Fitness tracker sleep data - extremely low deep sleep.

I wish someone had told me about using a cervical collar. I could have saved years of poor sleep. I have to sleep sitting up(not all the way). I’ve woken up numerous times at night to drink water and suck on a halls to stop coughing. I’ve tried mouth tape and chin straps, both useless or uncomfortable. I read a short blog on a cervical collar for apnea. I had one from an auto accident so I dug it out and started using it. It’s taken 3 days to get used to it, but wow, I woke up feeling refreshed for the first time in years. They’re relatively cheap and can be purchased anywhere. Mine has a separate cover you can take off and wash. It’s worth a shot folks.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Mine's an ResMed AirSense 10... My DME provider told me that it has to have a card inserted to report data to the physician and that's why they couldn't view it. I took the card from my old AirSense 10, inserted it and the data was magically reported to my provider.

Not sure why mine works this way.

I've been poring over the CPAP as OSCAR reports it and there are quite a few obstructive apnea events (OA) which are most often clustered together and a few clear airway events that are clustered as well. Been trying to map this with fitness tracker data to see if related to body movement. Hard to tell thus far which is cause and which is effect.

I have eliminated almost all of the small leaks and the large leaks. I'm using a soft collar to try to reduce OAs and hypopnea events, but results aren't definite.

While most days don't have them, some days have Cheyne Stokes Respiration periods.

The AHIs per hour are widely variable from day to day. I'll call it yo-yo mode.

Meanwhile, am working as best I can to reduce weight.

Still awaiting that late Feb appointment. Still want to push a sleep study.

IT is highly unlikely that you have Cheyne-Stokes. The graphic curves of your breathing, if you click in one spot where OSCAR says it has happened several times to expand the view, looks like C-S, but it's probably laboured, partly occluded, intake.

Once again, clusters of events, especially hypopnea and obstructive, are about 80% likely to be caused by chin tucking, or from some other positional artefact that makes breathing difficult. Sleeping on one's back, or tucking the chin with a firm pillow, but also on your back....these will make for a night in Hades. A properly fitted soft foam cervical collar will do wonders to prevent your chin from falling too far toward your sternum.

Thanks for the feedback.

I didn't think it was CS because it happens so rarely - only for short periods on only a couple of days and usually before I wake up.

Been using the soft cervical collar, lowered the pillow height to try to prevent this without much improvement. Sleeping on my side seems to make it worse.

Thinking of trying a better (stiffer) soft collar, trying not using a pillow at all and putting the pillow under my shoulders with my neck hanging some off the back side.

Just for completeness, my thyroid has stable nodules and tests out in the lower normal range. It does feel "tight" though.

Sleeping on my back is preferred from a pain perspective - left shoulder had arthritic spurs removed with a tendon repair and is still sore, the right has those spurs and is pending surgery.

Last, I take 7.5mg Remeron (a.k.a. mirtazapine) approximately 90 minutes before bed and 3mg Melatonin approximately 30 minutes before bedtime. Times were set via trial and error.

The Remeron helps me return to sleep after having to make a toilet run. I don't have a colon (removed due to cancer) so frequent and quick toilet runs are often necessary.

I might experiment with skipping the Remeron to see if it's still necessary.

An update - my sleep med appointment was scheduled out in late February, but I put myself on a standby list if an appointment opened up. Saw the sleep specialist yesterday. Had been regularly reviewing my CPAP data with OSCAR, and trying to drop the number of events. Had tried numerous things, but finally resolved to sleep on my right side. Events dropped like a rock and my AHIs from between 6 and 12 to 1-2.5! However, I can't do that long term due to shoulder arthritis.

First, they rejected sleeping on my side.

Second they bumped my pressure up a notch and will do as needed until my AHIs behave themselves. Status every 2 weeks.

Third they suggested trying a wedge or a recliner to raise my head/shoulders 30-40 degrees. I had slept in a recliner recovering from surgery and didn't sleep well then and that caused a lot of lower back pain, so I'm reluctant to do that.

Fourth - they noticed a redness around the mouth and where the silicone makes contact. I had not seen this before, so this may be related to a new med I just started. They suggested:
a) wash the mask with baby shampoo, not regular soap.
b) use try hydrocortisone 1% cream to deal with the irritation.
c) try a cloth barrier and explained how to make my own for testing.
d) wash my face with a shampoo which has zine in it, let sit for 5 minutes, then wash it off.
e) try a different mask type - I use an AirFit 30i. The nice thing is the hose attaches to the top and doesn't pull on the mask, the downside is that it has a silicon tube on each side of the face that feed the pressure into the mask and these leave dents in the skin and now are quite irritated and red.

You can get face mask liners to deal with the irritation. I have no further info on that, sorry, but it is discussed at apneaboard.com forums. Also, a really good non-steroidal cream is Barriere Cream....that spelling. At drug stores.

I'm afraid there is simply no substitute for trying a range of mask, different materials and configurations, different manufacturers. It's a pain, and could get costly, but at some point you might find that you do well with a couple and should probably get into the habit of swapping them to prevent either one from 'getting old' on you or if each eventually causes its own problems.

I have used CPAP Comfort Covers for all of the different CPAP masks I've used for the past 5 years. They really do help with irritation caused by a mask - https://cpapcomfortcover.com/. It's a small company on the west coast where the owner uses a CPAP and supports his products.

Thanks for the referral. I've used CPAPs for over a decade and this mask model for over two years and never had problems until I started a new medication on Tuesday - then wow!

Some of the adverse side effect symptoms are redness, irritation of the face and itchiness, which I'm also seeing in places on my face which the mask doesn't contact, so I'll start with dropping that med.

Been using a CPAP for over a decade and this mask type for over 2 years without any issues. That new med I started Tuesday is known to cause such problems with the face and with itching too, so the first thing I'm trying is to drop that new med and see what happens.