Still waking up, but not as often?

Hello everyone,

I am 30 year old male and in April of 2018 I was diagnosed with severe OSA. I currently use a Philips Dreamstation with an Amara View mask. The ramp time is set at 25 minutes and I have the pressure set to 9.5.

It took a long time to get comfortable with the mask, but I now am finally looking forward to sleeping with it. Of course it still has it's annoyances, but I can live with that.

However, what I am wondering is if what I am experiencing is common or if it's an issue. Without my mask, if I "sleep" for 8 hours, I probably wake up about every 45 minutes throughout the night to change positions and fall back asleep. With my mask on, at this setting, I find that I am waking up maybe every 2-3 hours. Waking up 4-5 times is way better than 8-10 times per night. Am I doing something wrong with the pressure? Anytime I've gone above 10, I wake up because I feel like I have a leaf blower connected to my face and no amount of tightening seems to hold it on comfortably. I've tried lower settings around 6-7 and I just don't feel like I'm getting enough.

I still sleep a ton better with the mask, but I am dying to know what it's like to sleep for an entire night (if that's even possible). Heck at this point I would even take 5-6 hours without waking up.

If you all have any advice, please share.

Thank you for reading.

I am not a sleep professional, but I think you are basically doing OK. I am certainly aware of waking up or partially waking up to change positions in the night. I think I have learned how to re-position my hose, mask, and pillow to adjust to the way I am sleeping. I really don't count those a wake ups. If I wake up and can't get back to sleep or have to get up to use the bathroom I call that a wake up. My preference is to go through the night without any real wake ups.

With respect to pressure that is driven to a large degree by your AHI results. Do you know what your average AHI is and what % of that is clear airway or central apnea, and what % is obstructive apnea? That is a prime indicator of whether or not the pressure is correct for you. I would suggest that the basic objective is to get AHI low, but with the minimum amount of pressure.