Higher AHI and bunch of centrals last two nights - SWJ?

[InnerGlow]

It's been over a year and I'm still struggling to get my average CPAP usage up over 4 hours/night. Some nights I take the mask off because of congestion, others I don't remember taking it off at all, but the last two nights I remember taking it off because I had trouble staying asleep. Generally my AHI has been under 3, but these last two nights it was 27.37 and 8.63 with a bunch of centrals. Since I remember having trouble sleeping, I was wondering if this could be SWJ?

[palerider]

It's been over a year and I'm still struggling to get my average CPAP usage up over 4 hours/night. Some nights I take the mask off because of congestion, others I don't remember taking it off at all, but the last two nights I remember taking it off because I had trouble staying asleep. Generally my AHI has been under 3, but these last two nights it was 27.37 and 8.63 with a bunch of centrals. Since I remember having trouble sleeping, I was wondering if this could be SWJ?

Could be... first thing I see is that your min pressure is way too low, I'd bump it to 10, or 11, and turn down *flex for a start.

[Julie]

And if you're using the humidifier because you think you ''should', even though you're in NJ where it's unlikely that you'd necessarily need it at all at times, or certainly not at a high setting, but become congested, try turning it down (or even oif) and see if you do better. It's for comfort, not 'therapy', and if your local climate isn't dry, or only so-so e.g. in winter with central htg on, then feel free to experiment as to how much you need, vs thinking it has to be on or 'up' regardless.

[Pugsy]

Might as well learn to try to figure out the difference between SWJ and asleep breathing.
Go here and read and watch all the videos
http://freecpapadvice.com/sleepyhead-free-software

The congestion could have played a significant factor both in sleep quality and pressure needs.
I wouldn't go changing anything until I figure out if the bulk of that AHI was SWJ or not since your AHI is not normally any where near this high. Make sure what you are wanting to fix with more pressure is fixable with more pressure.
We can't fix centrals with more pressure on a cpap/apap machine.

Another variable...sleep position...were you maybe on your back more with these ugly nights?

[InnerGlow]

Might as well learn to try to figure out the difference between SWJ and asleep breathing.
Go here and read and watch all the videos
http://freecpapadvice.com/sleepyhead-free-software

The congestion could have played a significant factor both in sleep quality and pressure needs.
I wouldn't go changing anything until I figure out if the bulk of that AHI was SWJ or not since your AHI is not normally any where near this high. Make sure what you are wanting to fix with more pressure is fixable with more pressure.
We can't fix centrals with more pressure on a cpap/apap machine.

Thanks for the videos...they were helpful. I do think there was a lot of SWJ on those nights based on what I saw. Last night I was back to my typical AHI range and even managed to keep the CPAP on for 8 hours of sleep. Only thing I can't figure out is why it is split into two sessions when I used it straight through the night.

And if you're using the humidifier because you think you ''should', even though you're in NJ where it's unlikely that you'd necessarily need it at all at times, or certainly not at a high setting, but become congested, try turning it down (or even oif) and see if you do better. It's for comfort, not 'therapy', and if your local climate isn't dry, or only so-so e.g. in winter with central htg on, then feel free to experiment as to how much you need, vs thinking it has to be on or 'up' regardless.

I had the humidity on low (1) last winter because my throat was dry, but went to passover humidification for the spring, summer, and up until last week when my throat was feeling dry again.

Could be... first thing I see is that your min pressure is way too low, I'd bump it to 10, or 11, and turn down *flex for a start.

Why do you say the min pressure is too low? It's comfortable for me and generally my pressure doesn't go over 12 (these two nights were an exception). And why would you turn down the flex? My doctor had me turn it up. Just trying to understand before I go making any changes.

[Jas_williams]

A higher mnimimum would reduce the amount of pressure changes your machine wants to always get down to its min setting but your events cause it to raise pressure so the pressure line goes up and down all the time possibly disrupting sleep. Minimum of 9 would be a better starting point it may even need 10 but a higher value should also reduce your overall ahi to closer to 1. Flex was suggested to be reduced to help reduce CA’s I don’t see a need to do that at this time.

[palerider]

Flex was suggested to be reduced to help reduce CA’s I don’t see a need to do that at this time.

That was suggested based on the 16.5 CAI of the first pic...

I guess I'm going to have to start asking "HEY, are these pics you posted something typical, or did you just pic the worst night you've ever had to lead off with?"

[Pugsy]

I guess I'm going to have to start asking "HEY, are these pics you posted something typical, or did you just pic the worst night you've ever had to lead off with?"

Might not be a bad idea especially with the cpap veterans who are here in panic mode because something changed from what they normally see.