Decent AHIs and feeling tired after 1.5 months of CPAP Therapy

[Michael.lee98120]

I have been on CPAP therapy for around 1.5 months now and it has improved my wellbeing (less headaches and less brain fog), however i still wake up extremely tired despite having it on for 8 hours a night.

AHI on Oscar is around a 4 at highest, however, the alarming thing I feel is that the majority of the make up of my AHI is due to central sleep apneas...and rarely hyponeas and obstructive apneas.

My sleep doctor told me anything below a 5 isnt a worry at all despite nights where my centrals make up the majority of the AHI. My results attached.

   

[staceyburke]

I think you are in a mid area which is hard to help one (centrals) and hurt another (flow limits).    Both are higher than we would like to  see.  To lessen the centrals you would decrease the EPR to 1 BUT that may increase flow limits.  That is what I would suggest and give it a night and see if it helped or hurt.

EPR is exhale pressure relief - in other words your exhale pressure is 7-3 or 4.  Now your exhale pressure woulde be 7-1 or 6.  Let's see how you do with those numbers.



Min 7
Max 11
EPR 1

BTW when you post again take off the calendar by clicking the triangle on the date line.  We are missing some of the information located at the bottom of that column.

[Michael.lee98120]

just curious...how would decreasing the EPR from 3 to 1 help?

[staceyburke]

EPR helps with flow limits. Centrals are increased by a wider difference between the exhale and the pressure you need to control your apnea. The best setting to help eliminate centrals as much as possible is to go straight Cpap (min and max is the same number with 0 EPR. That is difficult  for many at the therapeutic pressure. 

Your centrals have a good chance to decrease as you get use to the pap therapy. Now we are trying to get to the best level we can while your body adjusts to pap therapy.