I'm a 40-year-old male who has always suffered from loud snoring (likely sleep apnea) and terrible sleep as long as I can remember. I finally took an at-home sleep study and got diagnosed with moderate sleep apnea in June of 2021. I got a CPAP machine immediately but didn't start really using it consistently until the following February, 2022. Since then I have been trying to be consistent but have been wrestling with it on-and-off ever since. Sometimes I sleep really well with it, sometimes I don't. I have had a couple of weeks well I stopped using it and then went back. Finally decided I absolutely need to do this right and so I've been working to be more consistent and take the time to figure it out as not sleeping right is absolutely ruining my life.
My sleep specialist has been kind of useless so I've been trying to figure out my pressure myself, which hasn't really worked. I downloaded OSCAR and last night I set my APAP pressure to 6 - 20 to see what the machine ended up using. Attached are the OSCAR charts from last night.
The most common issue I run in to is that I will take my mask off in the middle of the night. Sometimes I wake up and notice and put it back on, but sometimes I don't notice until my alarm goes off.
I feel like taking the mask off must mean something is disrupting my sleep enough to wake me up. I'm a side sleeper so I recently switched from the Philips Dreamware Full Face mask to my current Airlift F20 to reduce middle-of-the-night leakage and it does seem to be helping somewhat. The F20 is a little harder to tolerate since I have allergies and it can sometimes push on my sinuses, but it feels easier to manage than the leakage from the other mask.
I have to admit - given how awful my sleep is and how exhausted I am all the time - I am surprised to see as few 'events' as there are. Does this just mean the machine is working? Am I missing something? Mainly, I'm wondering if someone can help me determine the best pressure + what might be causing me to wake up and pull the mask off.
I'll also mention I am quite overweight and am working on that, but I also have had this issue forever, even when I was a healthy weight, so I do not think weight loss is going to be a silver bullet here unfortunately. I also have been working with my ENT who observed that I do have a slight deviated septum but he does not think surgery will help my sleep apnea all that much.
I really appreciate anyone who takes the time to chime in. This has been such a long journey, this really does feel like it is ruining my life, and at this point I'll take all the help I can get!