(07-15-2014, 10:48 PM)Realtor 1 Wrote: I recently switched to Resmed S9 Auto Set and my data has seen tremendous improvement.
I have been using it for almost a month and my AHI is Continuously under 0.5. with almost zero Hypopneas & 3 to 5 Centrals per night.
3-5 centrals
per NIGHT does NOT even come close to satisfying the usual criteria for being switched to a very expensive ASV machine. With these kinds of numbers it is unlikely that an ASV machine would do anything for you that the PAP machine is not already doing And it can be even harder to learn to sleep with an ASV machine when the machine decides to trigger inhalations ...
Quote:Strangely for me i still feel terrible all day , extremely Sleepy(but still cannot get good sleep at all) and Fatigued with headaches with no energy.
CPAP does not fix
bad sleep; CPAP fixes OSA and nothing else. If the
bad sleep is being caused by things other than and in addition to untreated OSA, CPAP will only fix the OSA problem; the other causes of
bad sleep remain and still need to be investigated and "fixed".
So the question becomes, what else might be causing your bad sleep now that the OSA is properly controlled by your PAP?
You may need to start with a plain old physical with your PCP. Make sure the problem is not caused by something else: Thyroid problems often manifest themselves with fatigue, headaches, and bad sleep. So do certain vitamin deficiencies. So do a lot of other health problems that are not directly related to sleep. As a male, you might also need your testosterone levels checked out.
Lifestyle can also lead to
bad sleep and daytime fatigue issues: Are you getting enough physical activity every day? Are you overdoing the exercise and/or exercising too close to bedtime? Are you eating a decent diet? Are you consuming too much caffeine or alcohol, particularly too close to bedtime? Are you under a great deal of stress?
Sleep hygiene also comes into play: Do you have a regular sleep schedule? Do you have trouble getting to sleep? Staying asleep? Or waking up too early?
In other words, it's not all about tweaking the PAP therapy by changing machines or settings on a machine. Sometimes we need to investigate other causes for on-going daytime fatigue and sleepiness.
And finally, as discouraging as it is to say: There are a few unlucky PAPers who never feel much better even though they use their machine all night long, every single night and have low AHIs and good leak numbers. The docs don't really understand why this happens, but they do know that it does happen to a small number of PAPers. Perhaps the damage from the years of untreated OSA just doesn't heal fully. In cases where residual daytime sleepiness and fatigue is an ongoing and relentless issue for a compliant PAPer, occasionally sleep docs will turn to treating the daytime sleepies with stimulants such a s Nuvigil. But that approach has its own problems.