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palashmohane
+0 points
·
over 6 years
ago
Original Poster
I am having a moderate sleep apnea and my doctor advised to keep the settings of cpap on 18 but that's too much for me I can't sleep 15 is comfortable, so what should be the right pressure for me as my machines ramp feature is off, so as I go to sleep within 10 min pressure goes up till 18 and its a bit uncomfortable because my mouth fills with air and exhaling is bit difficult to. what can I do now ?
If your OSA is truly moderate then a CPAP setting of 18 does not make sense an. My diagnosis was severe (AHI of 60 untreated) and was recommended a setting of 13.
Some questions:
What machine do you have?
Is it an Auto or a set pressure?
What mask are you using?
Are you a mouth breather?
Do you use a chin strap or a soft cervical collar?
As you said you fall asleep quickly then ramp should be off.
wiredgeorge
+0 points
·
over 6 years
ago
Sleep
Enthusiast
Number of sleep apnea events and pressure required are NOT related and giving advice to change settings prescribed by a physician are not a great idea. palashmohane should be discussing the issues with therapy with a doctor. I was diagnosed with moderate sleep apnea and my pressure is set at 25/20 on a bipap. You saying I should turn this down?
What kind of AHI numbers are you getting? If you are able to change the set pressure, perhaps try reducing it to 15 and see how much your AHI is affected. It takes some time to get used to a CPAP. It may be necessary to run a lower pressure for a while and then work up to the full necessary pressure.
palashmohane
+0 points
·
over 6 years
ago
Original Poster
At pressure 15 my AHI was 1. my doctor said you should set the pressure according to your comfort at first it was set at max 20 and machine reached 18 but that was uncomfortable I could not sleep, now when I am setting max at 15 it's comfortable and my AHI for that day was 1 so what should I do. As 14 -15 is much comfortable than 18. should I experiment with my settings.
Is your machine an auto CPAP like the AirSense 10 AutoSet? If so, you should be able to set a minimum and a maximum pressure. Unless you use software like SleepyHead which you can download for free, you will be flying somewhat blind. With SleepyHead I like to watch what the pressure does during the night and observe when the apnea events are occurring. If the majority are not happening when the machine is limited to the maximum pressure, then you don't really gain much by increasing the maximum pressure. In fact you will likely gain more by increasing the minimum pressure. I find after a lot of monitoring I end up setting the minimum pressure only 1 cm below my maximum. So if you have an auto machine, you could try a max of 15 and a minimum of 14 and see how that works. An AHI of 1.0 is pretty darn good, so it it were me, I would not torture yourself with high pressures if you can get your AHI to 1.0 with lower pressures. And if you use SleepyHead you might want to start with the minimum set somewhat lower, and then adjust higher as needed.
snuzyQ
+0 points
·
over 6 years
ago
Sleep
Commentator
Please contact your doctor and tell him/her the problems you're having with your machines' current pressure settings. Is your doctor a sleep specialist?
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