04-20-2024, 10:33 AM
RE: CPAP works, but at the same time doesn't
your story is remarkably similar to mine, only real difference being that i've always used APAP and originally had 6-12cm but after review with the doctors my median pressure was 7, so i'm now at 6-9cm. i would wake up and just take the thing off after 2-4h of usage. the doctors told me that i really need to wear the thing all night in order to see any benefit from the treatment, so i just grit my teeth and stopped taking it off (when i did so consciously). i'm up to 6.5-7h of usage now and i do feel slightly better though i usually have a headache and some diziness during the day now, rather than full-on fatigue. i do have nights where i wake up and i'm awake for 1-1.5 hours struggling with the mask, but that is a recent phenomenon which i don't fully understand. it was kicked off when the sleep center gave me 2 new masks to try which just didn't agree with me.
i breathe thru my mouth, so without tape, i have to use a FFM. currently using a dreamware hybrid FFM and this has worked the best for me as i do side sleep for ~60% of the night and having the hose come off the top of my head is much better for the side position.
my obstructive AHI is very low but i seem to suffer from central apneas as i fall asleep so my numbers range from 2-4, with 85% CA. you are lucky in that you don't seem to have that problem at all and your numbers look excellent. as hard as it is i'd say to just persevere in not taking the mask off if you can help it. it sounds like you're already mostly there.
another thing you can do is install some kind of camera so that you can see what you are doing at night, how many times you are (visibly) waking up, etc. i also use a spare iphone with SomnoPose to record my position. the position data is very jittery so i do suspect i am waking up a lot and so despite the CPAP i still have sleep fragmentation. i need to do a better job of attaching the phone to my chest though as some of the noise in the data could be caused by the phone just flopping around.
i breathe thru my mouth, so without tape, i have to use a FFM. currently using a dreamware hybrid FFM and this has worked the best for me as i do side sleep for ~60% of the night and having the hose come off the top of my head is much better for the side position.
my obstructive AHI is very low but i seem to suffer from central apneas as i fall asleep so my numbers range from 2-4, with 85% CA. you are lucky in that you don't seem to have that problem at all and your numbers look excellent. as hard as it is i'd say to just persevere in not taking the mask off if you can help it. it sounds like you're already mostly there.
another thing you can do is install some kind of camera so that you can see what you are doing at night, how many times you are (visibly) waking up, etc. i also use a spare iphone with SomnoPose to record my position. the position data is very jittery so i do suspect i am waking up a lot and so despite the CPAP i still have sleep fragmentation. i need to do a better job of attaching the phone to my chest though as some of the noise in the data could be caused by the phone just flopping around.
