CPAP is for pressure but not for oxygen right?

[TheBigTenor]

Let me clear up my question.

CPAP's are used to treat obstructed (OSA), hypopnea's and some central apnea's (CSA) using pressure, yes? But they don't provide oxygen? Well they do, but they don't right?

Reason I'm asking....I have hypopnea's and shallow breathing. My AHI has never read over 1 every since I started using it in April. I might have .2-.5's sometimes a high .8 but that's it. Gee, why am I'm on a CPAP then right?

I'm using the AirSense 10 with nasal pillows. My pressure is 5-12. I can go 2 weeks with out issues but then I'll have some nights where I wake and I feel like I've been holding my breath for 30 seconds. I do NOT have an oxygen meter but I'm about to buy one.

I have all the symptoms of low oxygen saturation. A couple of hours into my sleep I get up out of bed and sit in the living room for 30-40 minutes then go back to bed. This does NOT happen all the time. Maybe once a week, maybe once every two weeks. But it's frightening. It's usually heart racing, slight headache, raised BP (yes I have monitor) etc.

CPAP's use varied pressure to treat, but they aren't ventilator's right? However I've heard some machine will send a puff of air to the mask. I simply feel like some nights my breathing is so shallow I almost stop, but I don't think so since my SleepyHead data still shows repository waves.

Are there adjustments in my AirSense that I can make to help me alleviate this issue where I not getting enough air? (remember this doesn't happen all the time) I just went almost the whole month of October sleeping like a baby through the night. But I'm now having slight issues again with waking and having some very negative body feedback when I wake up about 2:30-3:00am.

Thanks

[LSAT]

If your AHI is as low as you say,(.2-.5) you are only having 3-5 apnea events all night. Holding your breath for 30 seconds each will not cause you low oxygen saturation. You are correct..."CPAP is for pressure but not for oxygen"...although, oxygen levels are better when there are fewer apnea events. Looking back at your previous posts, I would talk to your doctor about anxiety issues.

[palerider]

CPAP's use varied pressure to treat, but they aren't ventilator's right? However I've heard some machine will send a puff of air to the mask. I simply feel like some nights my breathing is so shallow I almost stop, but I don't think so since my SleepyHead data still shows repository waves.

Are there adjustments in my AirSense that I can make to help me alleviate this issue where I not getting enough air? (remember this doesn't happen all the time) I just went almost the whole month of October sleeping like a baby through the night. But I'm now having slight issues again with waking and having some very negative body feedback when I wake up about 2:30-3:00am.

CPAPs don't provide *additional* oxygen, just the 21% that's in room air, unless you're bleeding in extra oxygen from some source.

They just enable you to breathe. Some "cpaps" are ventilators, yours is not.

Non Invasive Ventilator machines (bilevel ST, ASV and VAPS) don't send a "puff of air", they send a large pressure increase that's enough to inflate your lungs, and breathe for you. it's not a 'puff'.

Read, and post: viewtopic/t172378/Sticky--Newbies-PLEAS ... STING.html

[kteague]

I wonder if the puff of air you're thinking of is the one some machines send out to check to see if the airway is open. I am not familiar with where you are in this journey. You mention Sleepyhead - check the duration of your events. It's always possible that a really prolonged event could happen now and then. While your AHI is already low, your starting pressure is probably low enough that it wouldn't hurt to increase it just a bit to see if that prevents the episodes you describe. (Unless you know some reason why not, likes centrals not associated with wakings.) Some people are more sensitive to sensations than others. A person highly tuned to changes might react more strongly to even hypopneas that another person might sleep through. My first thought is that an oximeter is probably overkill for you, but if that will give you peace of mind to cover all bases, there's value in that. Good luck with sorting through things.

[palerider]

I wonder if the puff of air you're thinking of is the one some machines send out to check to see if the airway is open.

Resmeds don't even puff, they vibrate

[Okie bipap]

Prior to starting treatment for my sleep apnea, I was using supplemental oxygen when sleeping. When I had my knee replaced, the nurses noticed my oxygen level would drop when ever I went to sleep. The doctor that did the morning rounds prescribe supplemental oxygen until I could get tested and get started on my treatment. Three hours after I got home from the hospital, the DME showed up at my door with an oxygen concentrator and a bottle of oxygen for me to use. Due to mistakes my doctor made, it took me almost a full year to get started with my treatment for sleep apnea. Once I did, I had the oxygen equipment picked up.

