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Help Please-CPAP But Still Exhausted.. - BigDreamer - 12-18-2020
Hello All,
I'm new to this forum and have stumbled upon it because I'm having a miserable year for sleep. I know - we all are - but I can barely make it through most days and can't seem to figure out what's going on. I would sincerely appreciate any useful input.
Background:
I had issues with day-time sleepiness starting in my 20's but was not a classic Apnea profile so just used caffeine to power through. Finally, a sleep study with CPAP showed improvement and my first CPAP in 2011 was a game-changer. But, the benefits started to diminish around 2016-2017. At that time I got a newer auto-CPAP and started taking Modafinil for wakefulness.
2020 Misery:
Starting in January (before the pandemic) I kept waking up wide-awake around 2 or 3am. EVERY night. Each morning I would wake with cloudy head and ratchet up the stimulants but by 3pm it felt like the middle of the night. In the evenings I've tried everything to fall asleep including all kinds of melatonin, Trazodone (prescription), magnesium, Tylenol PM, Valerian, Lemon Balm, CBD-THC. Nothing seems to work consistently. It got so bad in the Spring and early Summer I would need a nap in the afternoons. Weekend de-stress in August seemed to help somewhat and a naturopath suggested ashwaganda which helped somewhat but by Sept. the misery returned.
Medical Advisors:
My Primary Doc seems to think it is just a matter of tuning the CPAP. I've tried and can't get it down. I've been in touch with a nurse/sleep tech at Lahey Hospital and her input has always been adjust the pressure upward. She's done that remotely and I've done it myself hacking into my Philips Dreamstation and adjusting fixed or auto, different pressures and ramps, etc. but can't figure out the right mix.
I also hired a supposed sleep expert PhD who helped me craft a nightly wind-down protocol but my waking in the middle of the night issue persists.
I'll sleep from around 10:00am to 2 or 3am and feel wide awake or toss and turn and have awakenings. Sometimes I have to get up to pee - or have the urge to pee - and then have real difficulty falling back asleep.
I can spend 9-10 hours in bed and still not wake refreshed. It's misery. Fortunately I have a flexible work schedule but my productivity and mental health is way down.
Any input or ideas?
RE: Help Please-CPAP But Still Exhausted.. - Sleeprider - 12-18-2020
Welcome to Apnea Board. If we are going to tune up the CPAP therapy, we need to get a pretty good idea of what's going on. The best way is if you will download the free OSCAR software to a computer, laptop or mac and use the SD card in your machine to get some data. The software provides extremely detailed information of your therapy, respiration, settings etc. If you'll make the effort to provide the data, we can help you to understand the data and use it to optimize your results. My signature contains links to some good wiki articles, but focus on how to Organize your Charts and Post File Attachments.
RE: Help Please-CPAP But Still Exhausted.. - BigDreamer - 12-18-2020
That's the first I've heard of Oscar but I'm willing to try anything at this point.
I took a look and it seems quite helpful so I appreciate your input (not sure why my sleep "experts" I've been paying for never mentioned it but in my experience they have not been very helpfu)l.
Not sure how to get the Oscar software from my Mac to machine/SD or to sync with dreammapper but will see if I can figure it out.
Thank you!
RE: Help Please-CPAP But Still Exhausted.. - Jeff8356 - 12-18-2020
(12-18-2020, 01:33 PM)BigDreamer Wrote: Not sure how to get the Oscar software from my Mac to machine/SD or to sync with dreammapper but will see if I can figure it out.
You will need to use the SD card that is in your machine. If your machine currently does not have and SD card, any one from 2GB to 32GB will work just fine. If your Mac does not have a built in SD card reader you will also need to get an external reader (about $10 - $15).
You would take your SD card out of your machine, insert it into the reader, and have OSCAR import the data from the SD card. Then put the SD card back into your machine.
RE: Help Please-CPAP But Still Exhausted.. - Crimson Nape - 12-18-2020
(12-18-2020, 01:33 PM)BigDreamer Wrote: Not sure how to get the Oscar software from my Mac to machine/SD or to sync with dreammapper but will see if I can figure it out.
OSCAR is a program that resides on your Mac/PC. It reads the data on your CPAP's SD card and displays the results in a more understandable form. DreamMapper is a "feel-good" program and doesn't provide any data that will aid in sleep-apnea management.
RE: Help Please-CPAP But Still Exhausted.. - Sleeprider - 12-18-2020
Apnea Board hosts the OSCAR development team and serves the program on a separate server here https://www.sleepfiles.com/OSCAR You can simply download and install, but you may want to read installation notes. Your computer will likely try to protect you from a software it does not know and is not on the Apple Store, so be prepared to over-ride the warnings. OSCAR is "Open Source CPAP Analysis Reporter" and unlike Dreamapper, supports other machines and is not proprietary. It is completely unrelated to Dreamapper and offers much greater detail. Here is a link to the help files if you need them http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php?title=OSCAR_Help
You will need a SD card reader for your Mac. I use MOKiN dongle we purchased on Amazon and adds ports for a SD card, HDMI, multiple USB 3 and USB A ports. You can use anything that interfaces with your Mac and supports SD cards. Once your Mac is able to read an SD card and you have Oscar installed, everything happens on the Mac. Just remember to reinstall the SD card in your CPAP when done importing the data.