DyreLogan

I was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea back in 2008. I had the ResMed S8 Elite up until a month ago. It broke down and I was forced to buy a brand new machine. However, the new machine was set to default everything except the pressure, which I was at 18 on my S8 machine. So the company set the new machine, an S9 Elite, to 18 pressure as well. Ever since I got it, I have not had good sleep at all. I am waking up throughout the night and resetting the machine. I called the company and they suggested that I turn on the EPA feature, which was defaulted to off, and I did so and I found that I slept through the night but was still very tired upon waking up. I did only get about 5 and a half hours or less last night from going to bed late. I don't know if I should decrease the pressure or raise it. I do have the fluid in the left ear problem and I do wake up sometimes having to belch swallowed air. I am living in Thailand and I had a family member buy the machine through a website where I got a legitimate prescription in order to be able to purchase the machine, and the family member sent it to me. I am not under any health care at the moment as it is difficult to be under any care here, especially sleep study wise which I think I should do again, but they are really expensive here from what I have found out. I really want to have a good sleep and get back to that point when the other machine was working (I have to point out that the old machine is completely dead now and I cannot check the settings so I can duplicate them on the new machine) but I have no idea what to do. I am stuck and not in a good position to seek medical advice from a doctor or sleep analyst because of my situation. What I would like to know is if it would greatly affect me in a bad way if I lowered the pressure one or two points, say from where it is at 18 to maybe 17 or 16? Then test the pressure to see if it helps me for a few weeks. I don't want to play with my health, but as it stands, not getting good sleep with the machine is just as bad I think. Thank you for your help.