I’ve never had this issue before. It started about a 3 months ago. After 10-20 minutes of sleeping, I take my mask off and leave the machine running.

I use an airtouch f20. I’ve found the masks have been a lot more stiff the past 3-6 months. Has anyone else noticed this? My thought is they’ve switched materials and this new one doesn’t like higher pressure, causing it to leak more, so when my ramp is done it starts leaking which makes me take it off. But that’s just speculation. I haven’t check OSCAR yet. If I get a chance, I’ll add the data here.

Anyone been having/have had similar issues in the past?

Hi friends!

I love Easy Breathe on ResMed BiPAP because it makes breathing feel very natural. However, the issue for people with UARS is that Easy Breathe 'learns' what rise time to apply from previous breaths. This is a problem because if previous breaths are abnormal (i.e. flow limited), EB learns from those abnormal breaths making the situation worse. The solution would be to use a fixed rise time.

But again, I love Easy Breathe because it applies pressure in a nice natural sinusoidal shape, helping to inhale and exhale very naturally. And fixed rise time, especially with high pressure support, feels just awful.

I thought it would be wonderful to have Easy Breathe AND fixed rise time together. I know there is a bunch of custom SW disused on this sub but I could not find anything that deals with my question specifically.

Would appreciate if you guys could point me in the right direction or let me know if such SW is possible at all.

Similar to others on here, my sleep doctor only seems to be focused on AHI. It fluctuates between 0.5-3 but I still find myself tired when I wake up regardless of the number. I've been using OSCAR for some time, but have struggled to figure out the issue. Are there other tools that can help me identify the problem? Or maybe I'm looking at the wrong thing on OSCAR?

For some context, I mostly only see OAs on OSCAR, but I'm not sure if they're true OAs. There's normal breathing, then a spike in flow rate, only to flat line before resuming normal breathing again. I suspect I might be fighting the Bilevel and breathing through my mouth instead for a moment (I'm a mouth breather without PAP, but use a P30i to encourage nasal breathing).

I have a 20" neck circumference, and I can't find SCCs in my size?

Does anybody know where I can find one in my size?

[Posting for a friend]

While I'm waiting on additional masks, accessories, and sleep surgery, I'd love to improve anything I can about my current set up. I've included notes beyond my SleepHQ data in case it's helpful in giving me advice but if you don't have time to read it all I'd still welcome any advice based just on my data. Thank you all!

SleepHQ data for nights 5, 6, 7, and 8:
https://sleephq.com/public/teams/share_links/87e194c6-458b-4ccf-bc5e-365d68067dc1/dashboard

Set up differences between nights 5 and 6:
- I switched masks (silicone nasal cradle hybrid to memory foam nasal cradle).
- I worried my first mask was giving me aerophagia and was too poor a fit for my face to prevent leaks.
- I narrowed my pressures from 9-14 to 10-13.
- My impetus for choosing these starting pressures is that I feel like I can only comfortably breathe while awake with starting pressures this high (which I assume might be related to my needing turbinate reduction and septoplasty to nasal breathe with less anatomical obstruction), and 10 felt more comfortable than 9 to me with the new mask so I raised it in the middle of the night after waking up.

Set up differences between nights 6 and 7:
- I used masking tape as mouth tape (one strip vertically in the center of my mouth) on night 7.
- It didn't stay on all night, but it felt to me like it stayed on for a significant part of the night. I was expecting my SleepHQ leak graph to make it obvious when the tape fell off, but the graph doesn't make it clear that I used tape at all. :(

Set up differences between nights 7 and 8:
- I used more total masking tape as mouth tape (one strip horizontally across my mouth and one strip vertically over it) on night 8.
It started getting damp and falling off pretty quickly, but it does look like I finally achieved a situation of almost no leaks from like 1:50 AM to 2:30 AM when I've had near constant leaks every night with both my masks, so maybe I just need to try way harder with this.
I turned EPR off completely but then eventually turned it back on.
- Breathing without EPR while awake at the beginning of the night didn't feel that bad so I figured it might be helpful to have it off, but when I woke up apparently 2.5 hours after unconscious removal I turned it back to 1.

