Military sleep apnea Noob

[Gideon]

Welcome to the forum.

Do you recall what happened around 1am. I think you may have woke up.

[FloridaDreaming]

Thank you for the response. Unfortunately, I have no memory of what happened at 1am.

[trish6hundred]

Hi FloridaDreaming,
WELCOME! to the forum.!
Good luck to you with CPAP therapy and hang in there for more responses to your post.

[quiescence at last]

welcome floridaD we are glad you dropped in.

if I had the chart you display and only that info, I would change my pressure again to a range of 9 thru 14, to have a bit more starting power and some extra top end (which may not be necessary). the machine will not increase if there is no event.

given you don't seem to have been awakened, this looks good for early recovery. good sleep usually results in more energy. not always right away. everyone is different.

good luck with your therapy.

QAL

[DeepBreathing]

G'day FloridaDreaming.

Overall it's not too bad, but there are a couple of things you can try to improve your results. First thing to notice is that the machine went to maximum pressure at 1:00 and stayed there for two hours. This indicates it really needs to go higher to prevent that cluster of obstructive apneas and RERAs you experienced at that time. As suggested above, you might want to raise your maximum pressure. Do this in steps of 0.5 or 1.0 cm at a time, and leave it for a few days between steps. It would also not hurt to raise your minimum by the same amount.

The second thing is that you have a fair few central apneas (clear airway). The cluster at 11:30 pm and also at 7:30 am are probably "sleep/wake junk" and can safely be ignored. (Sleep/wake junk refers to false positive readings caused by irregular breathing patterns during the transition into and out of sleep). Even ignoring these, the number of centrals is a bit high. Do you know if they showed up in your original sleep test? If not, they are likely pressure-induced and you can expect them to go away with time. However, raising the pressure as I suggested above might actually make the centrals worse, so there's a balance to be struck.

Finally, the two hour period of high pressure might be associated with your sleeping position. We generally have a higher tendency to have obstructive apnea when sleeping on our back, so try to sleep on your side if possible. If you have a bed partner, they might notice if you're lying on your side or back. Another cause of positional apnea can be if your chin tucks forward to your chest, which can increase obstructions. A well-shaped pillow can avoid this, though many people find a soft cervical collar helps.

[FloridaDreaming]

Wow, thank you all.

This is great advice and I'll be reading it over a few times to make sure I understand and giving it a shot over the coming nights. Last night (night 24) was not my best at 14.5 AHI

[Hydrangea]

Certainly there's room to improve, and your pressures seem to be wanting to go higher. That great thing is you've got an Auto, so you can experiment to find the right pressure range for your needs.

How has the last week gone?

[justMongo]

Your on the thin end of the wedge. Your major contributor to your AHI are hypopneas and CA (Clear Airway) apnea.
Hypopneas call for more pressure; but more pressure can induce CA.

If it were me, I'd reduce Flex setting. Too much flex (reduction in exhale pressure) may cause CO₂ washout and cause CA.
Reduced flex will allow the EPAP to be higher (at the same min/max pressure settings). EPAP holds the airway open; and may reduce your hypopneas.

You might have to increase max pressure since you're hitting up against it. You had a rough night for the first 3 hours.

I think you're right, they would have grounded you.