Which disturbs sleep most? High Pressure or Changing Pressure

[Rcgop]

http://imgur.com/a/5RwA4
Here are 3 consecutive days of sleep.
They range from a good night sleep to a bad night sleep.

Sept 2 was the best sleep and best numbers.

Sept 3 was the second best sleep and worst numbers. The first half of the night was excellent sleep and the last half was not that bad either. I knew I had awakened and having problems so I got up for a few minutes and then finished the night reletively good.

Sep 4 was the worst sleep and middle of the road AHI. Woke up many times and was restless most all night.

I thought I had this thing under control in June and July when I had my AHI under 1 for several weeks with several zero's. Now my AHI numbers are going the wrong way. However, I still think my sleep is improving and I am just sleeping through a few of the apnea's.

I am beginning to think the change in pressure or high (for me) pressure is causing me to wake too often. I have closed down the pressure range some but not below my minimum or maximum.

Question:
I am thinking I should narrow the range AND lower my maximum pressure. I have had only 1 or 2 obstructive apneas in the past several weeks so I am thinking my minimum pressure stopping them and any pressure above that could be responsible my waking. I know 10 cm is not much pressure but then again I am 6ft tall and weigh 187 and should not take much to keep my airways open.

How does changing pressure and/or high pressure affect your sleep quality.

[Dreams of Green]

Could there also be other sleep hygiene factors at play? For myself, once I dialed in my settings, I've found my AHI numbers are most likely to be affected by factors such as inconsistent sleep schedule, drinking caffeine too late and so on, which in turn can cause poor restless sleep. And poor restless sleep seems to correlate with higher AHI.

[justMongo]

One the one hand, you show a lot of flow limitation. That is suggestive of not enough pressure.
The night you call the worst of 3 shows a number of central apneas.
That may be an issue that cannot be addressed with the type of machine you are using.

As for:

How does changing pressure and/or high pressure affect your sleep quality.

There is no one size fits all answer. It depends upon the individual.

[Rcgop]

The flow limit graph scale has been changed from the default (1.0) to .5. They were to low to see on the default scale. As for the pressure, it never gets to the max or min setting leaving it able to go further. Just looking for better sleep.

[Dawei]

In my experience, high pressure has the potential of disturbing sleep more so than changing pressure if there is mask leak involved. On nights of zero or very small leak numbers, I remain unaware of pressure changes during the night. Meanwhile, high pressure that triggers leaks can often wake me enough to realize I have a leak problem. During nights with zero leak, I am not bothered by either high pressure (mine gets up close to 20 at times) or pressure changes.

As justMongo noted, your graphs show some fairly high levels of Centrals which also makes me wonder if you are using the right machine to address them.

David

[Sleeprider]

It's interesting that snores, flow limits and CA are all lined up at the same time. The machine detects these events and increases pressure, and then records a central apnea, which makes no sense at all in the presence of those OA indicators. Purely speculative on my part, but I think you are having obstructed airway issues, which disrupts your sleep, and causes you to change position or hold your breath briefly, scoring the CA. I don't think these are strictly CA events, but are instead precipitated by OA. My suggestion would be to increase minimum pressure slightly to head that off. One other question. You are not using EPR; was it a problem or disruptive to you?

[Rcgop]

It's interesting that snores, flow limits and CA are all lined up at the same time. The machine detects these events and increases pressure, and then records a central apnea, which makes no sense at all in the presence of those OA indicators. Purely speculative on my part, but I think you are having obstructed airway issues, which disrupts your sleep, and causes you to change position or hold your breath briefly, scoring the CA. I don't think these are strictly CA events, but are instead precipitated by OA. My suggestion would be to increase minimum pressure slightly to head that off. One other question. You are not using EPR; was it a problem or disruptive to you?

I just came back to this thread and noticed I did not respond to to your last question Sleeprider, sorry. I am now using EPR = 1. I breathe much better now. Interesting point you bring up, I have often thought my CAs were miss classified.

It it very possible that what you described is taking place just as you describe. I will stare raising my min pressure and see what happens.

[Sleep2Snore]

I have found that if you increase the lower level closer to the high level your machine usually get to the better sleep.
The rise in pressure if a lot can disturb your sleep. It might not take much of an increase in the low lever, but I would put the lower level up very slowly. EPR is a personal choice, but it can help you breath out when the machine is at a high level, this might also be affecting your sleep. As someone else said, coffee, energy drinks, alcohol and a few other things can also affect your sleep.