Welcome to Apnea Board !
As a guest, you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use.
To post a message, you must create a free account using a valid email address.
Login or Create an Account
Thank you - it's actually the deep sleep that I'm getting woken from, probably even worse than REM! I'm getting this from the Oura data, which shows sleep stages through the night. It's not too hard to match the times with OSCAR. I think that going into deep sleep must change something to cause positional apnea.
I will start moving the minimum pressure up gradually.
And I will continue moving my bedtime forward. I am getting tired very early these days.
I think that the soft cervical collar has eliminated the OAs. I'm attaching Oscar results for 3 nights. I'd been away until 8/31, and unfortunately I seem to have left my Somnoseal behind. I quickly ordered another, but it was LD weekend and it hasn't come yet. So there has been some leaking. I am double taping my mouth until the Somnoseal comes.
I'm still getting very little sleep most nights, usually 4-5 hours. The cervical collar has been bothering me a lot. I hope I get used to it, as I've gotten used to the CPAP machine/ports and the Somnoseal/mouth tape.
Sat 8/31: 6.5 hrs sleep, no OAs, some leaking/flow limits
Sun 9/1: 5.5 hrs sleep, very interrupted, lots of leaking, but no OAs
Mon 9/2: subjectively and according to Oscar, a great night - but I forgot to wear the Oura ring
Last night was terrible, insomnia and only 3 hours of very interrupted sleep.
I'm wondering if I should make any changes to my pressures? Should I still move the minimum pressure up?
I'm sorry you're not consistently getting good sleep. I really hope you can adjust to the collar, because it's worked wonders for your OAs. Would it be worth trying a different size or brand that might be more comfortable?
You could try raising you min a little more, just to see whether that would help with the flow limitations. But I caution that FLs may not be interfering with good sleep, and raising pressure (as opposed to EPR) may not do much to reduce the FLs. So you could give it a try, but if it's uncomfortable, return to your current settings.
You probably know this, but the Oura ring can only guess at deep sleep, because it lacks any EEG functionality.
When you feel subjectively rested, it doesn't much matter what Oscar says, unless it reports a disaster.
I forget whether this has come up already, but you might keep some daily notes to see whether you can correlate good/bad nights with other possibly relevant variables. Those might include Oscar data, exercise, exposure to sunlight, anxiety, diet, or night-time noise or uncomfortable temperatures.
You've done a lot of problem-solving, and I really hope you'll soon start seeing a lot more good nights than bad.
Yes, with the help of the good people here, you in particular, most of the problems have been solved! I had another night with zero OAs. I will look into whether a different size/collar might be better. I ordered a popular one from Amazon without even doing any measurements, because I was so tired and busy. It did not bother me that much last night, though, so I might just need to be used to it.
I know that the Oura isn't perfect at identifying deep sleep. In my sleep study, even with 20 AHI, my deep and REM sleep percentages were not that far off from optimal. But I did find that the Oura-indicated entry into deep sleep was followed immediately with clusters of OAs a number of times.
I do need to keep better notes on those other factors that affect sleep. CPAP therapy is working very well now. The few times that I took all the CPAP stuff off during the night, the Oura indicated breathing issues when I wasn't using it. And on the nights that I use CPAP the entire night (almost every night), the Oura indicates very high oxygenation and little heart rate variability. So the therapy is accomplishing what it need to. I will try raising the minimum pressure a bit more, as you suggest, but I think that at this point I am mostly dealing with non-CPAP sleep issues.
I actually had a good night of sleep last night - 7.5 hours actually asleep, according to Oura, 38 mins deep sleep, 1:15 REM. I think that when Oura indicates deep sleep, I am in deep sleep, but I also think it must be under-counting it. My OSCAR results look pretty good; absolutely no OAs. I'm still waiting for the SomnoSeal, which I need to completely stop leaking. Double taping + cervical collar don't completely stop it.
The collar didn't bother me last night!
I'll wait until the Somnoseal comes, then track a few nights and consult you again about pressures. Thank you for all your expert advice!