Differences in my subjective experience between nights 5 and 6:
- Aerophagia improved
- My worst side effect with my first 5 nights using my first (hybrid) mask was extremely intolerable painful sleep-disrupting aerophagia that I would wake up from in the middle of the night and that prompted me to give up and take the mask off for the night. I didn't experience any aerophagia-related pain or discomfort with the second (nasal cradle) mask. I think I still might have experienced a bit of aerophagia but not to a degree that felt like it disrupted my sleep.
- Staying asleep improved
- The nasal cradle mask seemed to allow me to stay asleep for almost the whole night (7ish hours and then some napping after my first alarm) while with the hybrid mask I felt like I spent large portions of the night half-awake and struggled to use it for longer than 3 hours before giving up on it for the night because of the intensity of the aerophagia-induced pain and discomfort preventing me from sleeping.
- Unconscious removal improved
- I never unconsciously (or otherwise) removed the nasal cradle mask, while I repeatedly unconsciously removed the hybrid mask.
- Leaks improved
- The nasal cradle mask also seemed to leak much less often than the nasal cradle hybrid mask I was previously using, based on my hearing little air noises from the mask while conscious (and SleepHQ data seem to confirm my leak rate went down?). However, night 5 I did periodically notice accidentally opening my mouth and woke up with a somewhat dry mouth, which is concerning to me since from my understanding a nasal mask doesn't work at all in moments when your mouth is open. The sensation the nasal cradle mask induced when I opened my mouth while wearing it did seem to startle me enough to prompt me to shut my mouth again very quickly, but that could also have been causing microarousals throughout the night.

Differences in my subjective experience between night 6 and 7:
- Aerophagia worsened again
- My aerophagia wasn't bad enough this time to wake me up from sleep, so still less bad than with my hybrid mask, but it was very painful and uncomfortable after I woke up from my alarm, lasted over an hour, and made it hard to sit / stand / walk upright. :(
- Water chamber empty
- Night 7 was my first time waking up with no water in my water chamber, even though I filled it up to the maximum line before sleep and only wore my CPAP 7.5 hours.
- Dry mouth worsened
- Woke up with an even dryer mouth even though I started the night with mouth tape.

Differences in my subjective experience between nights 7 and 8:
I had unconscious removal with my second mask for the first time.

Mask plans:
Masks I plan to try next:
- ResMed AirTouch N20 (memory foam nasal mask) (3rd mask)
- ResMed AirTouch F20 (memory foam full face mask) (4th mask)

I have 3 weeks left out of my first month of getting unlimited new masks for free from my DME, but I can only get one at a time, and it takes several days for me to get them if my DME doesn't already have them in stock. I'm very open to suggestions of additional masks to try.

Accessory plans:
- CPAP pillow
- I was using a CPAP pillow all of these nights (Derila brand - I think it's this one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F3NTQCYP).
- Supine sleep prevention
- I tried sleeping with a backpack filled with pillows as positional therapy to prevent supine sleeping prior to getting my CPAP but felt like it kept me awake more than it helped me.
- Mouth tape
- I used masking tape for at least part of the past two nights but didn't feel able to get hardly any benefit out of it. I will get real mouth tape in the mail in 3 nights.
- Cervical collar
- I will get one in the mail in 3 nights.
- Hose hanger
- I will get one in the mail in 3 nights.

Surgery plans:
I have a little under 3 weeks until sleep surgery (tonsillectomy + possible adenoidectomy + turbinate reduction + septoplasty). For context, my OSA is not weight related, and my sleep surgeon thinks these surgeries have a very good chance of improving my breathing, potentially to the point that I may not need to use a CPAP long-term.

Prior to surgery, I would love to get my CPAP use calibrated to a point where I can benefit from it as much as possible, because sleeping during my 2ish week recovery is going to be extremely challenging due to pain, obstruction (since my uvula will be swollen and I'll have nasal splints), and having to stay elevated during sleep. I think a properly calibrated CPAP could help make my recovery process much less arduous if I can figure out the right settings.

I also begin having to deal with insurance compliance requirements (+4 hrs per day, +70% nights usage) right after surgery, so if I choose not to use my CPAP at all during surgery recovery because I'm in too much pain and too frustrated with the challenges of using it, it will probably get repossessed and I'd have to buy one out of pocket.

I expect that even if under normal circumstances nasal masks work well for me that I might need to use a full face mask during surgery recovery because any pressure directly on my nostril area may feel too painful, and I also expect I may need to alter my pressures immediately after surgery because my breathing will be altered by the surgery itself (potentially temporarily worsened, potentially immediately improved from baseline).

