Positional Sleep Apnea - What Is Yours?

I made a mistake last night. I rolled onto my back.

Below is a graphic illustration of positional sleep apnea. My optimal pressure is 8.5 cm when sleeping on my tummy or either side. On my back, the sleep lab said they could not get me to breathe until they raised the pressure to 19 cm (ouch).

Yesterday was a very tiring day for my. In the morning I did a six-mile trail run that included a very steep and rugged 37-minute ascent. In the afternoon I worked in the lawn for two hours. After dinner, I did a little workout with weights. So when I hit the sack, I fell into a deep sleep immediately.

I have trained myself to sleep on my tummy (Falcon position) mainly and some on my sides. I always start out on my tummy. In the graph you can see a glorious CPAP result for the first four hours - no apneas, no hypopneas, no snores, one flow limitation, and very little pressure searching.



In hour five, I awoke with leg soreness, repositioned myself on my tummy still, and kicked in the ramp. Shortly thereafter I decided to get up and stretch my legs and take a pinkelpause. I returned to bed and decided to sleep on my side. Things went well again for about an hour.

Then at hour 5.5, I rolled onto my back, about five apneas occurred, and the machine slowly responded with higher pressure. Then I awoke, rolled onto my side, the apneas ceased, and the machine lowered the pressure.

Then just near the six-hour mark, I unknowingly rolled onto my back, the apnea "fun" began, and the machine begin raising the pressure. When the machine got the pressure to 14 cm, it appears to have the apneas under control.

I awoke at hour seven, realized what had happened and pressed the on/off button to drop the pressure. I lay there for a few minutes wide awake and then decided to get up.

That one series of apneas and the failure to sleep that last hour have left me with a little more edge than usual this morning. DNFWM!

That is a classic case of PSA with a wide range of pressure needs.

What is your PSA?

Regards,

Never in my life has back sleeping yielded a good time....so I am not game to do it intentionally!!

Was a natural "Falcon" sleeper before said Falcon "developed" and named it.....I highly recommend people give it a try if they haven't naturally found it already!!

Thankfully, I can still sleep in that position with my Swift LT and zero leaks!!

J

When I roll on my back the mask doesn't fit so I wake up.
I have a small face and receding chin that seems to vanish all together when I roll on my back so the mask has nothing to seal to anymore.

I literally DON'T sleep on my back. They tried to get me to back sleep at titration and I woke up and panicked with the strangeness of the mask so they let me go back to my side. I had no back sleep in my regular sleep study either. I had laproscopic surgery a few years back. Even then I couldn't sleep on my back when I got home that afternoon. I laid on my back for hours with my knees on a pillow and no go. I finally had to pile a bunch of pillows up so I could get onto my side and lean on them and finally get some sleep. Not getting enough O2 while on my back was apparently enough to train my mind very well not to let me sleep on my back. So I have no idea how bad my positional apnea is but I suspect horrendous .

deleted

Hi Rooster,

My body prefers to sleep on my back. My sleep apnea perfers that I do not sleep on my back.
Jeff had an interesting thread about belting his sandals to his back, to keep from sleeping on it.

I have tried several ideas that sounded great, but haven't succeeded yet - I'm getting my self up to try the sandal idea.

Your charts showed the dramatic difference it makes when you sleep on your back. Great visual representation.

Jan

SaltLakeJan wrote: ......
Your charts showed the dramatic difference it makes when you sleep on your back. Great visual representation.

Jan

Yes, that was the idea for the post. We need to show this to newbies to help many of them get their therapy optimized quicker. The two sleep labs I have been in, never brought the subject up. I only began getting a decent therapy once the guys here helped me figure it out.

You would think the lab that titrated me at 19 cm would have said, "That pressure will be very difficult. Can you sleep on your sides or tummy? About 40% of patients have PSA and can use a lower pressure if they avoid backsleeping." It makes me think they don't know crap about sleep apnea.

Regards,

packitin wrote:What??? In NYC? Is this the same Rooster?

What are you doing in NYC?

I thought you were from Speed, NC.

Is that somewhere close to High Point or Climax?
Or maybe somewhere close to Needmore?
I love NC.

(I'm just teasing you)

Jay

Jay,

That's OK.

But one place I will never show up in is Capon, West Virginia.

Well, if back sleeping is a big issue, I'm afraid I'm screwed. Due to herniated cervical discs and a pinched nerve, I have all of 2 positions I can comfortably sleep in. Left side, and back. Luckily, when they titrated me, 9cm seemed to do the trick on my back, so here's hoping.

Rooster,
You would think advice against sleeping on your back would have been a given.

rooster wrote:You would think the lab that titrated me at 19 cm would have said, "That pressure will be very difficult. Can you sleep on your sides or tummy? About 40% of patients have PSA and can use a lower pressure if they avoid backsleeping." It makes me think they don't know crap about sleep apnea.

My various sleep doctors, or Sleep Study technicians have not warned me against back sleeping.
And like most, my apnea is worse when I sleep on my back. I have learning everything I know about back sleeping from this forum. I may be atypical, but I didn't understand the portions of my sleep studies regarding sleep position.

Good thread for newbies and reminders for those who sleep on their back.

Jan

Rooster

Usually I try to sleep on my side but back sleeping comes into play
every now and again . I suspect it depends on my tiredness or as
the chiropractor once said we self adjust at night.
Besides the mask show people sleeping on their backs and I say Yeah.
Why not me.
Thanks Rooster for your post .
Moonbeam

Fascinating! I've been sleeping on my side almost exclusively since the hip pain started in 2002. Hmm, maybe I was unknowingly trying to compensate for positional apnea? I know I had a dreadful time after my surgery when I had to sleep on my back and could not roll onto side or tummy. A big wedge pillow helped, but....

For those of you who think the lab was wrong to tell you to sleep on your back - they do it to get a "worst scenario" picture, so there's a baseline that they can work from. They're not doing it from ignorance or to be mean !

Julie wrote:For those of you who think the lab was wrong to tell you to sleep on your back - they do it to get a "worst scenario" picture, so there's a baseline that they can work from. They're not doing it from ignorance or to be mean !

Before going to my sleep study, I had read (here) about people being forced to sleep on their backs. So, when I went to mine, I asked the person doing my study if they were going to require me to sleep on my back.......because I cannot sleep in that position. Thankfully, I was told to sleep in whatever position(s) I normally sleep.
Like most people have discovered, getting to sleep in the PSG portion of my split night study was very difficult......in ANY position.


Den

I sleep mostly on my back - My GERD seems to be worse on my side? I haven't a clue why. My average pressure is 9.1 with an AHI of less than 1.0 on most nights.