you have an extremely low AHI.
Look back over your OSCAR history Daily Reports and Overview. If your AHIs are all equally very low with your current settings I would question the sleep study's accuracy in indicating the presence of pathological sleep apnea. An in-lab study will provide you will a more comprehensive and accurate diagnosis along with pressure settings to treat apneas.
I only give suggestions from experience as a fellow CPAP user, not professional advice. My suggestions are for consideration, they are not definitive instructions.
I set my pressure and ramp pressure to 7. The first night I slept 8 hours so that was an improvement. The last two nights things have gone back to waking up after about 4 to 5 hours and I'm not able to go back to sleep. You will see in the OSCAR data from last night that I had a pressure surge around 3:30 that caused me to wake up. I remember being in a dream when I woke so I assume I was in REM sleep.
Another question - Does anyone think I should pursue getting a BiPap? Also, my home sleep test data is shown below.
The overall apnea/hypopnea index (AHI) reported was 18. Supine
AHI was 20 and non-supine AHI was 9.
[i]There were not signs of central sleep apnea or Cheyne-Stokes
breathing.[/i]
[i][i]Average oxygen saturation was 94 %, with 13 oxygen desaturation
[/i][/i] events reported per hour. Low oxygen saturation was 89 %. The
patient spent 0 % of time with 1 Minutes below or equal 90%, and [i][i]0 % of time with 0 Minutes below or equal 88%.[/i][/i]
[i][i][i]Average heart rate was 70 beats per minute with a high of 93
[/i][/i][/i] beats per minute.
To stop all pressure spikes the machine can be set to CPAP mode which is the Fixed mode which offers a single pressure setting, not Min and Max. You can control the upward limit of pressure by the Max setting. Your pressure increased by about 3cm after an OA occurred.
I cannot see your Flow Limitations graph but under Statistics, the figure of .01% at 95% is very low. I am no expert and there are other reasons some use a Bi-level. Bi-level machines are claimed to be much more efficient at reducing pressure for exhaling which is helpful. Researching Flow Limitations, CAs, and Carbon Dioxide Exchange will help to understand how a BiLevel can be superior to an APAP machine. I would like one.
Ramp can be turned off if you would like to start with 7 cm pressue.
Except for your sleep disruption by the pressure surge, therapy went exceptionally well.
I only give suggestions from experience as a fellow CPAP user, not professional advice. My suggestions are for consideration, they are not definitive instructions.
Lower the height of the charts then the bottom of the flow limitations chart will be showing.
ejbpesca is right, "to stop all pressure spikes the machine can be set to CPAP mode which is the Fixed mode which offers a single pressure setting," or you can tighten the range.
Consider a minimum 7.4 cm to maximum 8.6 cm for a few nights.