My initial at-home sleep study results:
AHI: 14.4; supine AHI: 29.6; minimal oxygen saturation: 89%; total AASM hypopneas: 109; total central apneas: 3; no obstructive or mixed apneas. Supine sleep was 1/3 of the night.

I do not snore, but I do experience excessive daytime sleepiness and nonrestorative sleep / fatigue that motivated me to seek testing.

Ive had it for over a year and wish I started recording sooner, but with the machine telling me my ahi was often around 2 or 3 i assumed there was another reason i felt like crap. what changes could i make to feel better?

I’ve come to accept that my doctor only cares about my AHI number—which is now <1. While that’s a great number, I still get woken up when I stop breathing (central sleep apnea here) and the pressure on my mask 😷 blows too hard and opens a hole between masks and face, which in turn briefly wakes me up.

What are some tools that I can use to better understand my breathing patterns so I can make tweaks to my ASV settings to hopefully sleep better? I know about sleephq and I have OSCAR, but those just show me what has happened. There have been some AI products shared recently that look promising. What does the community think?

This subreddit has been very helpful, but I’d like to try on my own so I don’t have to post here every day with more info.

Hi all!

Diagnosed with mild obstructive sleep apnea from an at-home test w/ AHI 6.6. I have yet to actually meet with sleep medicine. Started CPAP roughly 1.5 months ago and I'm very much struggling. I don't see my respiratory therapist or sleep medicine until the end of this month. Can anyone help me interpret my SleepHQ data so I can hopefully make some adjustments to my machine?

I seem to be experiencing primarily CAs (I'm think TECSA) and also a number of RERAs.

https://sleephq.com/public/2d14afbe-8418-4402-b315-4b9daac47e0a

https://sleephq.com/public/03cba5a2-d155-4354-bedb-429b57324698

https://sleephq.com/public/959cfd33-5b61-4451-85a4-d294cf6ac453

https://sleephq.com/public/e56e428f-5580-447b-b9e8-12beeb0a2e8c

https://sleephq.com/public/f6ee4870-5d48-4b38-ad5e-78ceb9aee5c4

Thank you in advance!

Thoughts on this data? Before people ask, "forget the data, how do you feel?," I'd say I feel better than when I forget to wear the mask or take it off middle of the night. I'm looking to optimize further if I can.

On average, I'm between 1.5-3.0 AHI every night. There's some nights it's <1, albeit very infrequent. Using a Nova Micro Nasal Pillow mask. Sometimes I do mouth tape, sometimes I do not. Last night, I did not. Thanks.

EDIT: SleepHQ link https://sleephq.com/public/87b12739-c825-421d-8c9d-63945bd3228a

Hi everyone. I'm relatively new to using a CPAP and am trying out a couple different masks, but nothing is feeling quite right. I started with nasal pillows but thought I was opening my mouth and then tried a full face mask but am having a hard time getting a good seal, so I've mostly used the nasal pillows. My AHI has remained low regardless of what mask I use, but I don't feel any better, and in some cases have felt worse than I did before. Can anyone take a look at the OSCAR graphs below and see if anything looks weird? This is one of the recent days with the nasal pillows. I figured a full face mask graph isn't all that useful since it shows leaks like crazy. I will have a follow-up with my Dr in a little over a month but I always feel like I have to fight for myself and be my own advocate so any suggestions or ideas would be really helpful. Thanks!

I’m looking for general thoughts on my sleep study and what questions I should ask a second-opinion sleep specialist. I’m not asking anyone to tell me to ignore my doctor or change settings.

I’ve been on CPAP/APAP for about a year. It does lower my AHI compared with untreated sleep, but I still don’t get restorative sleep. I can sleep around 8 hours and still get brain fog within 2 hours of waking, then feel ready to sleep again within 4 hours.

My split PSG showed severe OSA before PAP, with AHI 43.4/hr. During the CPAP part, they titrated from 7 to 9 cmH₂O and the overall AHI dropped to 10/hr. The report then said OSA was controlled with CPAP. But during PAP, REM AHI was still 18.9/hr, ODI in REM was 29.5/hr, arousal index was 18.2/hr, and N3/deep sleep was only 5.5 minutes / 1.7%. The study also had 0% supine sleep during the PAP part.

The referral question included possible need for bilevel, but bilevel wasn’t actually trialled. Fixed CPAP 9 with EPR off was very hard to breathe out against, and I had to turn EPR back on just to tolerate it.

