Disturbing breathing patterns? Please help.

[Sleeprider]

EPR can be great if you offset the exhale pressure decrease with an increase in minimum pressure. Especially for someone trying to resolve UARS, you can get better ventilation with EPR 2 or 3 as long as you keep the minimum pressure high enough to compensation. If you're using a pressure range of 5-20, then put in EPR and just add that onto the minimum pressure; that way it works more like bilevel pressure support. It should actually help UARS, obstructive hypopnea and flow limitation.

[mRFstro]

EPR can be great if you offset the exhale pressure decrease with an increase in minimum pressure.  Especially for someone trying to resolve UARS, you can get better ventilation with EPR 2 or 3 as long as you keep the minimum pressure high enough to compensation.  If you're using a pressure range of 5-20, then put in EPR and just add that onto the minimum pressure; that way it works more like bilevel pressure support.  It should actually help UARS, obstructive hypopnea and flow limitation.

You're a saint, thanks.

I think I'll try my average pressure of 8 tonight and work my way up to my 90% of around 12, and try EPR 2. 

I'm thinking that flow pattern you noted as unusual is actually an obstructed exhale, I think I actually "remembered" this happening last night after an arousal. I'm going to see a specialist anyhow.

[trish6hundred]

Hi mRFstro ,
WELCOME! to the forum.!
Good luck with CPAP therapy and getting it fine-tuned to meet your needs.

[Sleeprider]

EPR can be great if you offset the exhale pressure decrease with an increase in minimum pressure.  Especially for someone trying to resolve UARS, you can get better ventilation with EPR 2 or 3 as long as you keep the minimum pressure high enough to compensation.  If you're using a pressure range of 5-20, then put in EPR and just add that onto the minimum pressure; that way it works more like bilevel pressure support.  It should actually help UARS, obstructive hypopnea and flow limitation.

You're a saint, thanks.

I think I'll try my average pressure of 8 tonight and work my way up to my 90% of around 12, and try EPR 2. 

I'm thinking that flow pattern you noted as unusual is actually an obstructed exhale, I think I actually "remembered" this happening last night after an arousal. I'm going to see a specialist anyhow.

I will remind my wife and friends that I'm a saint the next time that is called into question...Thanks...I wish I had known I was addressing the Pope.   

I hope the new settings make you more comfortable, they are really just based on the recommended titration protocols for bilevel, and it's the best I have for applying them to Resmed Autosets which mimic bilevel pretty well, albeit limited to 3 cm pressure.  Good luck and let us know how it works out.

[chicken]

http://www.apneaboard.com/forums/Thread-...ost?page=3

look at pages 3 and 4, these are my charts.
i have mild sleep apnea but with cpap its worse, now on ASV.
for me it was all about the spo2 readings, o2 dropping by 4% or more for over 10 sec.
100 to 400 times a night.
if the o2 level never drops below 91 no cpap needed.
mild as my o2 low is around 85 some have low o2 of 60 to 70% thats bad.
spo2 above 91% is what you want, whats your spo2 readings?
even with all that my charts show its still mild per spo2.
with ASV my spo2 did not change but my AHI went from 28 to 6.

[HalfAsleep]

http://www.apneaboard.com/forums/Thread-...ost?page=3

look at pages 3 and 4, these are my charts.
i have mild sleep apnea but with cpap its worse, now on ASV.
for me it was all about the spo2 readings, o2 dropping by 4% or more for over 10 sec.
100 to 400 times a night.
if the o2 level never drops below 91 no cpap needed.
mild as my o2 low is around 85 some have low o2 of 60 to 70% thats bad.
spo2 above 91% is what you want, whats your spo2 readings?
even with all that my charts show its still mild per spo2.
with ASV my spo2 did not change but my AHI went from 28 to 6.

I’m having trouble deciphering what you’re saying. Could you maybe write in sentences?

[fitmart]

Hello my friend.  I was also diagnosed with apnea score of 7-8 all of which were hypopneas.  I also had a RERA count of 15.  Basically that means I have UARS.  (Like a lot of UARS sufferers, we have insomnia.  OSA sufferers are usually deep sleepers, while UARS sufferers are usually light sleepers).  Thus, UARS folks are often more sensitive to being on a CPAP and the pressure it generates.


I have heard that RERAs require more pressure than OSA.  I also have heard from ENT's that they require less.  So the jury is still out on that.

All I know is that I have the Airsense Autoset 10 APAP.  It was set for 5-20.  My 95% pressure stayed around 12.  However, that pressure kept me awake and caused Central Apnea.  It also bloated my stomach.  Over several weeks, I toyed with different pressures.  I learned that 8 and above kept me awake thus defeating the purpose of the CPAP.  I now keep it on a max pressure of 5-6 and my AHI is equal or less than at the higher pressures.  Which means the APAP doesn't always know the right pressure to pick.

Regarding sleep patterns, before the CPAP, I woke every hour and was so tired during the day I could not function.  With the CPAP (and valium) I sleep about 3 hours at a shot, but can now function during the day. 

So, address one problem at a time.  I personally would experiment with pressure until finding what works best.

After you get the CPAP issue resolved, then begin addressing insomnia.  (sleep hyegene, natural remedies, etc)

Good Luck

[Dawnstar]

Is there some reason posting PDFs of the SleepyHead reports themselves wouldn't be preferable, other than possibly eating up file space?

[Gideon]

The best solution is to post full size screen prints to IMGUR (your account) and providing the bbboard link / thumbnail(large) here. That lets us see the full sized image if we choose to.