[Treatment] NightmaresOfTheBottom - Therapy Help Thread

[NightmaresOfTheBottom]

I reset EPR back to 3.  AHI last night was higher than before at 2.89, but I feel like I slept better.  I'll keep it here for a few more nights before adjusting any more settings.

[Dormeo]

Your flow limitations improved a lot with the EPR!  And if you felt more rested, the improved FLs could have something to do with it.

You can identify arousals by zooming in to about 5 minutes and looking for arousal breathing.  (See below.)  Arousal breathing is deeper and messier-looking that asleep breathing.  Arousals may take you from a deeper sleep stage to a shallower one, or from sleeping to waking.   It is quite normal to have multiple arousals per hour; what is problematic is having arousals happen so frequently that your sleep architecture is messed up, or to have arousals followed by more than a minute or two of being awake.

It would be interesting to know how well correlated arousal breathing is with heart-rate change.

[NightmaresOfTheBottom]

AHI looks pretty good the past few nights.  Still a mix of CA and OA events.  Are there any other adjustments I should make, or is this reasonably as good as it will get?

[Dormeo]

Yes, these numbers look good! You could try inching up your min and max pressures to see whether you could get rid of some OAs while remaining comfortable. You can do that as slowly as you like. One nice thing about your machine is that you can go up in increments of .2.

It'd be great if you could manage to get more sleep. Most people need at least 7 hours of actual sleep to be fully rested, and many need 8 or even 9.

[NightmaresOfTheBottom]

What may explain why my AHI increases when I take steps to decrease nasal congestion? My usual AHI averages around 1 with no modificitations. When I take steps such as using nasal strips and/or nasal decongestant sprays to open up my airway, my AHI averages around 2. If anything, shouldn't easier nasal breathing decrease my AHI?

[Dormeo]

What part of the AHI increases -- CAs, OAs, or Hs?