[CPAP] APAP Settings Review

[falcon940]

Hi all,

I started using my APAP/CPAP machine again and was hoping to get some feedback on my Oscar data. I had a home sleep study done (Lofta) and received this diagnosis:

Obstructive sleep apnea - Mild based on a pRDI=17.4 and O2 nadir of 86% (1.7 AHI/hour)

The sleep study was over a year ago. While I did order the airsense 11 shortly after the study, given the mild numbers, I've been attempting to manage without CPAP. Of late, I'm finding the morning fatigue/tiredness impactful enough to give CPAP another try.

I don't typically have trouble keeping the mask all all night but I find I'm often waking more tired and with more symptoms throughout the day than if I don't use CPAP at all (dizziness, fatigue, shortness of breath, etc.).

Attached are a few recent nights in which I thought I slept well (as well as one can adjusting to CPAP), woke naturally and yet, felt terrible the entire day. I felt slightly better the shorter night (5ish hours) - that was also the night I was using the dreamport.

I've been experimenting between a full face (F30), nasal (N20), and pillows (bleep dreamport) - anecdotally, the dreamport seems to provide the most "direct" pressure whereas the F30/N20 feel like I'm breathing a "pocket" of air. I use mouth tape for the nasal/pillow masks due to my mouth opening throughout the night.


Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[OpalRose]

I see mask movement with the full face mask, evidenced by the spikes on the leak graph. Even though your overall leak rate is low, your sleep can be disrupted by smaller leaks that stretch throughout the night.

It looks like you did much better using the pillow mask. You may have to keep using the mouth tape though.

[falcon940]

Thanks for the reply. I've been working to minimize leaks - that in combination with higher pressure seems to be yielding better results.