Benefits to higher pressures?

[bexiesbruv]

I was advised here and by the second sleep place I went to, to set the S9 Autoset to automatic and then pressure to 6-14 and epr to auto and 3.

I have had these settings now for a week
Things I have noticed include,
more refreshing sleep
less wake ups
no longer have vile smelling breath (is that even a thing?)

Things I wanted to change but have not yet

Increase in SPo2
Increase energy
lowered blood pressure

I realise the latter 3 might take some time.

Now my questions:
Is there any benefit (or harm) in increasing pressure and turning off EPR eventually, on the basis that I might draw in more breath and therefore increase saturation?
Does it not work that way?

Doe breathing against the flow of air when epr is off, help to exercise (for want of a better term) the lungs?

[PoolQ]

Not sure if you are mixing a couple things up or not.
Sleep Apnea has nothing to do with strong or weak lungs. Doing breathing exercises will not effect your sleep apnea
CPAP is a treatment and not a cure. Your airway is either open or not, more pressure does nothing at these levels .
Not sure where you are going with EPR. that only effects when you exhale and makes that easier. No idea how this might cause you to drawn in more air by making it harder to exhale.

You want to increase lung capacity and strength? Pick up a wind instrument and play it, it will do both of those things, but it will not treat your sleep apnea.

[Marillion]

As to increasing pressure too much...at some point you will start running into more Clear Airway events and possibly more Hypopneas not to mention decreasing your comfort level. Too much of anything is not good.

[bexiesbruv]

Thanks
I guess I ought to have mentioned that this treatment was the suggestion to fix low spo2.
I don't have apnea, or of I do, it's very mild.
Diagnosis is sleep disordered breathing syndrome

[bexiesbruv]

Doing breathing exercises will not effect your sleep apnea

     I was wondering if it will affect my SPo2 level


CPAP is a treatment and not a cure. Your airway is either open or not, more pressure does nothing at these levels .
  
     OK, got that, thanks.


Not sure where you are going with EPR. that only effects when you exhale and makes that easier. No idea how this might cause you to drawn in more air by making it harder to exhale.

     My thought was that when off, the pressure will not reduce (when breathing out) therefore you must breathe (perhaps) harder, to fully exhale.

You want to increase lung capacity and strength? Pick up a wind instrument and play it, it will do both of those things, but it will not treat your sleep apnea.

     Even though my nearest neighbour is a 1/4 mile from me, I dont think I would wish that on anyone. Seriously, are there actually breathing exercises that can be done that will assist me with increasing saturation?

[AshSF]

Did you do a sleep study? What were the results; AHI, Spo2 levels etc.

In general, if you have Obstructive events still with the S9, you should raise the minimum pressure in 0.5cm intervals per week until they are eliminated.

The EPR of 3 is a good setting to have if your goal is to improve oxygenation.

[SuperSleeper]

Thanks
I guess I ought to have mentioned that this treatment was the suggestion to fix low spo2.
I don't have apnea, or of I do, it's very mild.
Diagnosis is sleep disordered breathing syndrome

bexiesbruv, you were diagnosed by a sleep center and they can't tell you whether or not you have sleep apnea?

Maybe I'm missing something, but that doesn't make much sense - did you go through an overnight sleep study? If it was done correctly, a sleep center should be able to tell you which of the three you were diagnosed with.

"Sleep disordered breathing" is usually defined as some type of sleep apnea, one of these three:

1. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA)
2. Central sleep apnea (CSA)
3. Mixed sleep apnea

[PaytonA]

I was advised here and by the second sleep place I went to, to set the S9 Autoset to automatic and then pressure to 6-14 and epr to auto and 3.

I have had these settings now for a week
Things I have noticed include,
more refreshing sleep
less wake ups
no longer have vile smelling breath (is that even a thing?)

Things I wanted to change but have not yet

Increase in SPo2
Increase energy
lowered blood pressure

I realise the latter 3 might take some time.

Now my questions:
Is there any benefit (or harm) in increasing pressure and turning off EPR eventually, on the basis that I might draw in more breath and therefore increase saturation?
Does it not work that way?

Doe breathing against the flow of air when epr is off, help to exercise (for want of a better term) the lungs?

Do you know what your SPo2 is while you are using the CPAP?? If not, what makes you think it needs improvement.

Your low oxygen saturation is most likely caused by sleep apnea which is a Sleep Disordered Breathing syndrome.

Despite what others may think, playing the didgerido (Sp?) has been shown to strengthen the muscles in the back of the throat and in some cases cure apnea. In the case of apnea it is the muscles in the throat that need strengthing not the lungs and it does not work for everyone.

[Beej]

If you do a Google search on exercise for sleep apnea, there are a few things which will come up.

Singing using diaphragmatic breathing is reputed to help. As a choral singer, I'm not sure it has been much help, unless it delayed the onset in some way. Sometimes I check how big a breath I can exhale and inhale, just to see the stats in SleepyHead.

[PoolQ]

There are indeed exercises you can do, I happen to have one sitting on my bookcase that I got after surgery. search for "Incentive spirometer" pretty simple and it works

What they told me is that you typically only exhale 50% of the air anyway. you so want to make sure you air ways are clear and your lungs are fully expanded to provide as much surface area as possible.

If you have COPD, like I do, there are some inhalers that work great, but not cheap. $160 a month out of pocket seems like a lot, but about a pack a day or less now, so maybe not all that bad anyway.

if everything else is good, then you may need O2