Cheyne Stokes?

[yarnoj]

Hello, I'm hoping to find some help in figuring out what type of apnea I might have. 

A little background... I was diagnosed with apnea in March 2020 and given an APAP. I was on my second night of trying to get used to the machine when Covid shutdown California and I was stressed by all that (had to shut down my business). I felt the APAP was keeping me awake and so I quit using it and tried to manage my apnea only by sleeping on my side. That seemed to work well for the last two years, but now I'm having a different type of problem.

My experience now is that when I just start to drift off to sleep and am in that transitional phase I believe I stop breathing. That leads to me being pulled back into wakefulness and rapid breathing. After I recover, I start to drift off again but then I'll stop breathing again and the pattern repeats. I'll go on like this for hours until I give up and get out of bed. The Cheyne-Stokes respiration pattern is a pretty good description of what I think I'm experiencing. 

I have good sleep hygiene and seem to be able to drift off to sleep, but my issue is that I'm awakened immediately before I actually fall asleep and have to breath heavily to catch up. Does anyone else experience this? What remedies are out there for it?

My pattern for the last two weeks:
- Jan 27 - no sleep
- Jan 28 - 4 hours
- Jan 29 - 8.5 hours
- Jan 30 - 6 hours
- Jan 31 - no sleep
- Feb 1 - 9 hours
- Feb 2 - 7.5 hours
- Feb 3 - 2.5 hours
- Feb 4 - 6 hours
- Feb 5 - 6.5 hours
- Feb 6 - 1 hour
- Feb 7 - no sleep
- Feb 8 - 9.5 hours
- Feb 9 - it appears I'll get no sleep again tonight...

Thanks in advance for any insight you may have!

[OpalRose]

What you are experiencing is "untreated apnea."   Your sleep apnea has progressed and gotten worse since you were diagnosed due to non treatment.

Example:  Although I've been on Cpap Therapy for 7 years, if I tried to sleep without my machine regardless if on my side or not, I would be jerked awake within seconds.  I know what that feels like, not to mention it's bad for your heart to go without treatment.

Can you tell us what brand Apap you have?  I suggest you dig out your Apap, set it up with a pressure of 7 minimum and 15 maximum.  Set EPR to 2.  Be sure there is a SD card inserted in your machine.  Then post a screenshot of the daily page after a night.  We can take a look at your data and go from there.  (See the links in my signature line for guidance.)

If you had a prior sleep study, you can post the report here.  We might have a better idea as to what's going on.  You mentioned  "Cheyne-Stokes respiration".  There's no way for us to know that without seeing some data.

[Gideon]

Welcome to the forum.
First the question of Cheyne Stokes Respiration or CSR. Except for cases associated they fairly severe heart issues it is very uncommon. In other words I very strongly doubt that is the issue.

Because you mentioned CSR I suspect you may have periodic breathing. ResMed incorrectly calls all periodic breathing CSR.

You said you were diagnosed with apnea. Typically this is a result of a sleep test.
It will help us help you g you post a full copy of your sleep test, the charts and tables in addition to the summary.

Do you still have the APAP? If so please use it, make sure it has an SD card installed, download OSCAR, and post the daily charts, there is a ton of info contained in those charts. They will, more than anything else, tell us what is going on. Then we can suggest settings that will help to alleviate your symptoms.