Hi to all -

I am new to the Forum but a long time CPAP user (10 years actually).  My original sleep study showed an AHI of 45 events/hour - mostly hypopneas.   I fought the CPAP for a couple months early on, but eventually it became just a part of normal life.  I truly do not sleep without it - period.  I have never had a particuarly aggressive doctor who wanted to really understand what might be going on and since my quality of life improved so much after I adapted to CPAP, I am embarrassed to admit I have just continued on without really staying abreast of new developments or trends.   (I did continue to have followup sleep studies).   Recently I embarked on a second round of orthodontic treatment since my teeth had shifted a lot since my teens, and my orthodontist has sent me to a couple different specialists to address some basic "plumbing" issues (deviated septum, turbinates and removal of bone overgrowth).  After so much talk about my apnea again, I got to wondering how it was really all going each night and upgraded my CPAP to a Resmed S8 Elite w/humidifier along with the software and peripherals needed to see my daily efficacy data.  As you might imagine, I have now become quite the data nerd.  And I am noticing something that seems weird to me and thought someone else might have exerienced it.  I have been tracking my data now for 18 days.  14 of those days are pretty routine and my sleep pattern is pretty sound with an AHI consistently under 5 at pressure 12.  But on 4 of those days, I have had a flurry of apneas right as I am going to sleep.  In a 30 minute period I will have 15-20 apneas averaging 12-18 seconds each.  While groggy, Iam aware of this erratic sleep period since I am waking up and my breathing seems "upset."  On those 4 nights the cycles do settle down and a normal pattern develops for the rest of thenight.  But there are so many apneas in that first 30 minutes or so that it raises my entire AHI for the night over 15.  Seemed a little disconcerting.

So my question is whether anyone has run into this sort of pattern themselves.   I did realize I need to be more aggressive about my own care and made an appt at the UVA Sleep Center for evaluation, but that appt is a couple months off.  In the meantime,  I thougth I would check in and see if anyone else had insightinto that type of pattern.

Thanks!

Joy

Do you use the Elite's Ramp cycle? Our breathing whilst awake is quite different from our breathing when asleep. The most likely explanation is that the nights w/the clusters of events are nights where you took longer to get to sleep or sat up and watched a little TV before snuggling down to sleep.

I know when I watch TV awhile w/my mask and xPAP on I encounter the clustering of events as you do. Or if I take longer to get to sleep than my set Settling time (similar to Ramp) I encounter the clustering of events as you do.


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Some people are like Slinkies... Not really good for anything, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs.
Resmed VPAP Auto. Humidaire 3i, Simplicity & Micro masks, ResScan 3.4, S8 ResLink, Embla oximeter.

Hi Crohnie - I do not use the ramp cycle  - I recently saw the term "air junkie" and I think it describes me.  The ramp feature seems too low a setting so I just go for full force.  It is an interesting thought though and I could try the ramp to see if that helps me avoid the clusters.  This is giving me a bit of the willies so I am interested in figuring it out!

Welllll, I think I misled you and confused Settling w/Ramp. I'm just getting used to using a bi-level instead of straight CPAP. There is no response to events during Settling. When I was using my Elite, I wasn't using Ramp either and that is when I noticed the events whilst awake. But Ramp starts at reduced pressure and builds up to set pressure whilst Settling just doesn't respond or record for the selected time period. Mine is currently set at 20 minutes. My apologies. Just keep track of if it took you longer to fall to sleep on the nights w/the early events or if you watched TV or whatever before going to sleep.


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Some people are like Slinkies... Not really good for anything, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs.
Resmed VPAP Auto. Humidaire 3i, Simplicity & Micro masks, ResScan 3.4, S8 ResLink, Embla oximeter.