“Blinding ignorance does mislead
us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!”
-Leonardo da Vinci (Italian
Inventor, Painter and Engineer – 1452 – 1519)
Optimize your sleep by using
different Bilevel or BiPAP pressure settings. I use in three different
situations so as to wake up refreshed and energized each day. On this Blog Post, is an Example of the results
using my actual sleep data and SleepyHead reports when using the Bilevel auto
adjusting pressure machine. You may have other circumstances which another
situation may arise. The three different situations that I use are as follows:
1. Normal day;
2. Eating and drinking late at
night; and
3. Hard day at work and/ or many
hours of driving.
On the blog post Use Different CPAP and Bilevel Pressure Settings, I mention that many users of sleep apnea
machines will have experienced for themselves that at least 1 to 2 days per
week up to every day of the week; they are waking up tired, lacking energy and
are unrefreshed. I was once in the same situation that many people have found themselves
in. Should you be having some “bad” days or are having the feeling of “is
this as good as it gets”, CHANGE what you are doing.
Your pressure needs may change on
a daily basis and will depend on many factors. Such factors may include sleep
hygiene and lifestyle factors such as exercising daily and eating food late at
night and medication and other health conditions that you may have. For some
people, you may be doing similar activities each day. For optimal treatment, having
the one set of pressure settings on your sleep apnea machine may be all that
you require.
However, should you find yourself
in different situations on a regular basis; serious consideration should be
given to also adjusting your sleep apnea therapy as required. I found from
personal experience, that by doing so I achieved a great improvement in sleep
apnea therapy. The improvement is most noticeable comparing to when I first
started on sleep apnea therapy where I was very tired and feeling lousy on a
regular basis.
On the blog
post Change or Reset your Circadian Rhythm, when I use a Bilevel auto adjusting
machine with different settings, I have a different circadian rhythm or sleep
cycle for each different setting. By using the Bilevel machine I have optimized
my sleep every day.
Circadian rhythms are your body's internal clock or sleep/wake cycle which repeats roughly every 24 hours.
Ideally, wake up at the end of a sleep cycle not in
the middle of one otherwise you may feel tired and sleepy all day.
In addition to sleep apnea, I also have a genetic disorder, Hemochromatosis.
This disorder is characterized by having too much iron absorption from the
foods that you eat. Where your iron levels are too high, you may feel
incredibly tired and lethargic and may lead to health issues such as cirrhosis
of the liver, heart disease and diabetes.
Body iron level helps regulate
our circadian rhythms and their link to metabolism. You can
read more at this article.
https://theconversation.com/bleed-me-why-excess-iron-can-be-dangerous-41339
Importantly, Research is
supporting that a brain's ability to clear a protein closely linked to
Alzheimer's disease is tied to our circadian cycle.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
"Clearance of protein linked to Alzheimer's controlled by circadian cycle:
Ability of immune system to destroy Alzheimer's-related protein oscillates with
daily circadian rhythm." ScienceDaily. 10 February 2022.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/02/220210154215.htm
On the blog page Guide to Success using CPAP and Bilevel, I list the 4 steps that I believe are the The Secrets to Success.
Applying the 4 steps to my own personal situation, whilst I am using different bilevel
settings, from the Example (below), note
the following:
1. Minimum Pressure used is
between 9.2 cmH2O and 9.8 cmH2O depending on the situation, even though my
maximum pressure may go to 17 cmH2O during the night.
2. Minimum Pressure is changed by
using different Pressure Support of between 5.0 cmH2O and 5.6 cmH2O depending
on the situation.
Further details are provided in
the Notes attached to the Example. In addition, an example is provided of how I
use the bilevel machine in a typical week at the blog post Athletes need Maximum Performance: Use Bilevel.
Observe what I have done and apply the principles to your own situation.
3. Minimum EPAP (exhale pressure)
is the same in each situation at 4.2 cmH2O.
4. Minute Ventilation (MV) being
the total volume of air entering the lungs in a minute is 6 litres/ minute or
lower. Further information https://www.normalbreathing.com/.
5. The two components of Minute
Ventilation being Respiratory Rate (breaths/ minute) and Tidal Volume have
similar numbers, no matter what situation has occurred. For median Tidal Volume
of 400 ml, I found the optimal setting was to use Ideal Body Weight not actual
body weight. More details are on the blog post Use Ideal Body Weight on CPAP and Bilevel.
By using Pressure Support of
5.4cmH2O in the Normal situation, I have substantially reduced the median/
average IPAP and EPAP (inhale and exhale pressure) by 22.1% and Minute
Ventilation by 13.1% when compared to using a CPAP machine. Refer to the blog
page CPAP Vs Bilevel Settings Example. Now I wake up refreshed and energized each day!
The
Example using my actual sleep data and SleepyHead reports are below.
Since originally writing this
blog post, in early 2021 I began using a very high starting IPAP of 18.2 cmH2O
and EPAP of 13.0 cmH2O (inhale and exhale pressure). Ideal Body Weight was used
in setting the median Tidal Volume and Minute Ventilation. This was essential
to stop hypoxia (oxygen desaturation) and sleep disordered breathing causing
the symptoms of Dementia. More details are on the blog post:
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