APAP necessary?

[jdougc]

How did you feel when you woke up and make a note of how you felt during the day. 
A journal with the changes and how you felt may help you on this cpap expedition.

The early and late groups of events are probably wake sleep junk breathing. 
You were not quite asleep or just waking up and the breathing was erratic. 
If this happened during a sleep study, the technician would ignore these events.

[lazmit]

When I woke up I felt really refreshed, I had the feeling the sleep was great.
Surely pressures 7cm-11cm contributed a lot because I did not feel at all suffocating (especially at the beginning of my sleep).
Thanks jdougc (and of course all the others who suggested me to increase the low pressure) for the tip!

The only concern I have is that I rarely manage to sleep > 7 hours.
I hardly sleep even 6 hours.

Tonight I am going to try the tennis balls trick instead of using a backpack!
I hope I manage to sleep more.

[lazmit]

The trick with the tennis balls worked - I slept very well tonight, around 7.5 hours.
I have uploaded tonight's screenshot.

Do you think I should increase the max pressure (which is currently 11cm) since I see that at some periods I hit & stay at the upper limit?
Anything else I could improve to bring AHI down to zero?

[jdougc]

Glad to hear that you slept very well and longer, great job.

You could up the max pressure a little bit, try 12 cm. 
You are hitting that max for so long because of Flow Limitations.
This increase of pressure may help with that, but watch your leaks as higher pressures can cause leaks.

Are you using 2x5 inch strips of that mouth tape? 
I also use a Somnoseal device, a very soft pliable device that just sits behind the lips.

[lazmit]

I will increase max pressure to 12cm tonight and see how it goes.
What could be the reason for these flow limitations?

In the last couple of nights I have used an athletic kinesiology tape (covering only the mouth lips) and seems I get on very well with it (no irritation, no need to remove it during night, etc.). Probably at some point in future I will also try that Somnoseal device that you use.

[jdougc]

If your sleep is good, don't make too many changes, enjoy the good rest.

Flow limitations are a bit of a mystery, sometimes they don't bother people, other times the O2 sats drop and sleep is fragmented. They are not full obstructions, but as the name suggests restrictions of your airway.

Your Flow Limitations occur during your smooth light sleep periods.

You got some obstructive events during your REM or deep sleep without the EEG tester we can't know which it is, notice after 3am, after 5:20 and after 6:20.

[lazmit]

So, if I understand well, the APAP machine reacts (by increasing pressure) not only when it senses that apneas/hypopneas events happened but also when it senses flow limitations.
Do you know if it concludes - based on the number of flow limitations -  that there is a high probability for an apnea/hypopnea to soon happen and so it decides to increase pressure beforehand?

[placeau]

lazmit,
Try tongue exercises, there are many videos on YouTube.

Hello, what specific tongue exercises are you talking about here?
Thank you

[jdougc]

Mouth and throat exercises, also known as oropharyngeal muscle exercises, can improve obstructive sleep apnea and reduce snoring.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNscQ3bGxNk

[placeau]

Oh our good friend Vik Veer.
Thank you so much!

Have you tried these yourself and noticed any improvements?