Bipap Pressure Suggestions

[Sleeprider]

Respiration is a fickle creature. We push on one aspect like tidal volume, then don't see a rise in minute vent because respiration rate drops. If you want to try higher PS to increase Vt then, I would suggest smaller increments than 1-cm and observing results to see what is accomplished. I would suggest a 0.4 cm increase to start. It sometimes helps to increase trigger sensitivity to give PS a head-start on inspiration. This also seems to reduce CA events. We really want to stay away from your aerophagia threshold as it can really spoil an otherwise good night.

[supyasieve]

Thanks SL.

What is a good respiratory rate/tidal to have?

At what level should you worry and is it something you should actively work to improve?

I wonder if the reason i wake up with headaches is because of that.

[Sleeprider]

Normal tidal volume is a range and is dependent on your height, ideal weight, age and fitness levels. It's almost impossible to make a judgement based on the Oscar stats unless it is exceptionally low or high (200s or over 800s), or without really good knowledge of the individual and their health. I don't try, but your Vt is right down the middle for someone under 6-feet tall. Similarly, respiration rates vary a lot, but I like to see over 11 and under 20 as a general rule with minute vent falling in an appropriate range. All of that probably meant nothing, other than you probably fall into a normal range. You can't even rely on the respiration rate to be accurate because flow anomalies will cause these CPAP machines to improperly count respiration rate, and we have to manually count the breaths per minute the machine count.

[supyasieve]

Hi All,

Been struggling still. I actually went to the Mayo clinic and spoke with a new doctor and his advice was my sleep studies showed mild apnea and since I have not felt much improvement, there was no harm in trying sleeping without the machine if it made me feel better.

I slept a week without it and I think my symptoms improved, but nothing ground breaking. Last night I went back to my bipap machine with my prescribed settings from my sleep study year and half or so ago. Feel worse than I have the past week without, but figured it would be a good baseline to start with. Also, oddly feel like this makes my nose more congested and harder to breathe through.

My tidal volume continues to be low, but here are the settings. Is it possible that the machine makes sleep worse if your apnea is mild (6 ahi without)

S Mode:
9/5
TI Min:0.8
ti Max: 2.5

Trigger High
Cycle Medium

ALso, if someone could merge my threads. Gathered you are supposed to keep all in one reading other posts, and I have not done that previously.