When a pressure is discovered that successfully treats a patient’s sleep apnea, is it that pressure and higher that works, or is it just that pressure (within a certain range)?
I think higher than recommended pressures can help with obstructive apneas but lead to central apneas. You should experiment with caution, if at all, especially if you don’t have diagnostic equipment.
I’m not experimenting at all, I was just curious. Thanks for the info.
After I lost about 50 lbs., my CPAP pressure was too high. The tell-tale sign for me was that I kept “springing a leak” during the night. The air pressure would force the mask to leak around the edges. So, I’ve found that having the pressure too high did not work for me at all.
I’m not sure I understand how you losing weight would make the mask more leaky. Did the mask sink deeper into face-fat before the weight loss, and hence have a tighter fit?
This. My fiancee is a sleep tech, and I work in the offices of a sleep lab and use CPAP myself. A pressure that is too high may lead to central apneas. This is especially bad as you are more likely to NOT wake up during a central apnea than you are during an OSA.
Overweightedness is often a major contributing factor in sleep apnea, more loose tissue around, apparently. Weight loss CAN reduce or even eliminate the problem.
Yes, since I had lost weight (and therefore now have less weight pressing on my neck), I require a lower pressure than before. As to exactly why it would spring a leak due to higher than needed pressure, I’m not sure.
The pressure being too high wouldn’t cause the leak. What probably happened was that the weight loss led to a change in face shape which led to a leak. A mask re-fit, that is changing masks or mask size, would have solved the leak problem, but the DME, doctor, or sleep center employee who handled the complaint about the leak probably made the connection and got Ultraviolet a change in Rx.
I know I can google this, but I believe that I have apnea (because I often wake up gasping for breath in the middle of the night and my wife says I snore, uh, a lot) and I’m interested in what this procedure is and how it works…from reading along, it requires some kind of breathing mask? And some kind of pressure?
I realize that, I was just wondering how that could result in a leaky mask.
Get thee to a doctor and probably a sleep study! Sleep apnea is nothing to fool around with.
A CPAP involves a mask over the nose or both the nose and mouth, into which plain (filtered and often humidified) air is pumped from a small machine through a flexible hose. The purpose as I understand it is to keep your throat open and to prevent the soft palate/uvula area from collapsing periodically and shutting off your air.
May I ask, also, to those who have mentioned it, what is a Central Apnea and how is it different from Obstructive Sleep Apnea?
Roddy
Here is the first in a series of articles I wrote about sleep apnea, including what it is, how it’s diagnosed, and treatment options. The CPAP mask Roderick mentioned is the most common and the most effective method of treatment, and it can drastically improve your quality of life as well as keep you alive. (I am a CPAP evangelist after starting to use it myself.) I would also strongly encourage you to see your primary care physician for a referral to a sleep specialist if you think you may have apnea – it is a potentially fatal condition.
Obstructive Apnea is just what it sounds like – tissue compresses and obstructs the airway, leading to a stoppage of breathing. This is often due to excess weight in the chest and throat, and it may be complicated by loss of muscle tone in older patients.
Central Apnea is a stoppage of breathing due to a problem in the central nervous system. The signal to breathe is delayed, disrupted, or even just not sent, so the lungs don’t try to breathe. This is more common in the elderly or those with a history of COPD than in other people.
Why would a pressure that is too high possibly lead to central apneas ?
First, I’m not an expert, so this is just my understanding. Standard medical disclaimers and all apply.
But my understanding is that the high pressures can fool your body into thinking it’s getting more oxygen than it really is. Remember that the CPAP is just pulling room air in most cases (you can add oxygen, but that is relatively rare, and usually used on BiPAP* patients). When that high pressure hits, the brain erroneously sense an O2 overload and it can then skip a breathing cycle.
I use a fairly high pressure setting, and I feel something like this if I am inhaling when the machine starts. It feels kind of like my lungs have suddenly been blown up like balloons, and I have to consciously force myself to exhale deeply and return to breathing normally. I usually try to time up the starting of the machine for an exhale for this reason.
*CPAP is Continuous Positive Airway Pressure, and the machine puts out room air at one pressure. This acts something like an air-splint and you breathe in and out against this. BiPAP is Bi-level Positive Airway Pressure. The machine provides two pressures, a higher one during inhalation and a lower (but still higher than ambient) pressure during exhalation. BiPAP is usually used on patients whose condition requires a higher inhalation pressure than 15cm H2O or who has mixed obstructive and central apneas.