Frustrating insomnia continues despite numbers

[alienfrontier]

I switched to a full face mask after noticing I mouth breath at predictable intervals in my sleep (likely REM); you'd think I'd be sleeping through the night based on my numbers, except I'm still having the same awakening pattern (2-3 hours then every hour) that correlates with the mouth breathing (subtle flow limitation and pressure rise). Any suggestions/insight? At this point all I can think of is to gradually up the pressure, but am very confident that something is happening to me during REM sleep that causes a switch to mouth breathing then awakening. Prior to the face mask, I had gotten a chin strap to work, but woke up from an obstructive apnea during the time I would have first switched to mouth breathing.

[BoxcarPete]

Can you compress your lines a little so that we can see more things? If you are asking for sleep architecture advice, it's sometimes possible to get something of a read on that if the tidal volume line is visible. Also, your screenshot is kind of squeezed down for me and hard to read. Try leaving it as an attachment so it comes as a thumbnail that can be clicked on.

[Crimson Nape]

alienfrontier - What is your monitor's resolution?

- Red

[alienfrontier]

Sorry I was attachment capped, removing and readding now.

[alienfrontier]

Full graph with compressed lines and tidal volume:
   

First mouth breathing period:
   

Second mouth breathing period that resulted in full awakening:
   

And I say mouth breathing period, because I would consistently switch to mouth breathing during these same intervals while using a nasal mask.

[BoxcarPete]

Looks like you are experiencing some arousals from both deep and REM sleep. Perhaps a mix of spontaneous as seen in the first portion of your second chart, that looks like tossing and turning with no preceding cause, and respiratory related like in your first chart, with progressive flow limits preceding the event. Your REM segments don't look problematic outside of the arousals themselves, most people have somewhat more chaotic patterns as a matter of course.

[alienfrontier]

That makes sense thank you; I take it shallow tidal volume = deep and sporadic tidal volume = REM? As for the respiratory arousals they seem mild if going by flow limitation, yet if they occur during REM I seem to fully wake up . . . has the apnea just made me increasingly sensitive? Or could the event be more obtrusive than the data makes it appear? Is gradually upping the pressure the way to go?

[BoxcarPete]

Good, healthy deep sleep should be the steadiest your breathing ever is. You should have an hour straight of the exact same waveform that you can stack on top of each other without seeing any difference. Now, none of us ever quite get that steady, but that's the ideal. REM is where your brain gets a chance to release the constraints of the physical world and causality, where your body is mostly paralyzed and the imagination runs wild. Breathing is almost always a little sporadic during this time period, but it still shouldn't really spike like that.

You may be extra sensitive to the source of the arousals, they don't look too terribly obstructive to me, but some of them definitely have a partial blockage associated with them.

[alienfrontier]

After upping to 11 near perfect except for REM once again waking me up; going to try 12 tonight. 

   

[Dormeo]

I'm curious why the charts you've posted show so little time using your machine. Do you also sleep without it?

I'm also curious why you have those breaks in usage? Are those bathroom breaks? Something else?

It is quite normal to wake up after a REM stage, and that's not a cause for concern. What would be a problem is waking up and staying awake.

For what it's worth, I can't guess my REM sleep from my TV, but my RR gives a good clue. (I know this because I used to use the Dreem headband, which had a bit of EEG capacity. I could export the Dreem data to Oscar and see the match-ups. The Dreem often showed REM starting well before the increase in RR.)