SleepyHead Data Questions

[CatNapCA]

First, thank you to all the users who take the time to share their knowledge. 

I am right at 2 months on an AirSense 10 APAP with the Phillips DreamWear nasal mask.   (Initial diagnosis is below).  Are things better, absolutely.  The drenching night sweats are gone.  I sleep through the night.  My symptoms of neuropathy are few and far between.  So, what's up?  The missing item is good sleep.  The benefits that I saw came in the first week to 10 days and then leveled off.   I still awake tired and sleep doesn't seems restful.  I have read the excellent posts that this isn't abnormal for what is really a short period of time.

If  I look at the minimal data from the ResMed application everything is all smiles.  However I have been looking over my SleepyHead data and I don't know if I agree.  I see lots of leaks and can't help but wonder if some minor setting changes might be helpful.  Currently set to pressure of 6.00 to 16.00 with ramp set to off and EPR set to full time and 1- thank you to those that suggested the change to ramp and EPR, I no longer wake up feeling like I am suffocating.   I also added a chin strap and a CPAP pillow which seems to have helped. 

Thanks in advance for any suggestions regarding additional changes. 

[robysue]

There's nothing in your data that screams FIX ME NOW.

Yes, there's a bit of leaking going on, particularly on 6/25. So working on the leaks may help. But if this is mouth breathing, it may be better to just accept that there's going to be some mouth breathing rather than trying to switch to a full face mask or using a chin strap.

I think that the real solution is that you just need more time. You write:

I am right at 2 months on an AirSense 10 APAP with the Phillips DreamWear nasal mask.   (Initial diagnosis is below).  Are things better, absolutely.  The drenching night sweats are gone.  I sleep through the night.  My symptoms of neuropathy are few and far between.  So, what's up?  The missing item is good sleep.  The benefits that I saw came in the first week to 10 days and then leveled off.  

Sounds to me like you've gotten greedy: You've already seen huge improvements in a whole bunch of things, but you want more ...

I still awake tired and sleep doesn't seems restful.  I have read the excellent posts that this isn't abnormal for what is really a short period of time.

My guess is that you are still "catching up" on your sleep so to speak. If you are still waking up tired after a few more weeks, you could try to increase your sleep time from roughly 7-7.5 hours to more like 8.5-9 hours and see if that helps.

[sskblr]

Good day CatNapCA.

I am a newbie and just entered my 3rd week of CPAP. More experienced and knowledgeable folks here would provide suggestions but here is what I observed. You are doing great to keep AHI < 5, so perhaps the leaks are not something to be worried about. I noticed that you had zero CA during sleep study but SleepyHead does show some CAs.

Coming to leaks, my data shows average leak rate of 1.4 but 0% of time above threshold. However I wake up 2-3 times feeling the leak and trying to adjust the mask.

Regarding still not feeling rested after sleep, I echo the same. I felt very good the first couple of days where, I slept less. Now I sleep 7 hours and still feel not rested and tired. Like robysue has replied, perhaps it takes more time.

Good luck!

[DavePaulson]

Welcome CatNapCa, 
 Looking at your stats your AHI is all over the place. Nice job of organizing your charts! Post a couple of the nights with a higher AHI you posted two of your best show us your worst. We are all greedy when it comes to our sleep. 

Dave

[AlanE]

Did they do a titration or was it just the sleep study? Curious to see at what pressure your OA were reduced. To me it seems like your starting pressure is on the low side. Your min and med are a little far apart. Your numbers are not bad but you say you are not feeling well so something is not working. I would try bumping your min pressure up to 7 and give it a couple of weeks to get used to it. If you have an increase in CA you can back it down to 6.5. Also you may want to try setting EPR to 0 (turn it off) to see if you like it. I am forever messing with it. Sometimes I like having EPR on 1 sometimes I just want a constant pressure. Re-evaluate in two weeks. When I started it took nearly 4 months for me to get used to everything on my face/skull. Now I can't sleep without it.