RERA-RESPIRATORY EFFORT RELATED AROUSAL

I just uploaded Sleepyhead after 1 year of using Resmed's data and I am quite confused. I have RERA numbers in the 20's and 30's, what does this mean? I have the Resmed 10 and have very few events each night, anywhere from 0.5 to 2.7 and I sleep all night from 7 to 8.5 hours. I wake up with a headache every day and do not feel rested. My pressure is on 6. I was told to turn off my EPR and turn up my pressure to 8 to see what happens. I've had every test in the book on what may be causing my tiredness, I am in good health according to conventional medicine. I never had headaches until I started cpap. I use a full face mask that I have no problems with either.

Can you post your sleepyhead data for everyone to see?

In order to score a obstructive apnea or hypopnea the event has to last 10 seconds. RERAS are described in CPAP Wiki (the light bulb at the top of the page) as:

RERAs: Respiratory effort related arousals. Episodes that are not apneas or hypopneas, often related to loud snoring, that generally do not cause a decrease in oxygen saturation.

While they are not OA's or Hypopneas they still may keep you from reaching restful sleep. Your pressure increase may help to decrease them but keep monitoring to see if it is enough.

I can't quite figure out how to post on here from Sleepyhead. Last night I changed the settings, turned off the EPR and changed the pressure to 7.8, I was a bit nervous about this so I didn't go up to 8. I had trouble falling asleep because it felt different. What would be the reason to have the EPR on in the first place? My report this morning showed 4 RERA events. The night before it was 23 and before that 22 so it did come down quite a bit. I will take the pressure up to 8 tonight and see what happens for the next few days. Because I didn't sleep at least 6 hours I am a bit groggy this morning but I don't have a headache... yet!

EPR (exhalation pressure relief) is for people who have trouble exhaling on Cpap, usually at higher pressures... it also tends to raise your AHI by a small amt, which is a trade-off for you to decide on... if you need it altogether - many of us don't use it. And I agree with raising your min. pressure... don't be afraid (at the still relatively low #) to do it in at least full increments... I believe the tiny ones might be useful at higher pressures to fine-tune a routine one on occasion but not when you still haven't yet found your ideal one. I also think your RERA's should lessen again as your min. pressure is set a bit higher (a lot of us end up at around 10 tho' you may not need that if things work well at a lower #).

Sounds like you are on the right track for now. If you want to learn how to post screen shots this link will help. When you get to the bottom of the link's page go to the next one. There are 3 total pages. https://sleep.tnet.com/resources/sleepyhead/shorganize

grins1227 wrote:I can't quite figure out how to post on here from Sleepyhead. Last night I changed the settings, turned off the EPR and changed the pressure to 7.8, I was a bit nervous about this so I didn't go up to 8. I had trouble falling asleep because it felt different. What would be the reason to have the EPR on in the first place? My report this morning showed 4 RERA events. The night before it was 23 and before that 22 so it did come down quite a bit. I will take the pressure up to 8 tonight and see what happens for the next few days. Because I didn't sleep at least 6 hours I am a bit groggy this morning but I don't have a headache... yet!

Stick with it for a few days you will get used to the higher pressure and hopefully start to feel more rested.