How bad is my Cheyne Stokes breathing?

[Galactus]

For me when I changed from straight pap to bipap I also started showing a higher level of PB's, as the PS was raised and pressure overall was raised they have all but gone away. CS breathing I haven't seen, but that's been my experience, also the spikes on his chart and the weight gain and the machine maxing out at its current setting could show a raise in pressure will be helpful. Just my thoughts from my experiences.

[archangle]

CPAP pressure can screw with the feedback mechanisms that regulate your breathing. This can cause central apnea. It can also cause a waxing and waning of the depth of your breathing.

Neither one is necessarily a big deal. If you have central apnea, it's still just apnea. How much damage it does is a function of how completely you stop breathing, how long, and how frequently. Periodic Breathing is the same way. PRS1 machines will flag you as having periodic breathing even if you only have a fairly small percentage change in the intensity of your breathing.

Get SleepyHead and look at your breathing patterns during these events. Odds are it's not enough of a variation to be a big deal.

There are several causes for this. The most common and obvious cause is that CPAP can cause you wash out the CO2 from your blood due to your lungs inflating more under pressure. CO2 is a major factor in your respiratory drive. This may cause you to not breathe as deeply or at all, and not feel the urge to breathe until your CO2 levels rise again after a pause in breathing. This can be either a total stoppage of breathing or just a rise and fall in your breathing level.

Unless the depth and duration are long enough, it's nothing to worry about vs. normal apneas.

Of course, you could have an underlying heart condition unrelated to CPAP causing periodic breathing, but some PB on CPAP is fairly normal.