New to BiPAP, hoping for titration assistance? (Probable UARS)

[Sleeprider]

If you want to improve your results with nasal breathing, the best way is to use a nasal pillows mask and we can look at what needs improvement. With the bilevel, you should be able to use pressure support to overcome UARS in the upper airway, including any nasal problems. Your description of nasal breathing results is unique since it is generally the objective of sleep professionals to encourage nasal breathing. It's a more conditioned airway and more natural for most people. I just don't know if you can overcome the long-term habit of breathing mostly orally.

[Easing5319]

Are there any options for nasal pillow masks that won't have much silicone contact with my skin?  My skin goes bright red when in contact with silicone, so I've been using AirTouch masks (F20 and N20 in the past).  Is the AirTouch N20 the same as a nasal pillow mask?

I will need to block off some time to experiment with going back to nasal breathing.... I need to schedule that for when I have nothing else going on, because of the high likelihood of severe impairment in my cognitive functioning.... Hopefully the good folks of this forum will be ready and available also to help me with titration over this difficult time, as I will of course need to minimize the amount of time my brain feels like a piece of jello wrapped in a blanket....  I'm thinking maybe next month I will see if i can try to make the switch.

In the meantime, I'm still trying to dial in my FFM setup.  I have increased PS by 1 and switched to a flatter pillow.  I think flow limitations are a bit lower now, but I still get some wicked CA clusters around sleep/wake (the machine seems to flag CA's even when I'm wide awake breathing normally, just trying to fall asleep).  And I'm still getting random OA events.

Fatigue and brain fog are definitely still present and I continue to feel very poorly rested, although not as bad as when using nasal masks... Any suggestions as to what (if anything) i should do now?

[Easing5319]

I just experimented 2 nights sleeping with mouth tape only and no machine.... brain fog is massively reduced.... Still a bit tired, and a sore throat from snoring/throat collapses I think, but....I can think far more clearly.  So.... I dont know.  Its obvious something in my airway is collapsing, even while nasal breathing...I dont feel great waking up in the morning like this, but I do feel much better overall compared to using the machine.

I wish I could find some settings on the BiPAP that would allow me to use it while eliminating this crazy brain fog, but, I have no idea how to do that from here.

[Sleeprider]

Easing, I see the CA events are continuing, so I recommend you change trigger sensitivity to very-high.

Your obstructive apnea appear in clusters, which suggests positional apnea. You may need a collar, but if you're using some kind of memory foam or anti-snoring pillow, those have been very bad in my experience in causing positional obstruction. In any event, you do need something different.

For settings, I want to narrow things down a bit. Let's run EPAP min 7.0, PS 4.0 IPAP max 14.0, trigger sensitivity very-high, and calm things down a bit.

[jkossis]

Easing,

I see it has been a few months since you last posted … any luck since then?

[jkossis]

Easing,

I see it has been a few months since you last posted … any luck since then?