Brain Fog - seeking guidance in optimizing my therapy

[Sleeprider]

I have had the same problem lately. Night before last I woke up and after a while of not sleeping looked at the time, 02:47. I continued to look at the time at about one-hour intervals until about 06:40, and then got some hit or miss sleep.  Apple Watch said my sleep looked like this, but it was worse.  It's not anything to do with my therapy or settings, and neither is your problem.  I think for me, having alcohol in the evening is not a help, I'm spending a lot less time outdoors due to Winter, and have a lower activity level, and I'm at an age where awakening is pretty common. I tried taking some melatonin last night and did a lot better.  I think we go through some phases in our sleep quality and just need to work it out.  I am certain that as weather improves in the Spring, and my activity level rises, so will my sleep quality.  You probably have some ideas as well. Maybe a little higher minimum EPAP pressure to avoid some OA?

   

[deocder]

Thank you for your feedback, Sleeprider.  Your Apple Watch sleep report looks a mess and I hope you can find relief soon.  For me, I am in Arizona so am getting quite a bit of daily sunshine as well as exercise and time outdoors.  I've not taken melatonin but have to admit that I slip into a Benadryl cycle when times like this crop up.  I'm sure melatonin would be a much better solution so I should look into that.  

Ideally, I'd have a titration study done but I'm not in my home state and trying to schedule a sleep study away from my sleep doctor will not be an easy feat.  So, I will likely take your suggestion and raise my minimum EPAP level from 8.0 to 8.5 to try flush out some of these OA's.  They really seem to coincide with my waking moments.

[deocder]

Just reporting back after changing my EPAP to 8.6 seven days ago.

I'm not seeing any improvement in my sleep quality.  I still wake several times in the morning and am desperate to get out of bed well ahead of my usual time to get things done.  I believe it has to do with a new medication I am on called Abilify.  I take this first thing in the morning so that has less of an effect on my sleep but I may not be able to avoid it if continuing on this med.  But I am now relying on another med, Benadryl, to counteract the effects, and I'm not okay with that.

I will also acknowledge the leaks as my significant other has indicated that I'm having a lot of leaks through my mouth so I've got some mouth tape on order.  I'll see how that goes.