CorruptAlligator - CPAP Problems

[Geer1]

The night it went higher was mostly due to a couple bad periods of flow limitations, maybe sleeping with head in a strange position or something. It doesn't seem obvious that the higher pressure helped your flow limitation so I wouldn't increase pressure.

If you have nights like this regularly then it would be something worth trying to treat (not a whole lot you can do with this machine though), if this is a rare occurrence then nothing to worry about.

[Sleeprider]

Your AHI is good enough that changes should be made for comfort. That said the few obstructive apnea and hypopnea you have generally arise from when your machine is at or near the minimum pressure of 8.0. With a median pressure of 9.7 and 95% pressure near 11.0 (I am not counting the high pressure caused by flow limitation on August 6 at 23:15), it appears your current minimum pressure is too low to prevent some events. I think you could try a minimum pressure of 9.0 and see how that works out for you from a comfort standpoint. The main advantage is that it may prevent some events, but will also reduce the pressure variations, which should be less disruptive to sleep.

[CorruptAlligator]

Thanks guys.  

Lately, I've run into some sleep issues, and was trying to figure it out.  I don't think LPR is causing my sleep issue. I also have TMJ issues (I clinch my teeth at night), and trying to figure out if that's causing my wakings. I was hoping that CPAP therapy would clear my teeth clinching issue, but it doesn't seem to be.

I've also been testing sleep positions, and I've realized I cannot sleep on my left side all night, and I naturally go back to supine position.  My sleep test show I side sleep 10-30% of the night depending on the night.  My obstructive events mainly happen during supine.  So, I've tried sleeping on the side, but overtime I naturally change to supine and majority of events happen during supine position.  

Also, I've been trying out various pillows.  I found that MyPillow medium fill classic works better than my previous pillow which had a shallow profile (not comfortable for side sleeping).  MyPillow works much better for side-sleeping (since it's higher), but also works for back sleeping when I get on supine (Positional apnea doesn't seem to be all that severe).  I tried buckwheat pillow, but it doesn't seem to be fore me.  Since I have positional apnea, buckwheat pillow can cause chin-tuck.  Or maybe I don't know how to use the buckwheat pillow to avoid positional apnea.  It's difficult to make it work for both back and side sleeping.  I'm trying to figure out what pillow would be perfect for side and back sleeping (Let me know if you have any ideas).

Since my pressure is raised to 9 now (and reduced my max to 13), I decided to try out other masks again.  Those masks I've used with low pressure of 5 -7 may work better now that I've raised my pressure. 

I went back to N20 mask, and I'm realizing that it works better at higher pressure.  I think I sleep best with the N20 mask.  With the F20 mask, I have to use the cervical collar to prevent positional apnea, but with N20, I don't have positional apnea issues. This is really puzzling because with the nasal pillows, there seems to be positional apnea issue like the F20 mask.  Also, I sleep much better with N20 mask. I have times when I cannot go back to sleep for 1.5 hrs with F20 mask, but with N20 mask, I can fall back asleep quickly.  Getting back on N20 really helped with my sleep issue.

I've attached some OSCAR charts.  Any feedbacks are welcome.