PutSleepApneatoBed

But morning headaches are a very common symptom of sleep apnea itself. Usually, PAP treatment relieves, rather than causes, the headaches, subject to the head gear pressure points problem mentioned above.

Agree that providing both algorithms in a single standard machine IS a worthwhile improvement.

I don’t think I’ve ever used the prewarming cycle. I assume is just preheats the water in the humidifier? Is it that that important? How long does it take? I would think there’s SOME humidification from just the air flow running over even unheated water. Although I suppose there could be a timer setting, that would start the preheating cycle, but you would also want something to turn it off, should the humidifier water reservoir be empty.

And it sounds like you’ve removing the card every day. Why? To run it through Oscar? I can’t imagine many people bother to do that. Doesn’t the card maintain many weeks or months of information? What’s its capacity? Are you analyzing it daily? That DOES sound like a LOT of work.

Agree it is sometimes hard to see the water level, but I empty it every morning, let it dry, and then refill it sometime later in the day, when it is still light and I can easily see the water level. I don’t leave the water in the reservoir from one night to the next…and don’t think anyone should.

My wish list would include an alarm for power outages. I don’t like the idea of having the mask on and being asleep while losing power.

Why won’t your new DME accept your LAST study? How old is your last study? And what is their reason for not accepting it?

It’s hard to imagine what improvements could be made on the gen 10 machines, which may be why it has taken RESMED so long to come out with the gen 11. When the gen 10 can get you to a residual AHI under 1.0, or in my case, close to 0.0, where can you go from there?

Sierra: Are you certain that the AirSense 10 Autoset for her doesn’t exceed 12 cm? I think mine is doing that, although not by much, because I think I recall that my average and median pressures are a little above that according to a report from my sleep lab….

JasonLarson:

As good as or better than WHICH machine? The RESMEDs, even at gen 10 are very, very good. They have an excellent proprietary algorithm that adjusts very quickly as your pressure needs change throughout the night. They even have a gender specific version of the machine to provide for the different pressure needs of women.

I use the RESMED Airsense 10 for Her and have had an excellent experience with it. I’m on my second Airsense 10 (primarily because the old one was more than 5 years old) and my residual AHI is always well under 1.0 and sometimes it is 0.0. But the average is probably about 0.3.

People think that reducing their residual AHI to below 5 is enough, but I have to tell you that in going from 3.0 with my gen 8 machine to 0.3 with my first gen 10 (I skipped over gen 9) I noticed a massive improvement in how I felt.

However, that may be due to the fact that I desaturate badly.

IMHO treatment should not be reserved for those with an apnea of 15 or above and 5 with a co-morbidity, but rather should consider both the maximum AHI (during REM my AHI was 83) and minimum desaturation levels. ( I regularly desaturated below 60.)

Why are we looking only at the average? When the damage is undoubtedly done at the margins?

Dear Abc123:

There is another possibility. You may be awakening in the midst of an apnea that has not yet resolved. That has happened to me on several occasions. And it can happen even while you are using PAP, if you don’t get the residual AHI to zero or something very close to it.

If you wake-up and can’t inhale, it is truly frightening….but after an apnea, you have to be awake or in stage 1 sleep to take the next breath. You won’t able to do so until your throat muscles release, which they will usually do pretty quickly, but you may awake even more quickly and try, unsuccessfully, to inhale. Not a fun experience!

I think the OP was complaining of mouth-breathing due to congestion. The first order of business in that case is to overcome the congestion. The OP needs to a good allergist if he hasn’t already done so.
I prefer chin straps over mouth taping for safety reasons, but to escape the necessity for a full face mask he will first have to be able to breath through his nose, and it sounds as though he will need more than simple saline.

So much of success in treating Sleep Apnea is about have the right mask with the right fit. Never hesitate to experiment with different masks, until you find one that works. And it helps to also have an alternate model in mind. The time may come when the manufacturers stop making your favorite. (That happened to me.) Then an alternate model still in production will come in handy.