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06-24-2025, 08:58 AM (This post was last modified: 06-24-2025, 08:59 AM by bobjohnson.)
New to CPAP - Please help improve my therapy
Hi, I have had tension headaches and fatique for a couple of years, finally linked ot to sleep and had a sleep study. I had a heck of a time sleeping during the study, but it showed mild apnea with an AHI of 8.9. First, I tried a MAD appliance as my ENT said I had a fat tounge and it might help. I never felt better wearing that so I am going to CPAP. Finally found a mask I can wear all night - Respronics Amara. The vent holes at higher pressures are annoying but it works OK. Please help me understand this oscar data, sleep study data and help me work towards lowering my AHI and finally feeling good again. Thank you!
Sleep study and last nights oscar data attached
Additional sleep study page.
06-24-2025, 09:20 AM (This post was last modified: 06-24-2025, 09:22 AM by gohoos1998. Edited 1 time in total.)
RE: New to CPAP - Please help improve my therapy
I am not a mod/expert so you can wait for them to weigh in, but it is clear that your data needs a lot of work (which is good because it means there is a lot of runway to feeling good)!
You need to raise your min pressure (and max) as you're still having a lot of obstructive apneas. Your events in general are pretty clustered, and then it seems there are some periods of pretty nice breathing (at least from afar). Lots of people hear put their minimum pressure at the 95% pressure but others can chime in there.
What position do you sleep in? With the clusters of events and that good breathing, it seems like you might have apnea that gets a lot worse with chin-tucking (bringing chin to chest which kinks the airway) and you may have some positional apnea.
You're having a lot of flow limitation as well, which we would tackle with EPR, but it looks like you're also having a lot of central apneas which get worse with EPR. So that is a bit tricky.
(06-24-2025, 09:20 AM)gohoos1998 Wrote: I am not a mod/expert so you can wait for them to weigh in, but it is clear that your data needs a lot of work (which is good because it means there is a lot of runway to feeling good)!
You need to raise your min pressure (and max) as you're still having a lot of obstructive apneas. Your events in general are pretty clustered, and then it seems there are some periods of pretty nice breathing (at least from afar). Lots of people hear put their minimum pressure at the 95% pressure but others can chime in there.
What position do you sleep in? With the clusters of events and that good breathing, it seems like you might have apnea that gets a lot worse with chin-tucking (bringing chin to chest which kinks the airway) and you may have some positional apnea.
Thanks for the reply - I sleep on my back all the time.
No problem. You would probably see a pretty nice reduction if you were able to switch to side-sleeping or stomach, but I understand that isn't easy if this is the way you've been sleeping your whole life.
There are some tools that force you off your back (backpack-like items on amazon or you can stuff a backpack with towels, clothes, etc and wear it), but I understand that may not be super comfortable. I have done this myself and it isn't horrible.
Well, Last night didn't go well. I changed the min pressure to 14, max 20. When it reached full pressure, I couldnt sinch the mask down tight enough to seal completely and also could hardly exhale (nose). I do have the EPR at 3 already. I was somewhat stuffy. I may need to get some nasal spray to get started at night. The mask sealed when I tested it sitting up, but as soon as I lay down it would leak around my cheeks. I wonder if I may need a different size, it is a Large.
INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AS MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEB SITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
(06-25-2025, 03:40 PM)Sleeprider Wrote: Read our wiki article on positional apnea, and see if you recognize your chart as being a very good example of positional obstruction.
Thank you. I will try a soft cervical collar. I will say, it look like I have positional apnea looking a the chart, but I use a very thin pillow and have a recorded my sleep a lot with an IR camera and looking back my chin is never "tucked" when I stop breathing.
The clusters are present with very high flow limits, and there are also periods of very quiet therapy free of events at lower pressure. I can't say what the positional mechanism is, but it really stands out from your "normal" breathing.
INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AS MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEB SITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
Ok, I got a cervical collar. I also increased my minumum pressure a bit. It seemed to clear up my therapy a good deal. I even changed my EPR from 3 to 2 to see it it might help clear up my CA events. I still do not feel any better, but that will probably take some time. Does anything stand out to anyone? Any tips? Thanks!
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.
