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03-09-2025, 01:37 PM (This post was last modified: 03-09-2025, 01:46 PM by Andersonruas.)
Suffocating in the middle of the night
Suffocating in the middle of the night Hello everyone, so I am not able to adapt to the CPAP treatment. Since October 2023 I have been using CPAP and currently the pressure I use is 4 to 4.2 and I still wake up suffocating at night. I have mild apnea with 7 events per hour on my polysomnography exam. I have allergic rhinitis and reflux. Most of the time when I wake up suffocating I am dreaming (maybe this information could be relevant) I will post an image of the result of using CPAP in the last few months. The doctor said that I should use the pressure at 4 but in the beginning when I used it without the doctor's supervision and left the CPAP on automatic, it reached a pressure of 8. I don't know what to do about this feeling of suffocation in the middle of the night anymore.
Welcome! As you can probably see, your image turned into a whole lot of other stuff. Can you take a screenshot of it and attach it to a post?
Also, it would be helpful to know the breakdown of your AHI from your sleep test (obstructive apnea, central apnea, hypopnea). And was it a test in a sleep lab or a home test?
Finally, most people feel air-starved with a pressure of 4. I recommend that you set your minimum to 7, your maximum to 7, and your EPR to 3. This is just an experiment to give us a baseline.
I updated an image. I did 3 types of exams, at the clinic, at home and a simpler one like the oximeter. I will post the results of the exams for you to see.
Many thanks for the updated images and for the sleep studies. Now what would be helpful is to see a daily chart from Oscar for a night when you had that suffocating feeling. If you know when the feeling occurred, let us know.
Here are some guidelines for preparing your daily chart for posting:
Hello everyone! Today I woke up again at 2:30, feeling exhausted. Could someone help me interpret the data? One thing I noticed I did differently was eating 2 hours before going to bed. I appreciate your attention in advance.
You experienced several obstructive apneas right before your wake-up. People often mentally process OAs as feeling like suffocation, sometimes dreaming that they are suffocating or waking up with the sense that they've been suffocating.
The OAs are tightly clustered, so they might be the result of your sleep posture. If you use a high pillow, or several pillows, try using a single pillow, fairly low and firm.
Your pressure is very low -- lower than is usual for an adult. You might try raising your minimum to 6 and your maximum to 7, with EPR set at 2. There are several reasons why I suggest this. One is that you'll have consistent EPR all night long. (The machine can't go lower than 4.) Another is that the EPR might help with your flow limitations. A third is that the higher minimum might help with your OAs. And a fourth is that these settings might help with the feeling of suffocation.
When you post your next chart, could you include your graphs for flow limitations, leaks, and snores?
There are many YouTube videos on how to access the "clinical" menu to change your pressure as Dormeo has suggested.
Your minimum pressure is very, very low. 7 should be the minimum for an adult.
As most of the people here speak English, please change your language accordingly, only for a screen shot, which is done by pressing F12. Hopefully then will can see more graphs like the following:
Event Flags
Flow Rate
Leak Rate
Flow Limit
Pressure
And the machine settings on the left.
Good Luck!
I continue to have difficulties, because I continue to wake up tired, even though the results seem good. I have already increased the minimum pressure from 4.0 to 4.2 and the maximum from 4 to 5.0, and the neurologist who specializes in sleep recommended that I only keep the pressure at 4.0. I am also undergoing treatment for rhinitis. Some days I wake up feeling well and others I wake up tired. Almost every other day. I have noticed that on the day I take clonazepam to sleep, I wake up more rested. Could anyone tell me if they have had a similar experience? Maybe because clonazepam promotes deeper sleep. I don't know yet if there is any connection. You will increase the pressure tonight to 5.4.
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