Hello, so I am new to this site and I am new to being diagnosed with Central Sleep Apnea. I am 31 years old with no major heart problems, but I have Chiari Malformation which is an alleged cause of Central Sleep Apnea. I just started using the ASV device and I’m wondering if anyone had any issues with it? I have found that I wake up more with the ASV device than I do without the device. The pressure increase causes me to wake up because I’m a light sleeper. Does anyone have any feedback on it?
Hi KBrunner,
I also use ASV for central apnea. Apparently it is quite rare. The pulmonologist I saw said she has seen 8 or so people in her 33 years in sleep disorders. I used CPAP for 4 years before finally switching to ASV and getting my AHI under control. I don’t really notice much difference at all. My only problem is the water is all evaporated after sleeping about 4-5 hours and then the heater shuts off so I wake up with a dry nose and cold air blowing up my nose. I’ve started just taking it off and shutting off the machine once the water is gone. I refuse to refill the thing part way through the night. I mentioned it to my sleep doc as well as the respiratory therapists at home health and they have no answers. Have you tried pushing the ramp button? (If your machine has one) That lowers the pressure for 15 min so you can fall asleep.
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Thank you for sharing your stories!!
Hi KBrunner I was diagnosed with sleep apnea back in January of 2007 and was finally put on the ASV machine in May 2008 and have been on it ever since. The machine definitely works a little differently than regular CPAP or BiPAP and can take a while to get used too! I see your post is from the end of May… are you still having problems now with the pressure waking you up? Hopefully it is just an adjustment problem getting use to the machine??? If it is then persistents and perseverance will be your best bet in over coming it.
Back when I was first diagnosed with sleep apnea I was really active on the original sleep apnea forum and the ASV machine was relatively new and very few post about it. Big changes in all the PAP machines over the years. I used the ResMed VPAP Adapt for 10 years then they nolonger made parts for it and I had to get a new machine Last year I got the ResMed AirCurve10 ASV and what fantastic machine it is!!
Wish you well on your new machine and PAP experience…WhiteBeard
Depending on how bad your apnea is, the pressure can get a little high. Just to keep in mind the only reason it would titrate the pressure so high is because you need it. I doesn’t just jump to the higher pressure, for no reason, and instead uses an algorithm that targets 90% of your minute volume when you begin to fall short of that target it slowly climbs the pressure until you are again moving enough air. There are a few things one can do to decrease the severity of ones apnea. One thing would be to avoid sleeping on your back and the second would be to sleep with your head elevated. Now depending on how severe your apnea is these two things may not help enough. My last suggestion would be to have another sleep study and once the lab had treated 75-80% of you apnic events they could then bracket your pressure settings so that you machine would not climb any higher. I hope this helps and you have better sleep.
I’m on the ResMed AirCurve ASV currently. It does go with higher pressures sometimes, but it isn’t really noticeable unless I’m not actually asleep.
Without seeing your event charts, it’s not a good idea to lower your settings without knowing you wouldn’t hinder treatment.
However, here’s a trick you could try. It’s called Blow Back. Next time you’re in that situation where the ASV has blown it’s disrupting air spike, just literally blow back moderately forceful through your mask. The machine will back off until it thinks you need extra pressure. As smart as the ASV is, it can get a bit confused when signals get crossed up a bit, especially if you’re hovering between sleep and wake states.
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