New CPAP User self treating - First nights sleep - advice

[HenryDoolittle]

Hello everyone

My situation: I suffer from a lot of sleep apnea symtoms - which are significantly impacting my life (particularly constant tiredness and headaches).  I have not yet had a sleep study, however, yesterday I managed to get hold of a Resmed 10 Auto - and have decided to spend a bit of time trying to self treat in order to improve my overall restorative sleep.

First nights sleep: Last night I slept with the full mask on - I woke up quite a few times and this morning I still feel very tired (this could be because of the disrupted sleep).

Advice: I have attached last nights OSCAR data and was hoping for some advice/pointers to improve APAP therapy?  Note: My first change tonight will be min pressure of 7 inline with the EPR of 3.
 
Many thanks

[OpalRose]

I agree with moving your minimum pressure up to 7cm.  I suspect you may need to be a little higher, but it's best to take it slow.  

EPR is fine, but you currently have EPR set to 3 (ramp only).  Change the EPR to 3 (full time).  Hopefully, this will give some relief to the high Flow Limitation which can cause sleep disruptions.  

Also, turn the ramp feature to Off.  Your sleep is very fragmented and each time you start over, the machine goes back to ramp of 4.  This is not doing you any favors. Looking at your graphs, you can see when ramp ends, the pressure shoots up to 9cm.  

Lastly, and maybe the most important is the leak rate.  The grayed out area on your graphs show where the leaks occurred.  It may be mask movement or too loose or too tight of a fit.   Read the mask primer.  There's a lot of good tips for getting a better mask fit.
http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php...ask_Primer

[HenryDoolittle]

Thank you, I will implement these changes tonight

[HenryDoolittle]

Good morning all,

After making the very helpful admentments suggested by OpalRose I feel I had a better night with the mask on with a few issues addressed.

Attached is my second nights sleep - my AHI increased slightly and I still feel very tired today. I'm wondering if the next steps would be to increase the minimum pressure further?

My second question - as I am currently self treating myself do you feel my current scores/data are indicative of someone with Sleep apnea/sleeping disorder?

Any thoughts as always would be very much appreciated

Many thanks

[OpalRose]

The good news is that the Flow Limitation and leak rate came down.

The rise in the AHI is due to Positional apnea.  Look at the chart from February 5th.  
Do you see the "clusters" of Obstructives between 22:30 and 23:30?  This is Positional apnea.  

You may have been on your back which sometimes causes your head to tilt forward into your chest, which cuts off your air supply.  Another thing that can cause this is using more than one pillow.  If that's the case, try one flatter pillow where it won't allow your head to tilt forward.  Think about other ways you sleep that would cause this.

If this is just a one time occurrence, then don't worry over it.  I just want you to be aware of the "clusters" of Obstructives and why that occurs.