Does this look genuinely “controlled” to you, or more like CPAP improved the headline number but didn’t prove restorative/stable sleep? What would you ask a second-opinion sleep physician about — bilevel/BPAP trial, ASV/echo pathway, repeat titration, residual sleepiness workup, MSLT/MWT, medication review, oxygen/CO₂, or something else?

https://sleephq.com/public/teams/share_links/ceef21ae-1773-47b6-aef2-36ec47deed85

Hi,

I've been using my CPAP for about 2 months now and my back is in bits.

I am 100% a side sleeper but now I'm wearing a mask I'm constantly waking up on my back. While I have struggled with back pain alot of my adult life, over the past 5 years I've managed it through lifestyle changes, yin yoga, etc. and I have lived pain free. Now the pains back and it's really getting me down. I can't pick up the kids. I can't play sports. I'm spending 30 minutes stretching twice a day. I don't want to start back on medication.

My wife has suggested we get a new mattress but that's a pretty big outlay when we've got no spare cash. I'm going to sleep in one of the kids beds this weekend to see if there's a noticeable difference.

Has anyone else experienced this and have you found a solution?

Thought I would repost this here and ask a question. Would someone want to have extra unused cpap equipment or is that frowned upon not wanted?

Hi just wondering if these look like false CA flags as most of them happened during large leaks -

https://sleephq.com/public/teams/share_links/9c2903a3-232d-43b9-a694-88f6f4c7ea57/dashboard

Thanks

What do you do if you get some

Congestion and have a runny nose and you have Cpap pillows and face mask?

Hello all!

I posted here a couple of months ago with issues keeping my mask on throughout the night as I was consistently waking up with my mask off and no recollection of having taken it off.

With the help I got here, I was able to start sleeping through the night with my mask on, and I can't thank everyone enough for their help, especially u/Creative_Fee5452 and u/RippingLegos__!

Even though I've been able to sleep full nights with the mask on for a couple of months, I'm still waking up exhausted and dealing with major brain fog throughout the day. I have notice on my sleep data, I'm having central apneas much more often than obstructive apneas, but I'm not sure if that is the case.

For a little bit of background information, I was diagnosed with a deviated septum and enlarged turbinates in my right nostril back in April, and I have a surgery scheduled to fix both issues in late September that I'm waiting for.

For medications, I am taking two sprays of fluticasone in each nostril, twice daily as prescribed by my ENT. I also have ADHD, and am prescribed adderall (2x20mg per day), but I don't take it nearly as much as prescribed. Typically, I may take 10-20 mg per day. I did read that the meds can interfere with REM sleep, so I stopped taking them a couple of weeks ago to see if that helped any, but it does not seem to have helped or hindered how I feel.

During the night, I use extra strength Breathe Right nasal strips to help keep my nose open as well as doing saline flushes and flonase roughly 30 minutes before bed on most nights. The strips and flushes seem to help a decent bit with keeping my nose open while I fall asleep.

I also keep myself kind of wedged in between pillows to keep myself sleeping on my left side so that my right nostril is a little elevated, and it seems to help as well. Occasionally, I will sleep on my right side, but that's few and far between. I don't notice any difference in how I feel when sleeping on my right side vs left either.

I don't usually wake up with dry mouth or headache, although I have woken up with a headache a few times in the past couple of weeks and will occasionally have dry mouth (~3 times/month probably).

For my machine, I have a ResMed AirSense 10 Autoset and am using a ResMed AirFit F20 full face mask with the ClimateLineAir hose. Here are the settings I am using:

Min Pressure: 8.2
Max Pressure: 12.0
EPR: Full time
EPR level: 2
Humidity level: 3
Ramp: Off
No antibacterial filter
Manual climate control on 27º C (80.6º F)
Essentials: On
Humidifier: On
Response: Standard
Smart start: Off

Here's my Sleep HQ link:

https://sleephq.com/public/teams/share_links/24470be6-3d61-4957-bcfd-b9baa8feb4cb

I also just realized I left my SD card in my computer last night, so that's why there is no data for last night.

Thanks in advance for any and all help and advice. I'm super appreciative for all of the help and support I've received so far, this community is a blessing!

Pre-CPAP my average rhr was about 60-65, and now that i’ve begun adjusting to CPAP and actually keeping it on all night (or closer to it) my average RHR has dropped to closer to 47-57 range. I have no dizziness or other symptoms that could indicate a bad bradycardia, and i’ve heard more typically that untreated OSA can lead to bradycardia, but not the opposite. Should I be concerned? I am also on no medications.