Old school machine user unused to new machine

I used a Resmed S6 for about 20 years. Now I have a new Resmed AirSense 10.

The methods of operation are quite different. The old S6 provided a true continuous pressure. When I exhaled the machine did not back off, meaning I had to overcome the machine's pressure to fully exhale. Whrn my breath paused at the end of an exhale, the machine continued to try to force air down my throat. At that point I could relax my diaphragm and air would begin flowing into my lungs without the effort of an inhale. I could pick it up while air was entering my lungs. It may sound strange but I adapted to that quickly. It bacame very comfortable.

Now I have a machine that is so smart it forces me to breathe normally, initiating my own inhale, and allowing an effortless exhale. I can't get a good night's sleep. I am acclimated to the old-school CPAP machine and am having trouble sleeping without the crutch of the machine doing the work for me.

I wake many times during the night and am exhausted in the morning. The Resmed MyAir report gives me perfect scores, with 0.7 events per hour. That is 0.7 too many. I am having events about every 80 minutes, when I wake and spend 10 minutes falling asleep again. . No wonder I can't get through a REM cycle.

Does this sound familiar? Have others encountered this? Will I adapt to it? Or, can I set the AirSense to stupid mode and get comfortable again? Or should I bite the bullet and work through it?

Thanks Ed K

Ed, yes you certainly can adjust the machine assuming you have a AirSense 10 or 11. Just change the mode from Auto to CPAP. Then you can select the pressure that worked with your S6. You do have a choice of using EPR (Expiry Pressure Relief) which reduces pressure by a set amount on exhale, or not using it. The other choice is to use it during the ramp portion of the sleep so you get the pressure relief while going to sleep and then it stops reducing on exhale when you go to sleep. The ramp in the A10 or A11 can be set to Auto. In that mode the machine will hold the pressure at an adjustable setting for the best comfort, and then increase it to your set pressure when you fall asleep. I find it works really well.

I started out with my A10 in auto mode but over time I narrowed the range between min and max pressure to the point it was nearly fixed. I found that worked best for me. For the last year or so, I just moved it to the CPAP mode and run it at a single fixed pressure. This has worked the best for me of all settings I have tried. My current settings are a ramp start pressure of 9 cm, and a treatment pressure of 11 cm. This is combined with the EPR set at 2 cm and full time. I used to use it only during the ramp, but found if I used it full time the hypopnea frequency is reduced.