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Diatribe about fiddling with CPAP pressure


Posted by DavidS on July 26, 2000 at 19:06:38:

In Reply to: weight loss and CPAP posted by kennyv on July 26, 2000 at 10:46:10:

I'm concerned about the comments that suggest it's OK to experiment and adjust CPAP pressure up or down to see what will happen.

If you'll scroll down in this forum, you'll find a post from Kevin in Walla Walla, posted on July 19. It concerns finding the correct CPAP pressure.

In that post, Kevin, a sleep lab technician, talks about how carefully he must consider a variety of information--NOT JUST WHETHER THE APNEAS STOP--to determine the correct CPAP pressure. His post suggests that at the wrong pressure, the apneas may stop, but other problems will persist--problems that only show up on the polysomnogram.

I'd be VERY skeptical of any advice that recommended raising or lowering pressure by even a small amount unless there was proper monitoring along with it. Remember: you couldn't tell you had apnea in the first place because you were ASLEEP (or what passed for it). My sleep doc--a neurologist--related the effect to a kind of amnesia. You just don't remember waking up. Apparently medical residents on round-the-clock duty experience something similar. My point is, you can't tell what an adjustment in pressure is doing. Somebody in the bed with you can't really tell what an adjustment in pressure is doing (unless you start snoring or having apneas). Only a properly-equipped lab can tell you what's actually going on.

Let's not cut corners, folks.

(And congratulations on the weight loss...it can only help!)

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