[TheBigTenor]

If your AHI is as low as you say,(.2-.5) you are only having 3-5 apnea events all night. Holding your breath for 30 seconds each will not cause you low oxygen saturation. You are correct..."CPAP is for pressure but not for oxygen"...although, oxygen levels are better when there are fewer apnea events. Looking back at your previous posts, I would talk to your doctor about anxiety issues.

Well you might be right....I have been having more anxiety as of late. It's just so odd because for 20 some days straight in October, I never woke, other than maybe once during the night with some uncomfortable feelings. It's been a pain trying to get a pinpoint as to my occasional issue.

[D.H.]

This may have been stated - at least implicitly - in prior replies.

CPAP provides pressurized air with the same concentration of oxygen as is in the room. If you suffer from garden-variety sleep apnea with no related complications, the ambient air contains enough oxygen. It's just that Sleep Apnea is preventing you from breathing it.

Of course, if you have COPD, Emphysema, and/or certain other complications you might also need supplementary oxygen.

[Daaron60]

My first post. I am 4 months using the CPAP (Resmed Autosense 10) and pretty pleased overall while recovering from a nasty bout of persistent AFIB. Not perfect sleep, but better than I have had in decades.

I am no expert, but when I decided to start checking the usefulness of my CPAP machine due to uncomfortable sleeping episodes, I bought a bodimetrix O2 monitor to wear while I slept.

It is not cheap and will set you back a couple hundred bucks, but it is kind of nice in that it will vibrate if your blood oxygen goes below a certain level.

When I first got the oximeter I got a few low oxygen alarms in the middle of the night even though I was using my CPAP and reading almost no apnea events.

After reading this board I found out that about after a month or so if using the CPAP, it is sometimes good to turn off the breath assist feature ( or whatever they call it with Resmed) and things got much better.

Now, I rarely have any low oxygen events and when they occur, the little device vibrates and I am reminded to breath.

[TheBigTenor]

After reading this board I found out that about after a month or so if using the CPAP, it is sometimes good to turn off the breath assist feature ( or whatever they call it with Resmed) and things got much better.

Now, I rarely have any low oxygen events and when they occur, the little device vibrates and I am reminded to breath.

CAN anyone verify what he's talking about here? I'm sure it's simply called something else in my settings?

[Pugsy]

CAN anyone verify what he's talking about here? I'm sure it's simply called something else in my settings?

I think he is talking about EPR or exhale pressure relief on a ResMed machine.

[Daaron60]

EPR is exactly what I was talking about. I turned it off and sleeping was much better.

Still not perfect, but pretty darn good

[TheBigTenor]

CAN anyone verify what he's talking about here? I'm sure it's simply called something else in my settings?

I think he is talking about EPR or exhale pressure relief on a ResMed machine.

I found an old post where I had my settings listed and I see that my EPR is on Full. I also run a higher Min Pressure now and Humidity at 3.

So Pugsy do you think I might see some benefit to switching it off? I guess I can try it?

settings.jpg (44.84 KiB) Viewed 2480 times

[Pugsy]

So Pugsy do you think I might see some benefit to switching it off? I guess I can try it?

EPR full just means full time or all night. The other option is ramp only which means only during the ramp if someone uses the ramp.

EPR is considered a comfort feature and some people like it and maybe even need it and others don't.
Turning it off increases the overall average pressure by just a little bit and it's that increase that sometimes helps hold the airway open a little better. Same thing could be accomplished simply by increasing the minimum pressure setting. If there is no need to reduce the number of apnea events then there is no need to increase that minimum either with more minimum setting or turning EPR down or off.

Now some people just like the way it feels (I am one of those). So you can try it if you wish and see what your personal preferences might be. It's strictly personal preference.

[Daaron60]

Again, I am the newby so don’t go by what I say.

But after about a month, I started to experience instances where i felt like I would forget to breath. It would not register as an event on my machine, but it led to uncomfortable sleep experiences.

I did a search in this forum and learned to tweak the settings myself and played a little with the numbers, but eventually set the EPR to zero.

I could not feel any difference while awake and breathing and my instances of forgetting to breath reduced to almost nothing.

However, I still use the oximeter while I sleep because it gives me the warm fuzzies that things are working as they should with both my oxygen levels and the heart rate.