My Better Sleep Journal

[Himm]

I try to hop on the deck as soon as I wake up for a few minutes, thanks. May start cycling earlier again as well.

[Himm]

I think I may go even lower than 11 now.

Even when I was on the good ol' 4-20 My AHI scores averaged 0.5-1.75. I just wanted more air and comfort at the beginning of my sleep. 


I feel so weird today. fatigued and not breathing as easy. Sleeping barely 3-4 hours for the past two days doesn't help I'm sure. Enjoying this vacation weekend a little too much I guess.


Waking up, and a few hours after to now, I feel kind of weak. a little trembly. I was worried I'd drop my juice or bowl while holding it. And my chest has that familiar pressure again that I was talking about earlier.


I walk and talk the same, but how I feel is just so off. I kinda want to go back to bed, but it's 4PM now. I need to get back to a normal day time schedule all over again. 

Rode my bike a short time yesterday after a couple weeks in the garage. I was weaker because of all the not-cycling I've been doing and testing out some new seating positions, but nothing out of the ordinary I believe. Fitness level changes are normal for cardio activities. Cardio can be very use it or lose it. 


Checked my resting pulse yesterday because I was feeling weird that day too, and it was 92! I was in shock. Just a week ago it was 70 a day after a bike ride. And right now it's 68?? wtf? Again, possibly this is all likely due to not sleeping and that's a mess I created.

I've pulled all nighters and slept less than I needed to countless times in my life, but this is strangest and possibly weakest I've ever felt. No headaches or dizziness, though, which is also surprising to me.


I was really wondering what my OSCAR would say today because when I was going to sleep this morning, I woke up like 4 times in an hour. I could feel myself stop breathing as I was going to sleep.  Man I was scared. 

They all showed up as all centrals on the machine, and Clear Airway on OSCAR.
Then after I bumped up my pressure from 11 to 11.40, and accepting the fact that I might be up for a while longer, finally I somehow calmed down and went to sleep. My AHI went as high as 7, which is very rare for me. 

   
   
   



I'm worried again. Wondering if I should stop in to urgent care. I wanted to do a quick bike ride to the store today but I don't even know if I should because of how I feel right now. I'm hoping this is all in my mind.

[Dormeo]

I think if you're concerned enough to be considering going to urgent care, you should go.

[Himm]

Going.

[Himm]

Update: I'm ok. They're glad I came in anyway.  since it's not sleep related I don't think I need to go into details

[Himm]

Hey, guys. Been a while. 

I seemed have solved most of my older issues so I'm not posting as much. 

That's a good thing, right? 

I have a new problem, though. 


For the past week I've had these same clusters of Central Apnea occur every single time I sleep. They always occur one to two hours into my sleep, and trigger at least another hour of AHIs afterwards. 

   

Likely related, I also notice myself sometimes not inhaling in before I go to bed, like I may have mentioned last time. As if I have to remind myself to breathe in. When I sleep without my CPAP this isn't an issue. 


What could be causing these clusters and my behaviour? Should I increase pressure again? Going from 10-20 to 11-20 tonight to test how I feel, and since my pressure has gone as high as 12 this past week. 

Although my overall AHI average hasn't changed, this is the highest and longest period of AHI I've had since getting my machine. 


Random success: I'm pretty sure today was my longest consecutive CPAP use yet at 10 hours total  (after 12Pm I slept 3 additional hours)

   


   

[Dormeo]

I'm glad things are looking up! Sometimes CAs come in clusters like that. What happens in these periods of unstable breathing is that some deeper breathing causes the first CA, then you have deeper recovery breathing after the CA, which sets off the second CA, etc. (The mechanism involved may be that deeper breathing reduces your blood's CO2 just enough to slightly delay your urge to breathe, or it may be a signalling issue from the muscles in your chest wall.)

Don't raise your pressure. That could exacerbate the CA-cluster issue. Your settings seem to be good for you, so stick with them. If CA clusters start showing up every night, you could consider either lowering your min pressure a little and capping it with a max of 11 or reducing your EPR to 2. But I'm betting you won't need to make any changes. CAs are notorious for being consistently inconsistent.

[Himm]

I guess I'll try 9-11 first. Thank you

[Himm]

I think this is my best OSCAR report ever. I want every single night to be like this.  

It took me two and and half months to finally get here!

Thank you Dormeo for recommending I lower my pressure range. Just 1-2 numbers lower seemed to make a big difference. No clustered centrals at all, and I feel more comfortable getting to sleep. Might go even lower. 

I also taped my hose to the top of my bed so I wasn't possibly squishing it anymore. 

The future looks bright

   
   

[Dormeo]

I'm so happy for you! You've been patient with the process and ready to experiment and evaluate. That's half the battle right there.

Sweet dreams!