New to CPAP, Looking for Setting Advice

[Jang Wonyoung]

I bought an AirSense 11 and I began using APAP with a pressure range of 8-20. However, I woke up with slight headaches, so I adjusted the settings to 11-20 and 12-20. My EPR is set to Full Time at 3. 

So far, I feel alright with these settings, but I am yet to feel a huge difference compared to before I started using CPAP. I'm slightly less sleepy, I guess. Before I started using CPAP, my snoring was really bad. The SnoreLab app often showed my snoring levels reaching 100-200. Also, my smartwatch recorded my blood oxygen dropping below 90% for over an hour each night. But now, the app doesn't pick up any snoring sounds, and my blood oxygen level rarely falls below 90%. When it does drop, it's only for a brief period of 2 to 5 minutes.

Am I doing good? I'd appreciate any advice on the settings. Could my pressure be too high? What's the ideal Max pressure?

More background: 
Around 3 months ago, I took a sleep test at home and found out my RDI was about 55. I already knew I had sleep apnea from a test at the hospital years ago, but I didn't get a machine then because I couldn't afford it. I've been snoring since I was around 10 years old, even though I wasn't overweight.

I attached my first and latest OSCAR results and CPAP statistics in the post.
   
   
   

[Expat31]

Hi, 

I have just been looking at your post, and would like to make the following suggestions:-

Firstly it would help in reading your statistics by eliminating their "wrap around" by widening the pane so all are easily visible. 

You noted that your smartwatch indicates  "my blood oxygen level rarely falls below 90%. When it does drop, it's only for a brief period of 2 to 5 minutes"

To me that sounds quite significant- 2 to 5 seconds OK, but minutes? 

It may be best to confirm the accuracy (or otherwise) of your smartwatch by recording your spo2 and pulse values with a Pulse oxymetre, one ideally in which the readings can be imported directly into Oscar, so you can see exactly what is going on during your night's sleep. 

You have some significant leaking. 

This can be either mask or mouth leaks. These often cause considerable arousals and generally disrupt the therapy. Large leaks are defined for Resmed machines at 24l/m and over.  This will certainly impact negatively the quality of sleep. It may be helpful for you to read the Mask primer here

Concerning your question of "ideal maximum pressure", it depends on each individual. The idea is to find the best fit to achieve optiminal sleep comfort by trial and error. The ideal pressure settings depends on each person

Your last graph of the 7th of May had settings of 11/20. I would try 13/15 to see where that goes.

Then repost your graphs. 

Thanks

[Jang Wonyoung]

Thank you. I appreciate it. I'll try 13/15 tonight. 

What did you mean by the wrap around? 
As for the blood oxygen level I use the data from the Galaxy Watch. Last night it says it was below 90% for 1m and 2sec. I'm not sure about the accuracy, though. I'll look into buying one of the compatible oximeters but do you have any recommendation?

[Expat31]

Here is a link for compatible devices. 

https://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php?title=OSCAR_supported_machines#Pulse_Oximeters

"Wrap around", look at the left side of your screen, you see your statistics section,  95% and 99.5% columns, they are not wide enough, the figures are jumbled up, as part of the data is pushed down to the next line, and squashed, so difficult to read. 

Its easy to rectify, just widen the whole left hand section of the page with the mouse . 

Example below of what it should look like.