Waking up every hour

[Hauko]

Hello,

I am new to this forum but am using cpap machine since December of 2022 with early sucess and never slept a night without it.
But sadly in 2023 I got a bad case of insomnia and have a generalized anxiety disorder which really does a number on my sleep sadly.
I was always good with 9 bar pressure but atm I am expieriencing horrible nights where I wake up every hour, have to go to the toilet repeatlealy and sometimes have an elevated pulse. (This could be duo to my insomnia and anxiety but also because of my apnea)
Tonight was the worst night in a long time I managed to fall asleep multiple times but never slept for longer than an hour before I woke up from a dream I can vividly remember.
My AHI usually pretty good <2 but tonight I have a obstrutice apnea which I have never had since I recorded with oscar.
Can one tell if the apneas waked me up or if this might have been an anxiety issue judging by my oscar chart?

[PeaceLoveAndPizza]

It does not sound like your awakenings are directly related to CPAP. As we know, men of a certain age and their prostates wreck havoc on sleep. Your other health issues are likely all related to your current sleep issues, but it would not hurt to discuss with a medical professional.

One important point I will make is a low AHI is not indicative of a good nights rest. 

Regarding your CPAP therapy, I think we can do much better than your current charts show, which may help with the nighttime issues. You have quite a few flow limitations and arousals as can be seen in the flow rate and other graphs.

Min pressure 8
Max pressure 12
EPR 3 full-time
No ramp

Give that a try and after a few nights post a chart or two. We can help fine-tune things from there.

[Hauko]

It does not sound like your awakenings are directly related to CPAP. As we know, men of a certain age and their prostates wreck havoc on sleep. Your other health issues are likely all related to your current sleep issues, but it would not hurt to discuss with a medical professional.

One important point I will make is a low AHI is not indicative of a good nights rest. 

Regarding your CPAP therapy, I think we can do much better than your current charts show, which may help with the nighttime issues. You have quite a few flow limitations and arousals as can be seen in the flow rate and other graphs.

Min pressure 8
Max pressure 12
EPR 3 full-time
No ramp

Give that a try and after a few nights post a chart or two. We can help fine-tune things from there.

I am overall very healthy physically I have tested for everything under the sun because of my anxiety issues but my mental health is on a different table sadly.
I have recently changed my pillow because I had pretty big leaks with my old pillow maybe that wrecks my sleep, too.

I will slowly try to implement those changes I had min 8 max pressure 10 but my machine started blasting me with 10 even tho I had no apneas I am confused how does the machine determine the pressure need at that time

[PeaceLoveAndPizza]

The machine responds to flow limitations and apnoea’s. If the machine is increasing pressure, there is something going on causing it to do so. You will not see it without digging deep into the flow rate, where you will likely see flow limitations causing things to happen.

Whilst the pressure may feel like it is quite a bit, it is not enough to blow up a balloon. It just feels strange as it is directed at your face with a FFM or into your nose with nasal pillows. You just have to get used to it and more importantly accept it is helping.

Try the new settings whilst reading or watching telly. You will get used to it and barely notice the pressure over time once you get used to it.

[Hauko]

hey,

I am trying to implement the changes you suggested but I will slowly up the max pressure to 10 then 12 because I am not used to pressure changes and I am scared it might wake me up even more in the night but I already disabled ramp and implemented erp of 3.
I slept pretty well last night had what I would estimate 6:30-7 hours of sleep and only woke up 3 times and went back to sleep without much problems. (I think the epr might have helped me but future has to show)
Do you think I even need to up the pressure much more?

[PeaceLoveAndPizza]

Glad you are noticing feeling a bit better. Yes, I think you need to continue creeping up the max pressure to 12. The machine will only raise pressure as high as it needs to manage events. 

We may need to raise the min pressure as well over time, but let’s see how things look in a few days.

[Hauko]

Hey,

I couldn't read my data for sometime because my sdcard broke on me 

So I am back at reading now sadly my insomnia is pretty bad atm it takes me 1-3 hours to fall asleep so my ahi might be worse than shown here.
I noticed I woke up laying on my side and my hed was tilted towards the ceiling so I might have some positional apnea problems? 
Also I woke up with a stuffed nose breathing through my mouth one time this night.

[Stubert]

Why did you turn off the EPR 3 setting. Your sleep and flow limitations are much worse now again. I won't interrupt the great knowledge and guidance from PeaceLoveAndPizza but just saw this.

[Hauko]

I got a whole new machine from my sleep clinic need to activate it again good call how exactly should good flow limitations look?

[SarcasticDave94]

About flow limits, take a look at your recent OSCAR chart. Can you use imagination to see an unmowed grassy field in the FL chart? With the grass mowed down in that chart you'll feel better for it.