[sbstp]

My sleep study revealed 90.7 events per hour (30 is considered severe) and 55% blood oxygen level. I've been using a CPAP machine for about 2 months now, but still feeling pretty tired in general. Still waiting for the life changing effects.

[hnlmorg]

I was around 79 events and my CPAP was also life changing. But they’re not easy to get right.

First you need a mask that fits the profile of your face and the severity of your condition. There are a lot of different shapes and designs. Having tried a few, some were completely useless for me. Only one actually worked.

Facial hair also affects the performance of the mask too. I don’t know if this is something you need to be concerned about or not, but if you have a beard and wear a full mouth and nose mask, then you might want to consider a change of appearance.

Then you have the configuration of the CPAP machine itself:

+ how much pressure to apply?

+ what, if any, ramp up period to use before deep sleep pressure is applied?

Those two metrics took a bit of tuning before I found something I was comfortable with.

I was lucky that I had (and still have) an excellent doctor to guide me through all of this. Free from the UK NHS too. I can’t imagine having to navigate all of these caveats on my own.

Good luck with the CPAP machine. Not getting enough quality sleep can be debilitating. I’ve been in the same situation as you so understand how horrible life was before my CPAP machine.

[tibbydudeza]

I unlocked the machine by pressing two buttons and rebooting it and changed the ramping algorithm to less aggressive and increased the start pressure as it felt I was breathing from a straw when I tried to sleep.

I use a nasal mask (not the pillows) since I am not a mouth breather - for me the Fisher & Paykel Eson 2 (L) was just the right fit - took about two different masks before I settled on it.

[cpuguy83]

Have you analyzed the data from your cpap to see if it's doing what it needs to do? It has the data for your apnea events, sleep time, all kinds of interesting things.

Check for leaks. Make sure your mask is actually comfortable, I'd recommend trying multiple if you haven't already.

[manmal]

Maybe you need a BIPAP.