Could use some help

[broken665]

I was diagnosed with sleep apnea back in 2012 and was given a Respironics System One basic cpap, largely because I didn't know at that time that I had a say in what machine I got. My restfulness was marginally better when I used it compared to when I didn't, and there was no recorded data to determine how effectively it was handling things, so I just assumed that things were going as well as they could be expected to.

Fast forward to last year, when I was upgraded to a Respironics Dreamstation Auto cpap. I paid attention to my nightly AHI levels for a while, which my sleep doctor kept telling me were higher than they should be, but never could get them to stay lower. The amount of brain fog I'm feeling on a daily basis has me wanting to figure out why I'm not doing as well as I should be, and I could really use some help figuring out if there's something I can change to fix things.

My last appointment with my sleep doc was last Thursday, and I changed to a new mask/pressure settings that day, so it seems like that would be the best place to get started with Sleepyhead reports.

Any help is greatly appreciated. I just want to stop feeling like I'm cognitively underwater every day.

[Gary1of2]

Have you tried a soft cervical collar it might help with the obstuctive apnea. Your chin might be going to your chest.

[Walla Walla]

Along with the collar I'd also raise the minimum pressure up to 15cm.

[Sleeprider]

The clusters of obstructive events is pretty classic for a positional apnea problem that a soft cervical collar has been effective for many members here. Basically as you sleep, your chin may tuck toward your chest or your head/neck alignment causes restriction of the airway that CPAP pressure cannot resolve. I have seen many members go from event rates greater than 20 to less than 2 and even less than 1 event per hour using this approach. Some of those threads should start appearing in the suggested thread links at the bottom of this page.

Here is a link to a recent thread similar to yours. http://www.apneaboard.com/forums/Thread-...pected-AHI I think this could help you get things sorted out.

[broken665]

Cervical collar will be in Friday. Will crank the minimum pressure up to 15 tonight and see how that changes things before and after the c collar. Thank you all for the information.

[bfmccarthy]

Can you rise your minimum pressure from 7 to 8.5 - 9.0?

[broken665]

Cervical collar came in a day early, so I wore it for the first time last night. One night isn't much of a sample size, admittedly, but last night's sleep was unfortunately not much better. Will keep wearing the collar and see if there is any improvement over the next week. The collar I ordered might be a bit too high for my neck, so that might be negatively affecting things. Will have to see if I can find something a bit shorter that will still fit a 20" neck.

[broken665]

For reference, here's the night before, with new settings and without cervical collar.

[Sleeprider]

I'm sorry to see this isn't responding more positively to your efforts. It's certainly worth giving this more time, but at some point you will need to touch base with your doctor and consider moving to a bilevel machine that can provide more pressure an perhaps pressure support. I'd like to get a closer view of the flow rate in a 2-minute segment to see if we can see something in there that can help us understand these events better.

[bfmccarthy]

NASAL PILLOWS???  Is your mouth opening in your sleep?  I know mine does that is why I said no thanks to the nose hose and went full on fighter pilot face mask.