[Pressure] Confused on what settings are best for me

[ProbablyTired]

So should I keep trying 11.4 ERP 2 for a few more days then? I've been testing it for 5 days now although I only switched to standard mode 2 days ago. Or should I go ahead and try EPR 3? And if so, I bump up the minimum pressure to 12.4, correct? 

I screenshotted ~2 minute samples of my flowrate every hour (tried to get in between events so that wouldn't skew things) for last night to show what the flow looked like. I just don't seem to do much of a pause between breaths. 

   

The glasgow tool says 0.88 no pause. 

   

Is this something I should be concerned about? I've tried googling but came up empty on this particular topic.

[Dormeo]

I think it's fine to go ahead and increase your EPR to 3, raising your minimum to keep good control of your OAs. The other thing you can be doing is tending to the stuffiness in your nose.

I'm not familiar with the Glasgow tool. (There's a Glasgow index that measures depth of coma, but I assume this isn't that.) During the day, do you generally pause between breaths? If you deliberately pause between breaths, do that feel bad to you?

I don't know of any problem your sleep respiration pattern points to; it's just unusual in my experience. If you could tell me more about the Glasgow tool, I'd be interested.

[ProbablyTired]

I tried 12.2 EPR 3 last night, I meant to set it to 12.4 but I must have gone backward on the dial once when I pushed it in to lock in the pressure. Oh well lol. I slept pretty well and my AHI is pretty good and my FL is very good. I might bump up to 12.4 tonight but otherwise I'll stick to this setting for a little while to see how it works out. 

   

I am working on the nasal congestion. I've been doing the saline rinses before bed and Nasacort. I don't know how much it's helping. I feel like it's less of a congestion thing and more of a "my nostrils feel too small" kind of thing. I might have a deviated septum, not sure. I've used Breathe Right strips on and off because they help me feel like I'm getting more air on but I get frequent pimples on my nose so I can't use them all the time. I might try switching to a nasal mask, I've only ever used full face because I sometimes breathe through my mouth but I think it's worth trying a nasal mask, just need to figure out which one to try. 

Pausing between breaths feels normal during the day. Not sure if I do it normally, it's hard to tell because once I start paying attention to my breathing it goes wonky lol.

This is the Glasgow index tool: https://www.fortaspen.com/sleep/

And here's the info about the tool: https://www.fortaspen.com/sleep/Intro.html

It was made by someone who has an account here. I don't think he's an expert or anything, just someone who made a tool for us data nerds to look at. 

I did notice a lot more "normal" waveforms in my data from last night so maybe I'm moving in the right direction to fix that issue too.

[Dormeo]

Lots of good news here; I'm glad to hear it. Little by little you might inch you min pressure up to around 13. A rule of thumb is to raise the min to the median pressure, though you may not need to go all the way. One nice thing about your machine is that you can make increases in increments of .2.

If you want to try a nasal mask, I'd recommend trying a nasal pillow mask, as the pillows tend to anchor the mask a bit and prevent it from sliding around. The two I've used are the ResMed P10, which is a minimalist mask, and the Aloha, which is more structured. I also tried the ResMed P10i for one night but was quite bothered by the sound of air going through the side tubes. Whatever you try, be sure to get a fit-pack, meaning a mask with small, medium, and large pillows so you can try them out and pick which works best for you.

I'm fascinated by the Glasgow index -- thanks so much for sharing the links! I'll try to use it myself, though I'm not sure I'll be able to find the right files. Still, I'll give it a whirl.

[super7pilot]

Dormeo, those files are easy to find. Just keep your SD card in the reader/card slot. Once you click the Glasgow browse button. Just 2 click the SD card and then open the data file folder. Those are in date order. select a date and a BRP file and open. Boom!

[Dormeo]

It worked! Many thanks, ProbablyTired and super7pilot.