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I don't remember what the previous sleep study's results were other than AHI. I don't have preference between my left or right side and usually switch several times throughout the night. On the night of the study however, the bed I slept in was terrible and had a massive indent that forced me into one spot. If I remember, it was harder to sleep on my left side because it would pull on some of the wires that didn't have much slack
I haven't tried a cervical collar before, although I might have to because of my mouth breathing. With the increased minimize pressures my mouth has been opening towards the second half of the night more often now. Attached are the past 3 nights
So I've had the minimum pressure set at 10 cm h2o for a few days now. It seems to have stabilized and doesn't increase past 10.6 or so. Still there are a few CA's throughout most nights but those might be falsely flagged from when I wake up and adjust sleeping position
AHI very low but I'm still feeling tired throughout mid afternoon and into the evening.
Struggling with mouth breathing, I've been trying to tape my mouth but I have a beard so it is a bit challenging. I caught myself waking up last night and while the tape had my mouth "shut" still, my lips were open and air was escaping. I don't know how much longer I should try taping, and I'm not entirely thrilled about wearing a chinstrap or a collar. A FFM might be in my future. I know nose breathing is much better but getting quality sleep and not waking up with a parched mouth trumps that, in my opinion
In the third screenshot the flow rate seems to be wavy and is going up and down gradually, what is this indicative of?
Minus the leaks, these graphs look like your best so far.
It doesn't sound like taping is going to be the solution for you. Your experience sounds all too familiar. You can try improving your nasal breathing with breath right strips, using a chinstrap, or cervical collar, then further trying taping, but your options are limited. I think you're right in that it might be worthwhile to give FFM a shot. Just because you use a FFM, doesn't mean you need to breathe through your mouth. Think of it as a backup channel. You'll likely still breathe through your nose for the majority of the night.
It's hard to say for certain, but it looks like a little bit of periodic breathing. When our breathing becomes dysregulated, it can start to loop and take a little while to stabilize. The duration is short, so I wouldn't label it as concerning. Also, it could just be more variable REM-sleep breathing.
I read through everything again. I think the main focus should be getting rid of those leaks. The rest of your data looks pretty good.
I've bumped the pressure up to 11 and switched to CPAP mode for a while now. Also bought an AirTouch F20 as I've been mouth breathing with the higher pressures. I don't think I had this issue when it was under 7 or 8 cm h2o. Trimmed my beard down quite a lot shorter than what I usually keep it to minimize leaks. OSCAR shows a pretty constant leak throughout the entire night which I'm not really worried about as there is still some air escaping the bottom of the mask cushion. The 3 high leak spikes are me adjusting the mask, so not worried about those either. I also believe the CAs were from waking up and repositioning in bed
Flow limit 95% was at 0.02, normally the 95% is at 0 or 0.01 most nights, I don't think this is worth spending too much attention to
At this point I've been on CPAP for nearly 2 months, although I was following the doctor's prescription pressures of APAP 5-15 until middle of August when I decided to start changing them based on OSCAR data. I don't think the initial therapy was as beneficial simply because the pressure was too low and I was adjusting to everything
I have noticed my daytime sleepiness is better than it has been. Normally I'd be wanting to fall asleep after getting home from work if I wasn't keeping my mind focused on something. The brain fog is still there though, which will probably take much longer to clear up
So it's been a couple weeks. Leaks have slowly increased since my last update, definitely because my beard is much longer. I have the mask cranked down fairly tight but it's still leaking through my beard hairs on the bottom of the mask. Not really worried about it as I seem to get the best sleep using the FFM despite this
Later on in the night I switched to sleeping on my back just to see if I had any events and if I'd snore or anything else and it doesn't seem like it
However, I've attached three pictures showing some events that weren't flagged, maybe because they were too short? Are these hypopneas or OA's? It looks like I stop breathing as there isn't any flow, followed by an exhale and then regular breathing resumes
