Sierra

The secret with the AutoRamp feature is to get the start pressure high enough to feel comfortable, and have the EPR (Expiratory Pressure Relief) set at 3 cm and for the Ramp Only. Most like about 7 cm but 6 should be fine too. Out of the box it will default to 4 cm.

If you really want to monitory progress closely there is a free software program called SleepyHead which combined with a PC or Mac with a SD card reader allows you to track and graph all the data that the AirSense machine captures. From the factory the AirSense comes with a 4 GB SD card, but some suppliers are pulling the card out. Someone must have a drawer full of cards! I would ask that the card be included. If they refuse, you can buy an SD card and put it in yourself. Or you may have one lying around from use in a camera or tablet. The machine will format it when you put it in. Some links for SleepyHead:

SleepyHead Download

SleepyHead Basic Manual

One measure that SleepyHead tracks is total time in apnea. When trying to make a trade off in pressure you may want to consider this measure. I suspect that it doesn't matter if the apnea is central or obstructive, as both stop breathing and will affect blood oxygen. The only limitation of total time in apnea is that it does not compensate for time on the machine like AHI does. So, you may want to divide it by machine hours to get a number to compare from one night to another.

You will have to give us a report on how it works for you. It looks like the headgear is better than the ResMed P10.

At an age of 8, getting a mask that fits well may be a bit of a challenge. I would make sure that your provider spends enough time to ensure the mask fits well without leaks using the expected treatment pressure. There are some masks made for kids that you may want to ask about if they only have adult masks. Here is a link to an article on CPAP Masks for Kids. They list some available masks near the end of the article.

CPAP Masks for Kids

The other issue will be ensuring the machine is set up for good comfort. This ResMed AirSense 10 has some good comfort features. When you put a CPAP mask on and you are awake it can feel like it is restricting the air flow. One way to address that is to use the ResMed EPR feature which increases pressure on the inhale, and decreases it on exhale. EPR can reduce treatment effectiveness so it is best if the machine is set to use it on the Auto Ramp feature only. Say for example the expectation is that a treatment pressure minimum may be 8 cm. I would ask for a Ramp Start pressure of 7 cm, with an EPR of 3 on ramp only. This will give 7 cm of pressure on inhale, and 4 cm (machine minimum) on exhale. This tends to be very comfortable because you get pressure assistance to breath in, and the very lowest available pressure to breath out. When the machine detects you have gone to sleep, then it will switch the EPR off and go to the 8 cm treatment pressure. Now if the expected treatment pressure is lower than that, then you will have to scale back those pressures. The ramp start pressure can't be set higher than the treatment minimum pressure.

Make sure you get a heated hose, which I believe ResMed calls the ClimateLine. It allows the machine to automatically control humidity and temperature for maximum comfort.

So, I think those may be a couple of key things to get right; mask comfort, and going to sleep pressure settings. A good sleep tech should take the time to do this, but some may just take the machine out of the box and leave everything at default settings.

If you have any questions, just ask. I use the same machine, but am just a little older than 8 years!

Welcome to the club that nobody really wants to belong to! Good luck with your cpap machine tonight. The first night can be a little difficult to sleep with everything new that is going on. What I can suggest is to do your best to relax and try to get some sleep. You may want to plan to use it while watching TV or reading before you actually try to sleep with it. I use the same machine as you have and it is very good. If you have any questions about it just ask.

Yes, and my recollection of using the NightOne is that it was much worse than using a CPAP.

There is a sleep dentist that checks in here now and then. If you made a new thread on the subject I think he would likely comment.

Another thought may be to use that Android App, Snore Lab, that is discussed in another thread here. The degree of snoring may be some what of a proxy for apnea.

And I don't recall whether or not you have considered a dental appliance. It can be effective in the mild apnea range, and doesn't use pressure so should not cause central apneas. They are expensive though, and short of a sleep study you don't really know how well they are working.

I'm not aware of such a device, other than the machines used for the at home sleep testing, like the Phillips Alice NightOne. The only other thing I can think of is just using a CPAP set at the minimum pressure of 4 cm. But, that is still giving you some treatment. Some people sew a tennis ball in the back of their PJ's to discourage sleeping on their back. Sounds like torture to me though. Another device that is sometime used is a soft cervical collar. Again, may not be the most comfortable thing to wear.

Gary, another thing to consider is calling your machine provider. This machine is capable of sending data to them, and they can change settings wirelessly as well. That may be a more prudent way to change things during a trial machine phase. Just tell them what issues you are having, and that you are not able to use it all night. That should concern them enough to make some changes to the settings to improve comfort.

That manual I gave you a link to explains in detail how to do it, if you feel confident enough to do it yourself. That is normally something that is adjusted by a sleep technician. That said, you would be just changing the Minimum Pressure to 7 cm, and the Ramp Start pressure to 7 cm also.